GLO Ministries can be summed up in three words; vision, faith and action.
Since its inception the heart and soul of GLO Ministries has been translating vision and faith into missionary action.
1965-1984 – Early beginnings
The ‘vision’ started with Colin Tilsley in 1965. Compelled by an urgent need to reach masses of unevangelised people with the Gospel, Colin started “Gospel Literature Outreach”, now known as “GLO Ministries”. Being a man of faith Colin quickly translated this vision into missionary action by mobilising teams of young people for gospel literature distribution for short term periods of up to 3 years.
In August 1966 the vision became a reality when the frst GLO team consisting of 10 young Christians departed for Madras (now Chennai), India. From 1966 to 1984 14 missionary units were mobilised in quick succession to almost a dozen countries. To support this remarkable surge of missionary activity Colin established strategic bases of operation in Australia (1965), New Zealand (1967- 1968) and in the UK (1972-1974). In 1975 a training centre was also established in Smithton, Tasmania. The purpose of the training centre was to help ensure that there would be a steady flow of suitably equipped workers for the ministry. For the past forty years this discipleship training course, now known as ‘CrossConnect’, has been greatly used of God to equip 510 students from over 15 countries for ministry, with over 120 of those graduates going on to serve in some form of vocational Christian service.
By the grace of God in less than two decades the work of GLO Ministries rapidly expanded to every populated continent of the world except for North America
By the grace of God in less than two decades the work of GLO Ministries rapidly expanded to every populated continent of the world except for North America. For this reason GLO Australia adopted the motto “Serving and Training all over the world”.
Sadly, however, right in the middle of that period of expansion Colin Tilsley, the founder and director of GLO Ministries, was diagnosed with ‘Motor Neuron Disease’. In March 1981, at 46 years of age, Colin Tilsley was called home to be with the Lord; a man of vision, faith and action.
1985-2014 – Developing the ministry
After the passing of Colin Tilsley the task of translating vision and faith into missionary action was largely left up to Ken Harding (1978 to 1987) and then to Laurie Cowell (1987 to 2013) – who was ably assisted by Don Donsworth (1987 to 2002) and David Scott (2002 until today). As the witnessing ministry rapidly grew throughout this period so too did the vision of GLO Ministries. What started as a ministry that was primarily dedicated to evangelism and follow up grew into a ministry that focused on discipleship and church planting as well.
From 1985 to 2014 expatriate missionaries were mobilised to serve in 9 locations in 7 countries. In 1994 the “GLO School of Mission”, now called ‘CrossTrain’, was established. Since 1994 a total of 8 mission courses have been conducted equipping over 50 candidates from 9 countries for cross cultural missionary service.
During this time Laurie Cowell broadened the vision of GLO Ministries to include Church Planting in Australia. With God’s help GLO Ministries has played a key role in mobilising 12 church planting teams, 3 of which resulted in multicultural church plants.
In addition to this, during the 1990s, GLO Ministries also began concentrating on partnering together with National Workers from other countries.
Through these partnerships GLO Australia has had the privilege of being involved in missionary initiatives in countries such as Afghanistan, Albania, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Pakistan, Philippines, Myanmar, Nepal, Romania and South Korea.
In order to prepare National Workers for service, in 1997 GLO Ministries started providing “English as a Second Language” Training. The ESL course, now known as ‘CrossTalk’, has successfully equipped over 230 students from at least a dozen countries to read, write and speak English.
2015 onwards – Raising up a new generation
As GLO Australia looks back over the past 50 years we thank God that by His grace millions of tracts and gospel portions have been distributed, tens of thousands of people have heard the gospel, thousands have come to faith, many hundreds have been discipled, and dozens of local churches have been established across the world.
This means that a new generation of GLO Workers can look forward with great hope knowing that like our forebears, we enjoy a personal relationship with the same missionary God, access to the same spiritual power, and possess the same transforming gospel. Since we have the same resources at our disposal we can look forward with eager anticipation to continuing the same ambitious task of translating ‘vision’ and ‘faith’ into missionary ‘action’ all over the world.
As we look forward we are greatly encouraged by the truth that God is the same ‘yesterday’, ‘today’ and ‘forever’ (Heb. 13:8).
…we thank God that by His grace … tens of thousands of people have heard the gospel, thousands have come to faith …