Cathryn’s commitment to the Bible

The Bible has always held a central place in Cathryn’s life. “I can’t remember a time when I didn’t believe in God, though I do remember making a specific commitment when I was 7 or 8. Apart from a few wobbles at teachers’ college, by the time I began teaching, I was firm in what I believed.”

“As a child I was taught the importance of reading the Bible every day. My mother would check in with me: ‘Have you read the Bible today?’ It’s something I start the day with, every day. I can’t imagine not having a Bible to read. I love learning more about the Bible.”

Serving in Pakistan and Australia

As an adult, Cathryn and her husband, John, took their love for God and his word with them to Pakistan, where they lived with their three young children in the late 1970s and early 1980s and worked as missionaries. John was involved in theological teaching, radio programming and cassette ministries for illiterate tribal people, while Cathryn was involved in Sunday school ministry, hospitality, teaching missionary kids and teaching music and English. Their youngest child was 18 months old when they arrived, and they returned to Australia when their eldest was eighteen.

During their time in Pakistan, Cathryn and John were also involved with the ministry of Bible Society Pakistan, supporting a local worker and helping with Bible distribution. Back in Australia, as a part of her work teaching and coordinating Anglicare’s English classes in Sydney, Cathryn partnered with Bible Society in distributing Bibles to students learning English. “In each class that graduated, students were able to receive these lovely CEV Bibles to have as farewell gifts. Bible Society supplied both English Bibles and Bibles in other languages.” Cathryn recalls what a blessing it was to hand out Bibles through the English classes.

Sharing God’s word

Cathryn and her husband have ten grandchildren. Cathryn says, “I’m thrilled that all our children are following the Lord and love the Bible. Our prayers every day are for our grandchildren, that they will follow the Lord.” Cathryn says that passing God’s word down through the generations of her family is “the most important thing I can think of!”

As a supporter of Bible Society, Cathryn has always received Bible Society material and kept abreast of what is happening. She says, “I always read through the Bible Society magazine… I usually read the parts about Pakistan first!” In 2019, Cathryn read an article about Bible Society’s Youth Masterclasses, which seeks to inspire, challenge and equip students to think deeply about the Christian faith in today’s world. When she read about Masterclass, and how it was informing young people about what the Bible has to say about issues in our world, she thought of her granddaughter, Abigail, and called her. Abigail thought, “Oh, that sounds cool!” and immediately signed up to attend the Masterclass which was held in Orange, NSW that year. She found it to be enormously encouraging.

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