5 minutes with Eliza

Tell us a little about you I'm a cross-cultural worker and the team leader in the Silk Road area. Together with my husband and three children, I have been living amongst K people and other Central Asian ethnicities since 2015. Our team operates an English study centre, where we offer accessible, high quality education to students and adults, to help broaden their career options and support their own study of English at school. It's been a thrilling ride in a difficult but beautiful place. I'm especially curious about oral traditions in this part of the world and how we can understand them more deeply in order to better communicate the Good News. This curiosity inspired my Master of Theological Studies at Whitley College, culminating in a minor thesis on the topic. Before this adventure, I was a print journalist. I grew up on a farm in north-west Victoria and studied a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism.

Do you have a favourite Bible passage? If so, what is it and why? Romans 16 is pretty fantastic, for Paul's celebration of women. Otherwise, Ephesians 3:16-21 is inspiring for me, as it reminds me of how the Father is at work in magnificent ways, even when it's hard to tell on the ground, and that he can do more than we could ever imagine. 

How do you keep your eyes fixed on Jesus? There is no Sunday club for us to attend in our corner of the Silk Road. So meeting regularly with our teammates is important, to study the Word together. I do a KYB study with my sisters back in Australia via Discord and I find Lectio 365 very helpful. But the richest time often comes at the start of our family's homeschool day, when I sit with my three children, aged 17, 15, and 12, to unpack a passage. It has been one of the most precious parts of this cross-cultural experience, being able to disciple our own children.

What would you like the next generation of Christian women to know?

God has given us gifts and he expects us to use them. He even encourages us to ask for spiritual gifts! So if you realise you have the gift of leadership, work out how to develop it and use it for the glory of the Father's kingdom. And find people who will cheer you on. God doesn't make mistakes.

What’s one thing that you love about your local church?

Back in Victoria, we attended a church that stood with us in 2008 to dedicate our first son to the Father. In 2025, nearly 17 years to the day, many of those friends, who had promised to support us in our parenting, cheered our son on when he was baptised in Lake Hume. That was a special day.

What did you learn about God during a time in your life that you found hard?

He is so faithful. We can trust him to take care of justice in his time.

What are you passionate about?

Cross-cultural communication for effective sharing of the Gospel. Incarnational, contextual, integral m*. 

What do you enjoy doing when you rest?

Would you believe that skiing is far more affordable in Central Asia than it is in Australia so we enjoy that as a family in the winter. We also enjoy camping in the beautiful mountains close to our town. I just love hanging out with my children, as I can see the time is coming when they will fly away to start their own adventures!