Where do you live and go to church?

I live in Cairns in the far north of Queensland and am married to Andrew. We go to Cairns Presbyterian Church.

What was the first book of the Bible you ever read?

I was converted on a Scripture Union camp when I was 13. After that I bought some bible reading notes which walked me through John’s gospel. I’m still very fond of John’s gospel.

Name a Bible character you resonate with and why.

I hate to actually write this down, but Jacob. He was horrible. He had nothing going for him except that he believed. But as it turned out, that was the thing that mattered.

What are you reading in the Bible at the moment?

At the moment I’m reading through Isaiah. We’ll be looking at it in church this term and I’m about ten chapters in and, at this stage, have no idea what it is about. But that is good, I think. I’ll read a book much more carefully when I don’t think that I have the answers. I want to read through all of Isaiah (all 66 chapters) a couple of times before church next Sunday.

Where do you read the Bible?

At home or in a cafe. Tonight I have a long drive to pick up one of my kids from a camp. I’ll listen to it in the car.

Name one part of the Bible you keep coming back to again and again and why.

Psalms. There’s one for every situation you might find yourself in.

Describe one of your Bible reading failures and what you learnt.

To be honest, the last couple of months have been a bit of a failure. I’ve come off a five week sickness which completely threw out my Bible reading routine (and everything else in life, really). Like so many other things, bible reading is about momentum. Once you are going, it’s reasonably easy to continue. But if you stop, starting again takes quite a bit of effort. At the moment, I’m trying to regroup.

What advice would you give someone struggling to read the Bible each day?

It’s better to actually read the bible for two minutes a day than to make really ambitious plans for how you are going to read it for two hours a day and end up doing nothing.

And just for fun, if you were a monster what would be your defining feature?

I’d like several more heads and another couple of extra sets of arms so that I could multi task better.