TIM MANDER INTERNATIONAL RUGBY LEAGUE REFEREE 2004 & 2005 N.R.L. Grand Final Referee 2005 Queensland 'Father of the Year' 2005 International Referee of the Year

About Tim

In the past, Tim was a full time professional rugby league referee with the National Rugby League (Australia) refereeing 300 first grade games throughout Australia. He has also officiated many times overseas in places like England, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, PNG, Fiji and Tonga. Tim refereed 12 Test Matches. He also refereed the Semi Final in the 2000 World Cup in England and the 2004 and 2005 N.R.L. Grand Finals.

Tim is presently the C.E.O. for Scripture Union Queensland. Tim is happily married to Gayle and they have four children. In 2005, Tim was awarded Queensland 'Father of the Year' and International Referee of the Year.

THE TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE

Is there a God? In the early days, before Tim Mander became a international & N.R.L. referee, he wondered about this and concluded there wasn't. But gradually, his addictions to alcohol and gambling took hold. After Dave, a friend of Tim's and others in his immediate group became Christians, Tim finally read the Bible and his life was transformed.

An atheist in my younger days

I recall a conversation I had with a friend of mine a number of years ago. We were sitting around a table philosophising about life and its meaning. The main conclusion we reached was that anybody who believed in God or a superior being was obviously either weak willed, easily manipulated or plain simple. Belief in God for us defied human logic and basic intelligence. I came from a very non-religious household. As children we were taught there was a God but had no formal religious education or training. By my teens, I regarded myself as an agnostic. (An agnostic is someone who holds that nothing is or is likely to be known about God). After school, I finally considered myself an atheist. (This is someone who is convinced there is no God.)

Coping with my addictions (alcohol & gambling)

During my last two years of school and the years immediately after, I got involved in what I thought most Australian males did: alcohol, cigarettes and marijuana. In fact my whole life was based around my next grog binge. Mixed with that was my incredible desire to gamble. Alcohol and gambling weren't a great mix. I gambled on anything and lost heaps over the years. Often after a heavy night of drinking, my mates and I would get into an intense heart to heart conversation about life, similar to the one I mentioned earlier. Because I didn't believe in any superior being, life never made a lot of sense to me. What was the use of living seventy odd years and then simply not existing for evermore? Unbeknown to my friends, I would think of that in bed before sleeping and it would terrify me to the point of tears. I couldn't come to terms with the fact that I wouldn't exist one day. I was scared to death.

A mate's found Jesus!

One day I received a phone call from a mate who asked me if I had heard about Dave. Dave had gone weird; he had gone religious. Dave was a science teacher whom I stayed with for a while. He had shared my views that no intelligent person could believe in God. He now excitedly told me that he had finally found the truth. All the years he was confused and dissatisfied and now the scales had been lifted from his eyes. He was delirious with happiness. Over a period of six months, more and more of my friends joined this weird group of people who talked about Jesus.

My disintegrating marriage

In the meantime, my life wasn't too rosy. I was drinking heavier than ever which wasn't helping my marriage, which in fact was disintegrating. I felt dissatisfied with my wife and thought that a change was in order. I decided that the holidays coming up were to be my last with Gayle as my wife. Little did I know, being so arrogant, that Gayle was fed up with me and she was contemplating the same thought.

Bible - the best selling book of all time

We were at the Gold Coast for the last few days of the holiday when my mate Phil and his wife visited us. He was right into Christianity - so we had our obligatory debate. When they left, I felt that if I were going to argue my point better, I would need to know more about where they were coming from. They often quoted the Bible that I was slowing realising I knew very little about. I regarded myself as intelligent but had never read this most published book in the history of mankind. Phil had left a "Good News" New Testament so I started reading Mark's Gospel. Thus began the most major transformation I had ever experienced.

Jesus - the radical

As I read, I started seeing things with clarity I had never experienced before. The wisdom and truthfulness of what it was saying seemed to jump right out from the pages. I knew this wisdom wasn't of men. Men weren't capable of expressing things the way they were expressed here. I read voraciously; I literally couldn't stop. This Jesus Christ was a radical. He turned his world upside down. He denounced the religious leaders of the time as being hypocrites and that with their pomp, ceremony and tradition they actually made it harder for people to know God. I could relate to that because I saw religion as a hypocritical joke.

Jesus - a man who speaks the truth

Jesus said things, which I knew deep down in my heart, were true. Man needed to change his heart before any other problems could be solved and only God could do that. I don't exaggerate when I say things changed overnight. My wife could see an immediate change in me. I had this incredible peace and felt released. I read and read and read. Things that I couldn't previously believe now seemed believable: Jesus healing people, Jesus feeding 5000, Jesus walking on the water and ultimately Jesus' resurrection.

God changes lives

The changes in my life were undeniable. I had this insatiable appetite to read the Bible. I read it at home, on the bus and at work. My career ambitions were of no concern, my swearing and blasphemy virtually stopped overnight. My desire for alcohol decreased remarkably. Something supernatural had occurred in my life. I now have a sense of purpose and meaning in my life. It's great to know there is a meaning to life and that it can be fulfilling.

To top all that, I have eternal life, which to me is very reassuring.
Tim

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