ARCHIVE 2002 - 2006

Articles on Mark and Delma Tronson

Tweed Sun
Thursday 13 April 2006


HANDS-on help
by Peter Barnes

Australian cricket chaplain Dr Mark Tronson has been a Baptist Minister for 29 years.

But it wasn't the word of God, rather a Deakin University report, that brought him to Centro Tweed last week.

The report said the Richmond electorate was the country's most disadvantaged in terms of support from federal agencies, which was why Dr Tronson arrived for Seniors Week to hand out flyers for the charity Well-Being Australia.

"If the Government won't provide adequate services for counselling and youth suicide prevention, among others, then Well-Being Australia will," he said.

The centre brings sports figures and coaches to country schools, youth groups and social clubs, as well as showing young people through art and the environment that 'there's more to life than getting into trouble'.

It also provides respite centres, including Timeout in the Tweed, a respite facility for Australian Institute of Sport units in southeast Queensland.

After being chaplain to the Australian cricket team between 1984 and 2000, he joined with greats as Greg Chappell, Allan Border and Kim Hughes to form Life After Cricket, an organisation which supports retired cricketers.

Border Tweed Mail
Friday 7 April 2006

Spending 22 years travelling as a chaplain with the Australian cricket team, Tweed Heads Dr Mark Tronson has also turned his hand to painting and now has requests coming in left, right and centre.

Following his retirement from travelling with the team due to heart problems in 2000, the evangelical minister was appointed the head of the charity organization Well-Being Australia and was advised to start painting as a way to alleviate stress. This was something Dr Tronson took to immediately and he has since created dozens of pieces.

“I had a predilection to paint anyway, so it seemed like the natural thing for me and I really took to it,” he said.

Dr Tronson’s latest creation entitled “Three Boys” was commissioned by Australian Institute of Sport cricket coach Tim Nielsen, only a short while after another piece entitled “Maturity” was gifted to the institute to commemorate its 25th birthday.

“Tim Nielsen and his wife Bron have three little boys and I said I would paint them a philosophical painting about them,” Dr Tronson said.

“I also offered the AIS an artwork because I wanted to do one for their 25th anniversary so I did the painting and the idea of it was to represent all the years of the various sports and how they are coming into blossom.”

Dr Tronson has a long-standing relationship with the excellence institute and was more than happy to whip them up a piece for the milestone in his studio in Tweed Heads, where he has moved to start work on getting an athlete respite centre in the area, a cause close to his heart.

As a director of Well-Being Australia, Dr Tronson has already set up the “Time-Out Moruya Respite Centre”, specifically created for athletes from the AIS looking to wind down. He wants to create a facility in the Tweed for athletes who need more than that.

“We hope to create something much the same, but here we want to concentrate on those who need complete rest, so they don’t have to do anything,” he said.

A corporate sponsor is needed to see his plans come into fruition. Dr Tronson and his colleagues are now looking for anyone who would like to donate a facility to house a respite centre.

“We need corporate help to give us somewhere that we can create a facility like this, because it’s something that needs to be done,” he said.

ANGLICAN MEDIA  -  9 JANUARY 2006

THERE IS LIFE AFTER CRICKET

by Joseph Smith

As the Australian Cricket team come off their test series victory over South Africa and head into the One Day Series, it is easy for the fans to forget that there is life outside the game.

However, Baptist minister and chaplain to the Australian Cricket Board, Mark Tronson says our cricketing heroes need the gospel, and the right guidance to think through all aspects of their lives, as much as anyone else.

“I think they need the same prayer as all people – they need total well being. Surely that’s the key to the Christian faith,” he says.

In Mark’s 22 years as ACB chaplain, Mark says he has played the role of both pastor and ‘philosopher’.

“I have spent a lot of time discussing philosophical matters, philosophising with chaps thinking about their future and their goals in life.”

And Mark says he always takes the opportunity to bring the gospel into these conversations.

“That has always been part of the agenda. Never do I pass up the opportunity to talk about how Jesus helps me in my life. Otherwise I would not be a faithful minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

Mark says he looks for appropriate ways to broach the topic of Christianity.

“It’s always within a conversation and never with a big black book held in the air to thump somebody,” he jokes.

In recent years, ill health has restricted Mark’s ability to attend as many cricket matches as he would like.

“I used to attend four cricket games a year for 17 years. Over those years I met and built up a pastoral relationship with a host of people. I am continuing this now but I only rarely get to an actual match.”

Yet, Mark says the new contexts in which he meets with players and others connected to the sport are actually more effective pastorally.

“Former test players Allan Border, Greg Chappell, Kim Hughes and David Boon got beside me and said, ‘You’ve been around for a long time – 17 years. We don’t want you to go so why not move sideways into a broader role?’”

Mark is now associated with Life After Cricket, an organisation seeking to support retired cricketers. He helps publish a bi-annual newsletter for former and current Australian cricketers and has just completed the eleventh edition.

Mark says events like Festival of Cricket and other associated functions where not one ball is bowled are the best opportunities for meeting with players.

“I have been to a number of functions behind the scenes where the chaplain is much more effective,” he says.

“In all my 22 years as a chaplain I have never had anybody outright reject the claims of Jesus upon their lives.”

Mark says he greatly appreciates assistance from people interested in supporting his ministry including his work with athletes.

“My wife and I have been faith missionaries for 24 years and have not received a wage in that time. Our funds come from gifts received through supporters who read our monthly newsletter.”

LEFT TOWN

Tronson ministry leaves its mark on the shire

By JOCELYN RIGHTON

Wednesday, 21 December 2005

Dr Mark Tronson stands like a tall forest tree - firmly rooted and forever climbing skywards with a profusion of limbs signifying myriad diversities firmly anchored to a solid trunk.

Last week Mark and wife Delma departed Moruya after 14 years for northern NSW but what they left behind will have an influence for a long time to come.

They took with them their ministry, but left behind the Bush Orchestra's bush walk, an established respite centre for Australian Institute of Sport athletes and an art gallery that has been gifted to the Arts Council of Eurobodalla.

Born into a pioneering dairying family in Mackay, Mark says he was raised to do things the hard way.

His father hand-cleared a 200-acre selection and started a herd with 20 heifers given him by his father. The first local farmer to own a car and milking machinery, he never went into debt for anything.

"I'm a baby boomer - we are a selfish group and it won't be long before we're grey power," he said, with obvious relish.

The family moved to Canberra in 1961 to further the education of his brother Kim who was academically outstanding. Mark preferred sport - and trains. When 16 he became a trainee engineman at Goulburn's Round House.

"I was the last fireman to fire a 38-Class engine on the South line," he said.

In 1969 he transferred to the Port Kembla locomotive depot and took up sport with intent.

He was a track and field athlete and played NSW representative hockey, and two years later won the Queensland triple jump title. He wrote hockey articles for the Illawarra Mercury and became publicity officer for the Hockey Association.

Even though Mark's academic career began a little later than his brother's, with a part-time economics degree at Wollongong, "because they said I had aptitude", it eventually ended with a double Ph.D - no mean feat.

Delma and Mark married in 1977, the year he enrolled for a theological degree at the NSW Baptist Theological College. He finished it in three years and studied community ministry in the fourth.

On his return from the second World Congress on Sports Mission in Hong Kong in '82, he negotiated with Heads of Churches to establish the Sports and Leisure Ministry (SLM), a national faith-financed mission, with representatives from all mainline Churches.

The year 1984 was a momentous one for the Tronsons.

They made a decision to move away from parish ministry towards a more precarious home faith ministry.

"We had no income but a trust that the Lord would provide," he said.

He then accepted the Australian Cricket Board's invitation to be chaplain to the nation's first XI and, after an 18-month development period, headed up SLM to provide 150 sporting bodies, among which were the AIS and the Australian Olympic Committee, with a chaplain.

Another idea had simmered since his trip to Hong Kong, where he had met Austrian Gernot Kunzellman, a skiing star of the ‘60s, who ran an alpine ski chalet for top athletes in need of restoration of faith. Mark thought it ideal for Australia so he took the opportunity to make it a reality in 1989 when a friend told him about a 10-acre lot for sale in Moruya.

"So, in faith, we bought the block and in 18 months had paid it off," he said.

He had written to Basil Sellers, "a good friend of Australian cricket", of his vision and Basil responded with $50,000, a sum that built a house of respite for AIS athletes on the property. Basil Sellers House was opened by then Wallaby captain Nick Farr-Jones and yachtswoman Jeanine Treharne.

"I philosophically handed over the keys to the building to the AIS at the opening," he said.

"They didn't know about it until the end - it was done in faith that they would accept."

Called "Time Out in Moruya", athletes have been arriving, sometimes with a spouse or an entire family, for a complete rest ever since.

Mark's vision will carry on at Tweed Heads next year when "Time Out in The Tweed" opens for AIS athletes, this time for couples and families only, while Moruya will cater solely for Teams.

A heart scare in 1999 put Mark in intensive care and Heads of Churches released him from his SLM commitments.

"I was told to go paint and do something relaxing," he said. He not only painted but got an art gallery as well.

Basil Sellers had noticed that Moruya did not have a gallery so the next addition to the Bush Orchestra site was aptly named the Basil Sellars Art Centre, which he opened in 2003.

With it went the South Coast's best-endowed art competition - also aptly named - the $10,000 Basil Sellers Art Prize. First contested last year, it attracted so many entries that Mark's small office couldn't cope. The approach to council had a good result.

The prize from 2006 will be jointly run by South East Arts Region and council and the gallery building will be cut up and Five years ago, after holding the chaplaincy of the Australian cricket team for 17 years, Mark took on the much broader role of chaplain to Cricket Australia. He was also approached by Allan Border, Greg Chappell and David Boon to form an editorial team for a newsletter for retired Australian cricketers.

"They said to me ‘You know all the secrets and have been around longer than us'," he said, and twice each year they put out an issue.

Prolific writings include five books on hockey, 16 full of train drivers' anecdotes and two covering weighty Christian issues.

A more unusual role is to update the IOC's religious services protocols for each host city - he has been in Olympic chaplaincy since 1984.

Mark had the rare privilege of being invited, as a Gentile representative on a 48-member delegation, to attend the March of the Living from Auschwitz to Birkenau to mark the 60th anniversary of liberation last May.

The Tronsons moved north to be near Delma's elderly mother in Maclean and will no doubt be sticking to their ministry motto "Never touch the glory, it belongs exclusively to God".

TRONSON'S LEAVE THE DISTRICT

Moruya Examiner - 14 December 2005

Moruya farewelled Dr Mark and Delma Tronson this week at an arts and a business function as they head to the Tweed to replicate the Moruya AIS Athlete Respite.

Baptist Minister Mark Tronson, the Australian Cricket Chaplain and Chairman of Well-Being Australia saw to fruition a number of projects over their 14 years in Moruya.

The annual Basil Sellers $10,000 Art Prize has been transferred to the Eurobodalla Shire Council, the Basil Sellers Art Centre has been gifted to the Arts Council of Eurobodalla for relocation into Moruya while the AIS Athlete Respite and Australia’s Bush Orchesra are being retained with Kim Gillis coordinating the respite centre and Jesse Boyes the tourism ministry.

Mark Tronson painted five special philosophical works as “thank you” gifts for those who had helped their mission activities.

Eurobodalla Shire Councilor Rob Pollock received “Finesse Upon ideas” for his untiring efforts behind the scenes, while Arts Council people Lisette Wentholt and Nick Summers received “Moruya Dusk’s Footprints” and “Guardian of the Forest” respectfully.

Jeff de Jager Vice President of the Moruya Chamber of Commerce on Mark and Delma’s behalf presented his painting "Standing Tall" to business representative person Mishel Nader.

Greg Malavey the Chairman of the South Coast Business Development Board presented “Eurobodalla Pleasure” to the Shire’s General Manager Mr Jim Levy.

Mrs Leonie Boyes a well known Moruya identity on behalf of Delma “thanked” the wider community and the activities in which Delma is involved, and noted that it takes Delma a very long time to walk from one end of town to the other as the ladies confide in her.

Mr Malavey gave examples of how Councillor Rob Pollock was able work things behind the scenes as none of Mark's ideas fell into any of Council's categories very easily. He said that at Chamber of Commerce meetings Mark's contributions philosophically stretched us to think ahead - "he would get us to consider what was a metre beyond the end of the plank".

Greg spoke of many of the business men who spent time with Mark at the Bush Orchestra for an hour or two and the way they'd be challenged would inevitably get us to think beyond our immediate square.

As a businessman, Greg said he'd do the sums first. Mark never approached anything in this manner. Mark's questions would be around ideas such as how this project might help someone, how this might stretch a person's self esteem and how they might see themselves in a more positive light. The rest just followed.

He said "communities need someone who does this for the good of everyone, and he'll watch with interest as to who might come along to do this now".

Councillor Rob Pollock speaking on behalf of the Eurobodalla Council said it was always interesting working with Mark on his projects and that there was a genuine positive approach by Council staff to see each project come to fruition as they were inevitably challenging. He said the community is much the better for each project.

Mackay Daily Mercury

Cricket chaplain tells of life after the game

Published in the Mackay Daily Mercury
8th October 2005

THE Australian cricket chaplain for the past 22 years, Dr Mark Tronson, is speaking at a Sportsmen’s Dinner at the Harrup Park Country Club, next Saturday night.

Mackay is Mark Tronson’s home town, born at the Mater Hospital on November 5, 1951. His parents Seymour and Joan Tronson (both deceased) were part of the 1930s dairy farming originals at Crediton, Eungella.

After a horse accident which left Seymour Tronson’s left leg broken in three places, the family moved into town with Mark Tronson attending North Mackay State School until 1961 when the Tronson's made Canberra their home.

Mark Tronson was appointed the Australian cricket team chaplain in 1984 in the Kim Hughes captaincy era and moved sideways in 2001 to a much wider role with Life After Cricket.

He’ll speak in part of those years with the Australian cricket team with many interesting stories. Mark has spoken at numerous cricket club or association functions.

‘‘Seventeen years was a good stint. I’d been ill, however Allan Border, Greg Chappell, David Boon and Kim Hughes suggested I stay on and together establish a bi-annual newsletter for former and current Australian cricketers,’’ Dr Tronson said.

Published on November 30 and March 30 each year, the 10th edition was published last March. ‘Life After Cricket’ has provided care for numerous cricketers.

Mackay’s hockey enthusiasts will be interested that Mark Tronson’s interests also involved hockey with NSW and covering numerous Olympics and world cups for The Australian newspaper and the author of five books on hockey.

Mark is also a semi-professional artist with his own art gallery, an author of 23 books and has spoken at international conventions in England, United States, New Zealand, Turkey, Israel, Poland, Ukraine, Hong Kong, South Korea, Papua New Guinea and Vanuata.

Accompanying him is Mr Tony Dunkerley the Victorian Commssioner for Junior Soccer a former Australian Joeys and Victorian Under 21 Soccer Coach who is speaking about his life’s journey.

BAPTIST WORLD CONGRESS, BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND

The Baptist Times, UK

"Supporting the sportsmen"

Shaun Lambert talks to the man who leads a special ministry in sports chaplaincy

Ten years as a train driver is the secret to Australian Cricket team chaplain the Revd Dr Mark Tronson's ability to communicate with tough international cricketers.

"I might be a minister but I still talk like a train driver", says Mark. He left school at the age of 16 to fulfil his childhood dream of becoming a train driver. He has since earned two PhDs looking at the philosophy of sports ministry.

It was talking to people from England involved in sports ministry at a conference in Hong Kong that launched his own involvement in sports chaplaincy.

"I went back to Australia convinced we should have something," he says. He approached all the main denominations who asked him to set up a national ministry to promote sports chaplaincy in Australia. One of the big challenges was raising all the funding himself.

"It was very exciting. Especially going from a wage to no wage. But as you can see I'm not a skinny fellow. The Lord has always abundantly blessed the kitchen table."

The Australian Cricket Board (ACB) was the first national sports organisation to respond to Mark's overtures. Cricket has always had close links with Christian denominations in Australia, with the famous Don Bradman an active Christian. Mark's own credibility with sportsmen and organisations also stems from his sporting background. He played hockey for NSW as well as being a Queensland triple jump champion.

Much of his work has been done quietly behind the scenes.

"They're the stars, not me," he says, "You must never forget that as a chaplain."

There are many stories he could tell, but confidentially is important to him and the stars he has met. Since a heart scare in 2000 he has focused his ministry particularly on a joint project started with the ACB called Life After Cricket, which seeks to support retired cricketers. Former Australian Cricket captains like Allan Border and Kim Hughes are amongst those who support this ministry.

He has written 23 books, 16 of them editions of train drivers' anecdotes, five on hockey and a couple on Christian themes. He also has his own art gallery and paints pictures that tell a story or illustrates a philosophical point.

"Wholeness of life is so important. We have a great distrust of tunnel vision in Australia. It causes a lot of problems."

One of the other Australian national characteristics that has worked for him is straight talking. "If you're a plumber people expect you to know about plumbing. If you're an electrician that's what you know about. If you're a minister they expect you to speak about God."

He recalls the funeral of a famous Australian cricketer that he was asked to lead where another chaplain, the Revd Lionel Rose spoke.

"He stood up and what he said was ... Alan's innings was 62. And the umpire of life raised his finger. You know when that finger goes up you can't stay at the crease. You'll often see batsmen when they leave the crease after the finger, performing the stroke they should have played. But you can't go back; your innings is over. The question is, what pavillion is the batsman going to?"

"People come up to me all the time and they remember that sermon. Traight talking works in Australia."

Mark has been voted as one of the 25 most influential Evangelicals in Australia. He won't be drawn on who will win the Ashes this summer. After 23 years in sports minitry he is still being trusted with the spiritual development of elite athletes.

One of his well-known prayers, takes the form of a grace at meal times.

"Father God thank you for the things we cannot see or touch. For integrity, trust, honesty, character, thankfulness, friendship, and thank you for our Friend."

BAPTIST WORLD CONGRESS - BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND

The Baptist Times UK

An Australian family of seven are at the Congress, possibly the largest single family unit from overseas in attendance.

The Tronson family - Salley (14), Wesley (21), Hayley (23), Anthea (26) who is here with husband Robert Stark, have come with parents Mark and Delma Tronson.

"We bring greetings from Baptist churches from all over," said Mark.

He said that there was strong Baptist loyalty in Australia, adding, "Baptist churches in Australia have the strongest census affiliation in Gallup polls between those who record themselves as Baptists and those who actually attend a church".

BAPTIST WITNESS  -  3 June 2005

‘G’DAY DR MARK’

Meet Mark Tronson

Whether he’s chaplain to the Australian Cricket Team, conducting bible tours in Israel, raising awareness about youth suicide, painting, running a retreat house and 10 acre bush block, writing hockey columns, preaching the gospel at a sports convention, or being a father, friend and husband – Rev Dr Mark Tronson is always a minister of Jesus.

The ACT-based Baptist minister juggles his chaplaincy commitments with his role as Chairman of Well-Being Australia (a variety of ministries he runs with his wife, Delma - one of which involves updating the International Olympic Committee Protocols on religious services after each Olympics). Yet despite his hectic schedule, and the prominence of his chaplaincy position – he remains ‘unapologetically evangelical’ and down to earth.

“I have consistently been a chaplain, not a social worker. Australia has a strong demarcation philosophy, that if you’re a plumber you don’t touch the wires, if you’re a carpenter you don’t touch the bricks, if you’re an accountant you don’t be an attorney in court. So too a chaplain, and the cricketers realized this. I was about “God and Jesus” and there was never any issue about that. Opening the Bible in homes and praying with the family was what a Minister was expected to do,” he stated.

For some 23 years – Mark and his wife Delma have been home missionaries relying on gifts to support their family living and mission costs. The greatest source of stability through these challenging, exciting and exhausting years - Mark reveals – is prayer. “In all those years I established a pact with five elderly ladies to pray for Delma and I, our family and our ministry, every day, and some specific days - for a full one hour. Call it what you will, but this has provided a powerhouse of spiritual strength. I’m not Pentecostal or in Renewal, I’m mainstream traditional Baptist. I’m big on stability,” explained Rev Tronson.

Having left home at 16 to become a trainee engineman on the NSW Government Railways, Mark went on to study at Morling Theological College and sought out industrial chaplaincy. He was working for the Shell Refinery and the InterChurch Trade & Industry Mission and writing hockey columns for ‘The Australian’ when he attended a world congress on sports mission. “After my return I set up a series of visits to Heads of Churches with a variety of ITIM colleagues to seek the blessing on “Professional Sport” as a chaplaincy wing for ITIM” Mark explained. Several years later the Sports & Leisure Ministry was released from ITIM and became a faith ministry supported by a board of Heads of Churches. In 1984 the Australian Cricket Board adopted chaplaincy and signed Mark on.

As the Australian Cricket Team Chaplain, Mark’s role was broader than being on-hand-pastor to a team. He met and negotiated with Australia’s sports administrators appointing 150 chaplains in sports such as soccer, golf, tennis, NRL, AFL, NBL, Rugby, baseball, motor racing and many other sports where previously no Christian minister had been consistently present. He also undertook sports ministry tours in the UK and USA – preaching the gospel wherever he went.

Evangelising both on an international and national scale, he encouraged Christian athletes to speak about their faith and act as role models at schools, breakfasts, churches and youth rallies. He also undertook two successful doctoral dissertations in Sports Ministries to better equip himself for his role. Yet despite this, Mark explained, “Like any other Minister the sports chaplain is immersed into the role of pastoral duties and theological reflection with a good dose of philosophy and common sense thrown in”.

17 years later in 2000 Rev Tronson moved on – but only sideways, having established Life After Cricket – a ministry to retired cricketers. Working with an editorial team of six retired captains (including Alan Border (Qld), Phil Emery (NSW), Jason Bakker (VIC), David Boon (TAS), Greg Chappell (SA), Kim Hughes (WA) – the ministry produces a bi-annual newsletter. “Life After Cricket ministry involves everyone in cricket and the state associations have always sought to be a vital part of this pastoral role. It’s the classic example of the Christian community partnering in service with a generic community,” said Mark. “We have had some very in-depth articles and in some sense I’ve maintained my chaplaincy with the team but with considerably greater impact as we (the Editorial Team) receive many positive responses from across the cricketing scene”.

He’s also been working hard at contributing to a national Baptist presence in the media. “Baptists in particular don’t get quoted in the media in Australia… The secular media give every upstart secular humanist any number of comments, so with a media background over many years I have found myself in a unique position…of commentating and of being quoted around the world” he said.

In May – Bridges for Peace invited Mark on a tour of Auschwitz with a delegation of 48 international persons. He participated in the "March of the Living" which commemorated the 60th year of the liberation of the Nazi death camps. "The Christian delegation was there to stand beside and illustrate commitment to faith, hope and love", Mark said.

And this is exactly what ‘Dr Mark’ does, wherever he is: with famous cricketers, holocaust survivors and everyone in between.

TOP 25 EVANGELICALS

Published February 2005 in the Batemans Bay Post, Moruya Examiner, Narooma News, Town and Country and others, it's derivitive published article was from New Life January 2005.

LOCAL PREACHER ON “TOP” 25 LIST

Time Magazine ran a front page article two weeks ago on the “top” 25 and most influential “USA Evangelicals” in America having surveyed 614 senior ministers of large Protestant Churches.

Australia’s weekly Christian newspaper New Life ran a story on the Time Magazine’s selections and did their own survey for a “top” 25 most influential Australian Evangelicals.

This survey came from “people working in Australian evangelical ministries” and was published on the front page of last week’s New Life.

Moruya’s Dr Mark Tronson was on the list while the Reverend Dr Gordon Moyes of Wesley Mission was the only one who was on the list of everyone who was surveyed.

Others included the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney Peter Jensen, Baptist Ministers Tim Costello (World Vision) and Ross Clifford (Morling College), Theologians Leon Morris and John Robinson, Hillsong’s Brian Houston and Sydney City Church’s Phil Pringle.

Mark Tronson, 53, last year received the “I & II Timothy Australian Episcopos Citation” for distinguished Christian leadership.

He’s been the Australian cricket chaplain for 22 years, serves as Master at “Timeout in Moruya” the recuperation facility for Australian Institute of Sport athletes, and he updates the International Olympic Committee’s “Religious Services” for subsequent host city’s.

Dr Tronson is a recognized Evangelist, Christian writer and his regular commentary is sent by the Religious Press around the world. He regularly travels to rural areas throughout Australia on “Country Town Tours” preaching the salvation of Jesus Christ.

20 YEAR MIRACLE

AIS Chaplain acknowledges the 20 year Miracle

Australian Institute of Sport chaplain the Reverend Peter Nelson having celebrated the 20 year anniversary of the Sports and Leisure Ministry (SLM) last week says the miracles of the ministry’s founders Dr Mark and Delma Tronson is one of Australia’s most recent astonishing stories of Christian outreach.

“Mark and Delma Tronson were released from SLM by Heads of Churches in 2000 after ill health and their remarkable story over the years must never fall into deconstruction,” Reverend Nelson explained who has served at the AIS for 14 years.

In July 1982 Mark Tronson, a Baptist Minister was endorsed by NSW Baptist Churches to attend an International Sports-Mission Congress in Hong Kong and upon his return through his Inter-Church contacts initiated a Christian Ministry to Australia’s professional sports.

Over the next 18 months Mark gathered a small team of senior clergy to encourage his endeavours, he formulated a philosophy for his ideas and met with the Heads of Churches.

As a consequence a new national ministry, the “Sports and Leisure Ministry” was initiated by Mark and Delma Tronson in February 1984. Heads of Churches appointed representatives to a national board for Mark and Delma and the fledgling Ministry.

One requirement was that Mark was to “raise his own funding” for his family support and the new Ministry.

“Mark and Delma became home missionaries moving from a secure parish ministry with the accompanying benefits of a regular income, a manse, a car allowance and all the other financial benefits and sought finances through a monthly newsletter”, Peter Nelson explained.

The Australian Cricket Board appointed Mark Tronson as the Australian Cricket Team chaplain in 1984 and in the years following Mark met and successfully negotiated with Australia’s sports administrators appointing 150 chaplains - in

Cricket, NRL, AFL, NBL, Soccer, Golf, Tennis, Yachting, Motor Racing. Rugby, Baseball, Water Sports, Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra and State campus’, State Institutes of Sports ....

Mark undertook sports ministry study tours in the USA and UK, preaching the glorious message of Jesus every where he went, and speaking at International Sports Ministry Congress’ in Seoul 1988, Miami 1989, Vanuatu 1989, Auckland 1990, Miami 1991, Port Moresby 1991, Atlanta 1992, London 1992, Atlanta 1996. Mark ran Sports Ministry National Conferences 1989-99, he evangelized nationally and had Christian elite athletes speak as role models at schools, breakfasts, dinners, churches and youth rallies.

“To better equip himself for this leadership task, Mark undertook two successful doctoral dissertations through US Baptist Universities on Sports Ministry. These were supervised by the Rt. Rev Dr Brian King, Bishop of Parramatta (now Retired). Dr King was the Anglican appointment on the National Board of the Sports and Leisure Ministry 1984-2000”, Peter Nelson stated.

Mark and Delma in 1992 moved home from Sydney to the small NSW south coast town of Moruya establishing what is now known as “Timeout in Moruya”, a retreat facility (Basil Sellers House) for Australian Institute of Sport athletes.

“The athletes at the AIS continue to thoroughly enjoy their relaxation visits to Moruya. During their stay Mark presents sports New Testaments from the Bible Society and ministers to each group. Mark continues in this ministry and a video has now been produced for the AIS”, Reverend Nelson said.

Meanwhile in those heady years Mark continued writing (author of 23 books) and also wrote the hockey articles for “The Australian” over many years. In March 1998 Mark Tronson undertook a successful ATO Review and Audit on the Sports and Leisure Ministry which contributed to post traumatic stress and later a stint in the intensive care heart ward.

“Mark has been involved in Olympic Chaplaincy since the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and after the 1996 Atlanta Olympics he drafted the Religious Services protocols for the International Olympic Committee and was then invited to the IOC in Lausanne Switzerland in February 2000 to finalize the document. He continues to update it after each Olympics”, Peter Nelson explained.

Mark Tronson is possibly best publicly known for his ministry with the Australian Cricket Team from which his Executive Ministries to corporate leaders was developed.

“In November 2000 Mark moved from the Australian Cricket Team chaplaincy after 17 years to initiate Life After Cricket with the formation of the Retired Australian Cricketers Bi-Annual Newsletter with an editorial team of Allan Border, Greg Chappell, David Boon, Kim Hughes, Phil Emery, Jason Bakker. This has gained national attention”, Peter Nelson said.

After his release from SLM Mark took up painting as a means of recuperation and in May 2003 The Basil Sellers Art Centre was opened in Moruya at Australia’s Bush Orchestra, which is their birdsong bush walk for tourists and they continue to engage in Country Town Tours preaching in rural Australia.

“A key ingredient of their ministry since 1982 has been the faithful prayer support of those who pray every day for Mark and Delma, their family members and their ministry.

“They have had special prayer support from five elderly ladies who have committed themselves to daily prayer for over 20 years.

“They continue rejoicing in the Lord, with their daily living and ministry needs financed through their monthly newsletter and faithful supporters. They have raised four great children who are all following the Lord Jesus”, Peter Nelson extolled.