Colin Bowden Crawford TILSLEY

TILSLEY, COLIN BOWDEN CRAWFORD (b. Godaveri Delta region, India, 1935; d. Sydney, NSW, 1981). Brethren missionary leader.

Colin Tilsley was born of missionary parents in India, being descended from pioneer missionaries George Beer of India and Dan Crawford of Africa. After a period of service in the British Army, he emigrated to Tasmania in 1956. When Emmaus Bible College began (Gordon Lewis Blair, q.v.), Colin applied for training, and was accepted in 1961. He operated the Emmaus Correspondence Bible School while still a student, graduated with a first class diploma, and conducted Australia-wide deputation activities on behalf of the College.

During a visit in 1964 to Literature Crusades, the world-wide missionary literature distribution work conducted by Australian Kevin Dyer in North America, Tilsley received the vision of a similar activity based in Australia. He founded Gospel Literature Outreach, and took part in its first two-year crusade in Madras, India. The fruits of this work continue today in Open Brethren churches and an ongoing local Bible correspondence school. Tilsley's vision was for evangelism by any means, using local churches to train converts, building up local churches, and giving young people from home countries a taste of missionary work. Offered a suitable property by Open Brethren in Smithton, Tas, he commenced a one-year Bible school to prepare workers for crusade teams and other outreach activities. Teams trained here, in New Zealand and in Scotland have operated in Asia, Africa, Europe, Oceania and South America.

Tilsley died at a comparatively young age of a wasting incurable motor neurone disease after a five-year illness. Many visitors to his home in Sydney during his final years found inspiration from his bright positive spirit. While ill, he wrote an account of the work, Through the Furnace(1979). Others, mainly his fellow graduates from Emmaus Bible College, caught the vision from him, and the work of Gospel Literature Outreach continues under their leadership to this day.

Australian Missionary Tidings, May 1981

IAN MCDOWELL