TAT Chat Interview - Introducing Mandy

Thought some of you might enjoy this - I was interviewed by Debbie Teakle for the Term 1 TAT Chat (TAT is the Cathedral Women's Bible study groups that meet on Thursdays at Ten).

While interviewing Mandy Curley I not only discovered that she prefaced a lot of her answers with 'I'm the sort of crazy person that . . .', but I also discovered that she is warranted in doing so. Mandy enjoys a day off work by getting up early and jogging 4 kms to Newtown where she joins a friend to jog another 6 km before breakfast. Mandy also enjoys vacuuming the floor and cleaning her kitchen, her current favourite meal is lemon coriander lentils and here's the clincher - she enjoys the process of essay writing.

But this is not to say that she is not like the rest of us. Her more identifiable qualities include loving the beach, enjoying coffee with friends, hating bugs, loathing cleaning the bathroom* and being 'musically challenged'. (*for all you prospective guests this is not to say she doesn't clean her bathroom, just that she doesn't like it.) Her favourite book is Little Women, her favourite movie is Top Gun and her favourite dessert is passionfruit souffle. All these traits trail into insignificance however, compared to her most defining quality - her love for God's Word.

Mandy came to know Christ through beach mission. She grew up in Wetherill Park and every summer since she was 18 months old Mandy and her family would go to Kiama where there was a beach mission (her parents thought it was a great babysitting service). It was in Kiama that Mandy first heard that God loved her and that Jesus died for her. In year 5, after a bad year at school, Mandy saw that the mission people were different and she wanted to be like them. She told them 'you've got something I haven't got and I want it' and this is when she prayed to accept Jesus as her Lord.

Because Beach Mission was Mandy's only form of Christian teaching and fellowship, she would write down all her questions from the Bible and literally wait on the hill on Boxing Day for the beach mission team to arrive and hand over her list of questions. The team prayed for her year after year and wrote her many letters of encouragement. Along with her brother, Mandy joined a youth group at the end of year 11 and finally found herself a member of a church family. It was here that she understood what it meant to live with Jesus as her Lord.

After high school Mandy went to study at UTS and all of a sudden found herself knowing 30 or 40 christians her own age. For the first time she was taught from the Old Testament which further intensified her passion for God's Word. Mandy became a member of St John's Park Anglican church where she helped lead the young adults Bible Study Group.

While she loved being at university Mandy increasingly became aware that her chosen profession (Business Law) would demand more and more of her time and that it required a certain 'harshness' to get things done. At the same time she began to realise how much she enjoyed ministry on campus and so decided to free up time to do the Ministry Training Strategy while completing the last two years of her degree and working part time.

When Mandy had finished her degree and MTS, rather than progressing straight to Moore College, she decided to test her suitably to ministry by taking a job with the Tax Office in Canberra and join a church (St Matthews, Waniassa) where she didn't really know anybody. So she just did what came naturally and started meeting up with other women to read and study the Bible. Six months later her minister took her aside and asked her if she was considering going into ministry and if she wasn't-why not?

Mandy got increasingly involved with church over the next three years and then moved back to Sydney to go to Moore College in 2003. Mandy describes these years as the best time in her life because she just loved studying the Bible and writing essays alongside other like-minded people.

So now we have the pleasure of having Mandy on staff here at the Cathedral. She can't believe that it is her job to encourage other Christian women and study God's word because she loves it so much. If you want to know more about Mandy, why not introduce yourself? You could also check out her blog http://mandycurley.blogspot.com where her main topic of discussion is ... you guessed it ... God's Word. You're in the right job Mandy!