Salt Podcast

30 May 2022    Episode 71 - A Family Shattered – Kathy

Jenny's guest in this episode is Kathy Notley, who shares what it is like to go searching for the family you've lost and find a stronger connection than you ever thought possible.

Kathy's childhood was idyllic - a close family with loving parents and so many memories of family holidays, playing with neighbours, and a home that everyone wanted to visit.

Then, at 17 years of age, her world fell apart. Her family, once close, was shattered and scattered.

And so the search began for Kathy to somehow fill the void and recreate what she had lost.

Length: 37:42   Listen 

23 May 2022    Episode 70 - God on the Green Isle - Sharon

In this episode, Jenny Salt takes us into the life of Sharon Hall, a self-effacing woman whose life is a testimony to what God can do with a willing pair of hands.

Sharon grew up with an open-air preacher for a dad and a piano-accordion-playing mum, and God was always a big part of her childhood.

She dreamt of going to Africa as a missionary teacher, but God had other plans and took her to green hills on the other side of the world.

And when she finally came home, it was to receive the family she never expected.

Length: 37:40   Listen 

16 May 2022    Episode 69 - Leviticus Saved My Life - Geoff

Jenny Salt introduces us to Geoff Harper, a self-effacing Irishman with a love for the last book of the Bible most Christians get around to reading.

Geoff grew up an evangelical in a country steeped in catholicism. One thing he was certain of, his life would not be one spent in ministry.

But God had other ideas, and when Geoff found his true path it was a journey into the heart of the Old Testament.

There, Geoff would discover a life-long love for the book of Leviticus - a passion that would literally save his life.

Length: 36:29   Listen 

9 May 2022    Episode 68 - Glorious Acting - Alison

Jenny Salt is joined by Alison Chambers, a mother to three adult children, a wife to a cardiac specialist, and a trained physiotherapist. But just those details wouldn't be enough to know her. Alison is an actor with a capital 'A'.

As a child, Alison dreamed of acting and it became a driving motivation for most of her life. It's taken her on to the stage on countless occasions and into the storylines of many well-known Australian television dramas.

But the acting profession is a challenging one and Alison has had to constantly ask herself, “What does God want from my performance?”

LINKS

You can find out more about Alison's theatre company, Joining The Dots, here.

Length: 42:26   Listen 

2 May 2022    Episode 67 - Cruelty to Christianity - Linda

Jenny Salt meets Linda Chan, whose parents grew up under the turbulent and cruel regime of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge.

They came to Australia hoping for a better life, but for Linda, turbulent and cruel is how she describes the childhood that followed.

A troubled home life, school bullying, and third-degree burns to 90% of her body combined to make her life a complete misery.

But when Linda discovered the love of Jesus as a teenager, she found an answer for her brokenness.

Length: 32:12   Listen 

25 April 2022    Episode 66 - Black and White Christianity - Michael

Jenny meets Michael Duckett, an indigenous man who has given his word to follow God and sees no reason to take it back.

Michael’s life could be summed up in one word: reconciliation.

Moving in and out of a foster home as a baby and toddler he was adopted by his white foster family who raised him and cared for him as their own.

But it took hearing a “boring” sermon at the age of 17 for Michael to truly understand his identity and what it means to be reconciled to God.
 

Length: 44:15   Listen 

18 April 2022    Episode 65 - Achievement Addiction - Justine

Jenny Salt talks to Dr. Justine Toh, a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Public Christianity, where she speaks and writes about deciphering contemporary culture.

Justine shares how she grew up in an immigrant culture that made an idol out of education and measured success in terms of career benchmarks.

Her book, Achievement Addiction, examines our need to succeed, and her own struggles in setting this mindset aside. As a Christian, she now draws her identity from what God has done, rather than anything she can add to the ledger.

Length: 33:38   Listen 

11 April 2022    Episode 64 - The Cross-Cultural Challenge - Ed

Ed Grudier tells Jenny Salt he did not expect God to lead him to more than a decade of ministry in Turkey, testing the tempers of the police as he sought to plant a church.

Ed started his life in the middle-class suburbs of Cleveland, the so-called Bible-belt of the US.  But despite growing up in a culturally catholic household, he still managed to hold on to a secular outlook.

Yet, a single sermon at the age of 18 set him on a path that has taken him all around the world, powered by the conviction that all people need to hear the gospel.

Length: 43:43   Listen 

4 April 2022    Episode 63 - Big Animals, A Bigger God - Janet

Tune in to hear Jenny Salt interview Janet Riley - a city girl with a country heart. 

As a vet, Janet loved the big animals, and as a Christian, she knew the love of an even bigger God.

And it was this love that took her from regional NSW to Africa and on as she journeyed through cancer.

Length: 39:50   Listen 

28 March 2022    Episode 62 - The Deaf Hear - Andrew

Andrew Miller is the international operations coordinator for Deaf Ministries International. He tells Jenny Salt how an interest in Japanese culture led to 25 years of lay leadership in an international church in Osaka.
Since then he has transitioned into ministry to the silent world of the deaf community. Travelling all over the world to support DMI's ministries, he has discovered that the Gospel can still be heard powerfully by those who can hear nothing at all.
Learn about Deaf Ministries International's work.
Read Andrew's blog and the many more fascinating stories his work has brought him in touch with.

Length: 39:39   Listen 

21 March 2022    Episode 61 - The Country Life - Ruth

Jenny Salt welcomes Ruth France on to the show and talks to her about what brought a suburban girl to choose a life of ministry in the country.

As a young adult Ruth experienced a number of life-changing moments, including a literal bolt from the blue. But the biggest lightning strike to connect with her life was the call to mission.

What began as an interest in overseas work, though, transformed into a call to the country where she has ministered alongside her husband through fire, drought, and the scourge of COVID.

Length: 34:45   Listen 

15 March 2022    Episode 60 - Onward We Stumble - Adam

Join Jenny Salt as she ascends the heights and plumbs the depths of church planting with veteran Adam Ramsey.

Adam has been involved in church planting for 15 years, including working in Seattle in the Mars Hill church alongside Mark Driscoll.

He is also a pastor of a church that was planted on the Gold Coast in QLD, and he is the Network Director of Acts 29 for Asia Pacific - and he hasn’t hit 40 yet!

In his 'spare time', he's also written a book titled Truth on Fire: Gazing At God Until Your Heart Sings.

Jenny discovers, though, that some of Adam's deepest lessons have come from processing failure rather than celebrating success.

Length: 40:25   Listen 

23 November 2021    Episode 59 - America’s Jesus - Graham

Graham Cole, together with his wife Jules, has been involved in Christian ministry for more than 40 years.

Jenny Salt hears how it has taken them to many places around the world, and for 20 of those years, to the Midwest of the United States.

There, they discovered a perspective on life and the love of God that reveals the future for both America and Australia.

They’re back at home now, but still feel very connected to the country, the culture, and the Christians they left behind.

Length: 42:51   Listen 

16 November 2021    Episode 58 - My best ‘worst year’ - Scott

Like most of us, Scott Lavender and his family will have reflections on 2020 and 2021 – some good, some hard. Covid has changed so much in our world.

But for Scott, the last two years have contained the most excruciating pain he could imagine, alongside a host of other struggles.

But as doctors struggled to understand what was happening to him, Scott discovered that God was carrying out his own surgery. 

Length: 32:03   Listen 

9 November 2021    Episode 57 - Life to death to life - David

Jenny Salt's guest today is David Luxford.

To meet David is to meet a man who in many ways just quietly gets on with things.  No fanfare. No profile, megachurch, or fame. 

But to know David is to know someone who has faithfully got on with serving the Lord for more than 50 years - through long, difficult tasks and the tragedy of death in the family - because he was challenged as a young Christian to be an ambassador for Christ.

Length: 34:36   Listen 

2 November 2021    Episode 56 - Puppets who speak for God - Kay

In this episode Jenny Salt speaks to Kay Yasugi, a talented performer letting her light shine in the international world of puppetry.

Kay was born in Japan to a Japanese dad and a Korean mum. Along with her older brother they came and settled in Sydney via Melbourne.

Kay was brought up in a very multi-cultural home – private girl’s school during the week, Japanese school on Saturdays, and a home life filled with Korean food - but becoming a Christian and doing summer missions in Bathurst changed the direction of Kay’s life.

It all started with a mascot for the mission week – a monkey called “Chee Chee”. This unassuming creature was the beginning of Kay’s life-long love of puppetry, and the development of a talent that's taken her all over the world.

Length: 42:35   Listen 

26 October 2021    Episode 55 - God’s plan for a plumber - Ben

Ben Hunter tells Jenny Salt he didn't set out to be a plumber - that was God's plan.

Because of difficulties on the home front and at school, straight out of High School he decided to take up the offer of an apprenticeship.

Consequently he worked as a plumber for many years - a blue-collar industry in which he laboured to show friends another way of life.

But for Ben, it wasn’t really what made his heart sing. Rather, it’s always been wanting to tell young people about Jesus – something he had to wait many years to do.

Length: 38:59   Listen 

19 October 2021    Episode 54 - Christ on COVID’s front line - Tamara

Jenny Salt speaks to Tamara Flinders, a minister’s wife, a mum to 3 daughters, and an Emergency Physician – working on the frontline of Covid in a busy Sydney hospital emergency department.

Every shift brings very sick patients into her orbit – many with Covid.

But through it all, what keeps her grounded is her relationship with God, her daily walk with the Lord, and the desire to be an ambassador for Christ whatever the context.

Length: 36:19   Listen 

12 October 2021    Episode 53 - A Christian in a Muslim world - Roy

Roy grew up in a poor town in a Southeast Asian country. On one level, his family identified as Christians.

But Jenny Salt discovers his childhood was far more impacted by a father with a criminal history and an addiction to gambling.

And it wasn’t until Roy left to live and study in another part of the country, that he came to really understand what it meant to follow Jesus.

Length: 37:04   Listen 

5 October 2021    Episode 52 - Faith that informs grief - Pete

Join Jenny Salt as she interviews Pete Stacey, a Christian since a young boy, who has known the joy of telling others about Jesus for most of his life. 

Pete has done that through music, and through teaching and preaching in the local church.

He has also known the sorrow of losing his beloved wife to cancer and preaching Jesus through his grief and loss.

Length: 44:52   Listen