Chaplains’ Chat

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” – Matthew 19:26

If we knew someone who had won an international gold medal, we would undoubtedly be impressed. If we knew someone who had won thirty-three gold medals, that would be completely unbelievable! However, for our special guest in Chapel — Mr Tom Treseder — these victories were all part of his story of faith that he shared with the staff and students this week.

Tom Treseder is perhaps most well-known for winning thirty-three gold medals in the International Master’s for rowing and sculling. He shared how he began rowing at the age of 12 and continued to see success during his junior years but felt that there was a void in his life. Even after winning his first championship, the joy of victory was fleeting and still left him unsatisfied. When he witnessed some of his friends turning to the Lord Jesus, he observed something different about them and he wanted what they had. This began the first steps in Tom’s journey to saving faith.

However, as a new Christian Tom felt convicted to honour the Lord on Sundays and made the difficult decision to stop rowing on Sundays — a decision that would prevent him from participating in the Olympics. At the time, Tom shared how he believed this was the end of his rowing career because he could no longer train with the team. But in an act of providence, after a chance encounter with an Old Boy from his school, Tom was gifted a scully boat and continued his training.

What followed was a series of astounding victories, with Tom showing the students some of the gold medals he had won.

Alongside his illustrious rowing career, Tom also shared how his Christian faith had led to him inventing, designing and manufacturing the world’s first solar-powered talking audio book in 1988. Since then, Tom has been running MegaVoice International, creating devices that can even be used by people in the poorest parts of the world where they do not have electricity and cannot read. With this device people can listen to the Bible in their own language, something we might take for granted. Over 3.6 million units have been distributed around the world in over 7,900 languages.

Tom emphasised his faith in action as he entrusted and followed God throughout his life, even when the challenges seemed too great. “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

We were very blessed to have Tom Treseder visit us throughout this week, and he had many good conversations with students after Chapel about his achievements, life and faith.

Rev John Sheldon
Chaplain (Acting)