Australian Christian sporting celebrities such as cricketer Brian Booth and rower Tom Treseder were part of a loose knit group of Christians who had linked into an American sports ministry with an emphasis on Christians brothers and sisters supporting each other in their "walk with the Lord".
It was this fellowship group that invited Mark Tronson to Hong Kong as for whatever reason they saw potential in this young minister who was by that time writing 'hockey' for The Australian newspaper as a stringer and a published author on hockey.
Kernot Kunzelman was a winter sports Austrian identity and went on to coach the Canadian Winter Olympic team. Later, he and his wife Gertrud established Taunernhof in the Austrian Alps, a respite facility for fellow elite athletes and the cost for staying was a bible devotional of an evening, around the fire.
With such a reputation in Austrian sports many athletes took up this generous offer and as the years went on, so the ministry grew into a Torchbearer Ministry with many young people across Europe visiting the facility and even doing bible courses.
Mark Tronson captured the vision and realised that in Australia it was the beach and not the mountain that captured the imagination of the nation and with the financial assistance of philanthropist and sports lover Mr Basil Sellers AM, "Basil Sellers House" was constructed in Moruya on the NSW south coast.
Opened in 1992 and his own reputation as the Australian cricket team chaplain and having negotiated the chaplaincy at the Australian Institute of Sport, his vision was for the nation's elite athletes from the AIS to take respite.
At the official opening by Nick Farr-Jones (Rugby) and Jeanine Treharne (Yachting), Mark Tronson philosophically handed the key to the AIS official representatives for their athletes to make exclusive use of the facility.
Soon athletes were visiting and so too, did its value. AIS chaplain Peter Nelson was soon meeting with athletes on their return as after Mark Tronson's session with them as they sought to further explore what was said.
A unique set of circumstances all came together to see this come to fruition and its value over all these years has provided Mark Tronson international exposure that has extended to the International Olympic Committee. In 2000 he was invited to Lasuanne Switzerland to develop with staff an Olympic Village Religious Services Protocol. This he updates for each subsequent Olympics.
With Mark's parents in Glory and Delma's dad in Glory, her mum a widow on the north coast of NSW, it was decided they relocate to Tweed Heads and it was here that they established the second Respite facility for SE Queensland based AIS Sport Units, named Basil Sellers Tweed.
This highly specialised elite athlete Respite has been recognised by those in such sporting circles, and as a result the AIS likewise recognised coaches too were under enormous pressure. This was bought home when Diving Coach Hui Tong and his wife Xing and family spent respite at Basil Sellers Tweed in 2006.
Then Greg Chappell the AIS Head Cricket Coach was interviewed by the Australian Missionary News IPTV on the value of athlete respite.
tv.bushorchestra.com/Sport/videopages/Greg_Chappell.html
The Basil Sellers Laguna Quays Respite project is next, with Mark and Delma Tronson in need of respite themselves (after all these years of faith financial missionary service) are setting it up over a six month period.
The ministry of athlete respite grew from a vision. As this faith story unfolded, it illustrates how both funding and a unique philosophical understanding of the needs of athletes came together. in the right setting with AIS people, who likewise recognised its value. All these things represent modern day miracles.
