"Over the next few Summer and Winter Olympic Games, it was my privilege to appoint Australian chaplains to the host city Religious Services program.
"These included Dr Gordon Moyes AC, Reverend Ken Bond, Reverend Russell Hinds, Reverend Peter Nelson, former Olympic swimmer Angela Harris, all leading up to the 2000 Sydney Olympics," said Tronson.
Mark believes the best religious program in any Olympic city was offered by Atlanta in 1996, prompting him to draft an initial generalised "protocol" that he submitted to the IOC (courtesy of Kevan Gosper A.C.)
Soon after, Tronson was elected Chairman of an InterFaith Sydney Olympics Group but as fate would have it, the plans fell through giving him the opportunity to travel to Lausanne, Switzerland and work with IOC staff to form a new "Protocol of Ideas".
"My travel to Lausanne to the IOC took some time to arrange as it needed to coincide with my 'Tourism Ministry' Holy Land tour in February 2000. It was from that date I established this voluntary role updating the 'Protocol of Ideas' after each Summer and Winter Olympics Games for the following host city," said Tronson.
Each Olympic host city determines its own Religious Services program and the 'Protocol of Ideas' is just really an ideas document. However, any host city can request specialised help from Mark and Delma Tronson prior to the commencement of the games.
"To this end my wife Delma and I were invited to meet with the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic 'Villages' Group in February this year. It was a pleasing fulfilment of the ongoing work I have been doing on this international sports scene." said Tronson.
Contact with the Chairman of the Vancouver Olympic Villages InterFaith Committee, Reverend David Wells, has added further expertise to the Tronson's Olympic mission.
"Wells and his team in Vancouver have developed a thorough Olympic Village's Religious Services model. David Wells is very experienced in Olympic ministry," said Mark Tronson.
The Lord calling a stammering Baptist minister, a former train driver, to pioneer the Sports and Leisure Ministry in 1982 and into the Olympic arena has been one of those quirks of ecclesiastical life, another of those unlikely stories that Church History is replete with.
"I'm reminded of 1 Corinthians 1 verse 27, 'But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.' One never knows where such things lead, and our visit to Vancouver was very special," said Tronson.