Meet our contributors

Lisa Thompson ('God is Enough')

Lisa worked as a registered nurse for eight years, primarily in the cancer ward of a large Sydney children's hospital. She serves on the staff of St John's Parramatta having completed a four year Bachelor of Divinity degree at Moore College. She is passionate about cross-cultural ministry, and enjoys mangoes, road trips and playing with her nieces and nephews.

Lesley Ramsay ('Married for God')

Lesley  has the enormous honour of being married to Jim for 40 years. Together they have raised 4 children, and now enjoy being grandparents to 9 grandchildren.  She has known and loved Jesus since she was 15, and despite her many lapses of unfaithfulness, she has only ever experienced his glorious faithfulness.  She has worked for the last 20 years in teaching the Bible to women and evangelism, and is passionate about encouraging mums to put their own ambitions to one side and love and serve their children. She loves Sydney where she has lived all her life, but now resides on the Central Coast, which is almost as beautiful as Sydney!






Lee Carter ('Faith', 'Don't Waste Your Life' and 'Stirrings of the Soul')

Lee was born in Adelaide the year the Cuban Missile Crisis brought the world to the brink of disaster! She grew up in various places around South Australia (country and city), became a Christian at the end of high school and studied politics at university. As an adult Lee has lived in a number of different places in Australia and overseas. She’s been happily married to Paul for 21 years and has two children, Nathan (19) and Anna (17). Having finally put down roots in Sydney, Lee is currently reinventing herself as a freelance writer after many years as a stay-at-home mum. She is involved in women’s and music ministries at Christ Church Anglican St Ives. Lee loves to read, watch The West Wing, spend time with her family, work in the garden and keep fit (somewhat less enthusiastically).


Alison Napier ('Living with the Underworld' and 'Right Side Up')
Alison Napier is the full-time women's minister at St Andrews Cathedral. She lives in the city, works in the city and, actually, rarely leaves the city! On her days off she likes to get absorbed in a good book or catch up with friends and family over a meal.


















Sussanah Macready ('The Scarlet Letter')
Susannah suspects that sign language interpreting qualifications with a PhD on Puritan theology in nineteenth-century American literature don't make for the most employable of persons! She works at the Deaf Society of NSW and spends much of her spare time simply messing around with books. If she could invite a Puritan and a nineteenth-century novelist to dinner, she would dearly love to see Increase Mather meet Nathaniel Hawthorne, but the next best thing is writing about what they might have said to each other, and that will be the subject of her posts.










Rachael Connor (Luke's gospel, 'My Seventh Monsoon' and 'Beyond Greed')

Rachael is married to Glen and has three children. They live and work at a bible college in beautiful Vanuatu. She enjoys bushwalking, flowers and a good read on a rainy day. She doesn't miss anything about smoggy Sydney (where she used to live) except warm showers, ice-cream and friends. Rachael shares a lot about her life on her blog, called storian smol.




Jean Williams ('The Pilgrim's Progress' and 'When I Don't Desire God, How to Fight for Joy') 


Jean is married to Steve and has 4 children, Lizzy (9), Ben (7), Thomas (4) and Andrew (1). She lives in Melbourne, where her husband teaches uni students about Jesus. She also worked with uni students before having kids, and once wrote a history PhD on the Puritan experience of enjoyment of God. Her passions include getting to know our great God better; spending time with family and friends; reading, reading, and more reading; encouraging Christian women, one-to-one and in seminars; thinking through issues from every possible side; and writing a blog, in all honesty, where she encourages women by being honest about my sin and struggles, and God's faithful work in her.


Nicole Starling ('Feminine Appeal', 'The Sunday Philosophy Club' and 'Treasuring God in our Traditions')
Nicole is married to Dave who lectures in NT and Theology at Morling college in Sydney. She has three children aged 6, 4 and 2. Before becoming a mum she worked as an editor in a legal publishing company. She loves having long conversations over good coffee, reading thought-provoking books and writing (especially poetry!). Her personal blog is called 168 hours, where she thinks out loud about what it means for her to follow Jesus in her everyday life.










Jennie Baddeley ('The Feminist Mistake' and 'Practical Theology for Women')
Jennie Baddeley currently lives in Oxford, UK, where her husband is working on postgraduate studies in theology. She spends most of her day looking after their son, Jonathan and is slowly working on masters studies in John’s Gospel. She writes a blog called Shackled Thoughts. The thing that gives Jennie the greatest joy is being sure that Jesus has taken away her sins because of the extravagant love God has for his enemies.


Michelle Philp ('Guidance and the Voice of God')
Michelle grew up in Wagga Wagga before coming to Sydney to study engineering at UNSW. After working as an engineer in Sydney and then Queensland, she returned to UNSW to be a Ministry Training Strategy (MTS) apprentice. Her plan had been 2 years work, 2 years MTS and 3 years theological college, but God’s plan was 4 years work, 3 years MTS and 4 years college. As the Bible says “In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.” (Prov. 16:9) ‘I think He knew how much I needed all that extra grounding in His world and in His word!’. Michelle now works in Canberra pastoring women at Crossroads Christian Church. She is involved in training women for ministry through the MTS and spends a day a week at the University of Canberra with FOCUS. She is passionate about sharing the good news of Jesus, enjoys Saturday morning brunches (especially the ones that involve waffles, bacon and maple syrup) and walking her dog Baxter. She used to do hobbies and has a cupboard full of half done projects that she hopes to get back to one day — ‘if the Lord permits’.


Naomi Reed ('My Seventh Monsoon')
Naomi Reed grew up in Sydney and trained as a physiotherapist, alongside her husband Darren. They spent six years working in Nepal with the International Nepal Fellowship — which was both a challenge and a delight. During the family's seventh monsoon and while Naomi was personally struggling with poverty, rain, civil war and home schooling, she turned to writing as a means of reflecting on God's sovereignty in her life. The writing then turned into an award-winning book and two more quickly followed. The family are now based in Sydney where Naomi is studying, writing, speaking and trying to keep up with their three sons — not all at once! Find out more about Naomi from her website http://www.naomireed.info/




Alison Payne ('Did I Kiss Marriage Goodbye' and 'Radical Womanhood')
Alison Payne originally trained in natural resources management, majoring in wildlife, but now works as an editor for a publishing company. She loves anything to do with words and books, particularly God's word in his book, moving about outside, long conversations about the real things and dabbling in writing. She blogs at something this foggy day.














Judith Nichols ('Faithful Women and their Extraordinary God')
Judith has degrees in theology, ancient history and linguistics! She has taught at RMIT Melbourne, Geraldton TAFE, Greenough Regional Prison and more recently at Trinity Theological College in Perth. You can also hear Judith on the ‘Open House’ 103.2FM on Sunday nights.

Carmelina Read ('Nothing in my Hand I bring')
Carmelina Read is an only child of Italian parents so only learnt to speak English when she went to school. She grew up in Leichhardt, where she came to know Christ through a highschool friend, and regularly goes back to get her fix of deli small goods, Italian pastries and gelato. With her husband Jeff and 4 children, Carmelina serves at Chatswood Presbyterian and also as Dean of Women at Sydney’s Presbyterian Theological College.