Salt – Conversations

Cate Arenstein is a South African with no fear of telling things how they are.  She grew up during the Apartheid era when a nation was in the throes of working out who it was. Finding her own identity was a similar struggle. Cate shares that she was abused as a child and that contributed to a struggle with her own sexual identity that led her into a range of unhelpful relationships. But she tells...

Jenny Salt kicks off Season 4 of Salt with Rob Smith, creative Christian musician and respected theologian. With Jenny, we delve into Rob's early life growing up next to his father's giant intellect and discovering his first love for music. But as his talent grew, so did his desire to 'come home' to a Father who knew him even better than his own dad. Now his theological work has taken him to exami...

Colin Buchanan is one of Australia's most beloved country music and kid's worship composers.  His family journey spans the globe, his musical journey the breadth of this country, and his spiritual journey from darkness to light. Join Jenny Salt as she presents a bonus-length, musical special that peers into the corners of Colin's life and comes out with a smile on its face!

In 1960 Ruth Myors left Australia to work as a midwife with the Somali people. For over two decades she served in a hospital in Somalia, a village in Ethiopia and a radio ministry in Kenya.  Bureaucratic decisions, coups, communist takeovers, natural disasters, sudden deaths - all disrupted plans and brought about unexpected changes in her life.  Ruth wrote about these experiences in her memoir Wh...

Michael Jensen is the son of former Archbishop of Sydney, Peter Jensen, and nephew to evangelical heavyweight Philip Jensen - two lives that have often cast long shadows over his own. Jenny Salt asks him to share what it was like to grow up with a family name that was both loved and vilified by the people around him. What Michael reveals is how he quietly fashioned a name for himself that still ch...

Grief and loss are inevitable parts of life in this world. As Job puts it, "Man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward."  The experience of both can be a lonely, painful and confusing time, especially for children. Jill McGilvray has not only faced her own loss and grief, but has been involved in bereavement counselling with children for many years.  Join Jenny Salt as she shares the le...

Megan lived in the midst of a whirlwind of relationships created by her mother's own need to find love. But despite the people flowing in and out of her life, Megan knew from an early age she was no-one's 'special someone'. Life in Australia, followed by a sojourn in Israel, a Jewish upbringing and a Christian education - all combined to increase her sense of a jumbled identity.  However when Mega...

As a country town lad, David Burge was enamoured with the freedom of the open sky. It was only exceeded by his first love for Jesus. When he contemplated a future in ministry, he thought that God would naturally combine his desire to be in the cockpit with an opportunity to transport the Gospel to unknown places. But the flight-path God had in mind would take him from soaring highs to crashing low...

Helen lived a privileged life in a privileged suburb of Sydney. She grew up in an expansive home, holidayed by the sea and attended an exclusive private school. Her early life looked very much like an episode of Downton Abbey . Her intensely academic parents planned a successful scientific career for their third child. However Helen shocked them to the core when she opted to train as a missionary....

Trevor Hodge has played in everything from school concerts to cover bands, even as God brought together a musical career that has supported the faith of thousands.  Yet his biggest achievement is arguably breaking ground for a new sort of ministry position in Australian churches. Trevor tells Jenny the story that led to him to become one of Australia's first 'magnification pastors', a term that ha...

Naomi Deck grew up a promising girl in a happy family on New South Wales' south coast. However bullying by a group of Wicca devotees left her in fear for her life, and all but crushed her personality. The anxiety that followed would drastically alter her life until one day she discovered that God was equal to all her fears. But Naomi found her faith would have to rise to a whole new level the day...

Shion spent her earliest years split between Japan and Australia, absorbing the traditions of the first and the laid-back lifestyle of the second.  However, wherever she lived, she found her footsteps dogged by continuing interactions with the Christian faith - beginning with her very unlikely name, the Japanese word for 'Zion'. But as she struggled to come to terms with her distant Japanese fathe...

Lakgva grew up in post-Communist Mongolia, a place of desperate poverty and spiritual malaise. A once-proud nomadic people were coping with the collapse of a rigid state system and a flood of western ideas.  Personally, Lakgva's family was devastated, with his university trained parents no longer able to find work. At 12 he was sent out to earn a living and came to view life through bitter eyes. W...

A self-confessed alcoholic, James struggled to find his way through addiction and in the process discovered the God who was able to set him free. Not just from his dependency on the bottle, but the sin that so weighed him down. Join Jenny Salt as she delves into James's life and his road to recovery, discovering truths that are enough to make any of us more sober-minded.

Meagan Skinner had to grow up very fast in a family situation that was laced with uncertainty and trauma. But God used those experiences to drive a Biblical desire to see the world 'just that little better' for those around her.  When she was given the chance to staff for a Sydney politician, it seemed like a good way to see through great changes. Yet she soon found that being a Christian in the h...

Anna tells Jenny Salt a wonderful tale of how God uses great disappointment to grow our appreciation of His power and His goodness.   She tells how she worked for decades to declare the Gospel overseas, only to have her dream fall apart at every point. But in those deepest and darkest points she discovered the truly beautiful presence of God.

Simon Flinders is the pastor of a Sydney suburban Anglican church, which seems simple enough.    Yet his life has been profoundly shaped by the family he grew up in, and ultimately by the fatherhood of God.

Jenny Salt speaks to Neeraj, the grandchild of Nepal's first Christian converts.  During their time together she uncovers the 16-year prayer vigil that resulted in the Gospel crossing the borders of that mountain-locked country. And Neeraj reveals his heart to 'preach to the heights' as he plans to return to his spiritually dark homeland.

Andrew Browning's medical career has taken him from the searing deserts of Tanzania to the struggling townships of Ethiopia, where he has put his special talents at Christ's service. Widely regarded as the finest fistula surgeon in the world, Andrew has laboured alongside Dr. Catherine Hamlin and others to relieve the suffering of women made outcasts in their societies through no fault of their ow...

Jenny Salt interviews John Dickson, the world-famous apologist, speaker and writer who has used every conceivable medium to challenge people to think about the claims of Jesus. Jenny digs back into John's past, uncovering the  pains that led him to think about the brevity of life, and the people who made Jesus personal to him. The career that followed makes for incredible listening.

Maia tell Jenny she desperately wanted to be the 'good girl', but couldn't find a path that satisfied her conscience. For years she delved into the New Age movement, looking for the spiritual guide she was hoping for. She found what she was looking for, though, on a highway to western Sydney. Since then Maia has been helping collect stories of faith from all over the world.

Andre was a youth leader, a ministry apprentice and a committed Christian - but before all of that, he was a scientist. Could his love for the world around him actually be the path God was calling him down? He tells Jenny Salt it was the hardest, best decision he's ever made.

Kirsty is a country girl from Bega with a deep love for her family, beginning with her identical twin sister. Together they've shared everything from schoolyard pranks to careers in physiotherapy, and a path that led to Bible college. There they also met the very different men God had set aside for them. And when Kirsty's husband suffered a tragic accident, she tells Jenny Salt it was their mutual...

Helen Thomas is a wife and mother of four with a wonderful Greek heritage and a faith that has been with her since her teenage years. But when God placed his hand first on her husband, then on her children, her life entered a valley that few have to enter. What she found at its bottom though, was a way to hold on to her joy even in the midst of her sadness.

In this episode, Jenny chats with Stephen Liggins: author, pastor, lecturer and even a medal winner in the world masters athletics! Hear how God has used all of this in His purposes.