Outback
Patrol
National Headquarters
36 Georges Crescent,
Georges Hall, NSW 2198
Australia
Phone:
02-97272759
A
MEMORIAL TO A WONDERFUL MAN – RICHIE GUNSTON
We
say goodbye to the coat Richie Gunston wore for 71 years. Yet,
can't ever remember Richie wearing a coat. He hated pomp,
haughty, secrets, ties, committees, games, delays and locks,
low deals and boredom.
He loved living on the edge. We've lost him, tho, we can't
say lost when we know where he is. Richie was a loving family
man, became a Christian as a young performer in the circus
life and gave himself to telling others of his wonderful Saviour.He'd
been a diabetic for years, but did not let this stop his service
to others. "The good man's reward lasts forever"
(Proverbs 11:18).
SMILE SHORTEST DISTANCE:
Richie only knew how to smile. He said you don't stop
laughing because you grow old; you grow old because you stopped
laughing. He never frowned. Even in tough times
he'd hold on to his faith, and grin. When a situation
needed help, he believed in the outcome, and never seemed
to doubt. When he'd phone, or answer, he'd always see
the happy side and an answer to the issue. If our family is
any average among families, he made our boys feel happy. Always
had a friendly joke with each of them. Then he sit and talk
serious for a few moments and offer principles that make life
sizzle. Now as adults, they remember Richie's impact when
they were young. They are shattered that he is no longer here
.... "If you give little, you will get little.
A farmer who plants just a few seeds will get only a small
crop, but if he plants much, he will reap much ..." (II
Corinthians 9:6). Richie believed that you don't grow old
by only accumulating years; you grow old when you abandon
your ideals and dreams. Richie was everlastingly young.
"God, your God, has given you more gladness than anyone
else" (Psalm 45:7).
DIDN'T LET THEM DOWN:
When two landed a Cessna in the desert in 1965 with a crook
compass, and squarely faced the prospects, he never let his
faith or his ideals fail. Jack Kempe from Macumber Station
found them at dusk, and they rode 40-miles through sand hills
in his jeep back to his station, near Oodnadatta. So
Richie got on the two-way RFDS radio and invited all the search
parties over. They were still turning up at 1am, and he didn't
let them down. Years later, the Kempes heard him yodelling
in the Methodist Hall in Mildura, came in from the Motel next
door and said he was the happiest Christian they ever met.
Twenty years after that they told me his presence changed
their lives ... "God gives us many kinds of special abilities,
but it is the same Holy Spirit who is the source of them all"
(I Corinthians 12:4).
NEVER THOUGHT OF HIMSELF TOO MUCH:
He built his car sales business from scratch, with eventually
five yards in Melbourne suburbs. He captured good deals
and passed them on. Many missionary's drove Richie's cars
into the ground, then took them back worn out for Richie to
fix. Many people are still driving his cars around now.
When they messed up one of his cars he'd remind them that
stupidity got them into that fix, and it would take
stupidity to get them out—but he'd do it. He never
thought of himself too much. "A Christian who doesn't
amount to much in this world should be glad, for he is great
in the Lord's sight" (James 1:9).
FRIENDS FOR YEARS: He
fell out of the hotel bed at 2am at Gasgcoigne Junction, in
the north of WA in the 70's as dry-rot ruined the floors,
and tipped the beds, and shook the old wood building the the
piers. Mel was there. When Richie bumped into the Publican's
wife in the hall in the dark, that nocturnal collision
made them friends for years .... and this vibrant faith affected
those people. They'd only been used to stuffy old churchmen
till then. "It is possible to give away and become richer
..." Prov. 11:25
GIFTED AND TALENTED:
He was Victorian champion western yodeller on radio in 1950s,
a talent from the circus days. He won the 3UZ Christie's
Radio Artist contest, with the highest award—3 gongs,
and earned a short performing contract at a local stage show.
He took that talent into his prison meetings at Pentridge
with friends. His repertoire changed to Gospel. He ran the
music, but he'd surprise a guest in announcing so and so is
our special speaker to the astonishment of the guest.
But they emulated Richie's confidence, and usually delivered
the goods....
He was a confident of John Robinson, Clive Stebbins, Jack
Edwards, Brian Willersdorf, Mac Hawkins and Len Wallace, Mel
Stevens and Bill Myers. The broad cloth of his many interests
covered a nation. Jack Richards said many people walk
in and out of our lives, but only some will leave footprints.
I have large footrpints in my heart, he said....
Missionaries would phone him from the field. He knew why.
On a station near Exmouth, WA, he spent a day under the ute's
fixing wheel bearings and universals. Missionaries marvelled
how he knew so much about the way their cars were running;
he'd only been there 10-minutes. No one will ever know how
many tons of car and truck parts he sent to missionaries.
And Joan would smile knowingly, and write the cheque. "Don't
copy the behavior and customs of this world, but be a new
and different person with a fresh newness in all that you
do and think" (Romans 12). He shared with Arthur Bartlett
on the Dial for New Hope Committee, and gave Mill Valley Ranch
a push along, too.
Back
in Robbies days, he was always with Campaigners. He sang numerous
times at the Melbourne Town Hall YFC rallies. Outback Patrol
was another of his favourite missions. Many times he told
a bush audience that when the devil reminded him of his past,
he reminded him of his future ... Then, he'd chuckle outrageously
when he thought how he had the devil on the run. 'What always
sticks in my mind', someone told me, 'is his starting to sing
in the wrong key, or forgetting his words, and having to start
again. (We expected it). He didn't know if it was part
of the act. He always got away with it. And we never
forgot'. It was Richie.
ANYWHERE FOR THE LORD:
Richie joined Les Nixon on flying patrols inland between '65
and '86 outback, with his guitar and smile. He occupied the
front right seat in the old Dragon plane, surrounded by guitars,
accordions, Bibles, books, projector, screen, literature to
hand out, fuel drums, oil and parts—on missions around
Australia seven times. He dropped medicine to those
stranded on the Ghan train in the 70's, with his hanky as
a parachute ...
They
flew a Piper together in pre-Christmas meetings in Dec. '97.
Out to Birdsville and back. He was the only companion Nixon
took with him on missionaries adventures to India, Korea,
Japan, Viet Nam, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. He was
singer with YFCer Clive Stebbins to Europe and India. Glenys
McDonald saw him in the street in London, and they went off
to one of her meetings together. He is remembered for his
part in Brian Willersdorf's Gospel crusades at Ballarat, Bendigo,
Geelong, Launceston, etc. He flew to Cape Barron Island in
Bass Strait with Graham Sharman for ministry many times. His
yodelling filled town halls all over the nation. He said he
never minded going anywhere for the Lord, as long as it was
an interesting journey. It was a wonder he ever had time
to do any regular work and earn a dollar.
TWO DOLLARS:
Kalgoorlie Town Hall; a riotous crowd, he settled it down. How'd
he do it? Why, he went and lobbed himself in the spacious
lap of the biggest black woman near the front row. When
he was announced as the next item, he yelled, "How much
will you pay me to come up here and sing?" The crowd
went berserk. We told him to quit his nonsense and get back
up front to sing. Then someone offered him a dollar to sing. He'd
yell back, "She's offered me Two-Dollars to stay!"
After
he died, his name came up in conversation, still in the present
tense, as tho he was still here. Slip of the tongue.
Wonder would Richie be home by now? meaning, Donald, or Steve,
or Philip! Wooops.A quick correction to say, yes, he
is home by now! And nothing you offer would bring him
back! The Archangel has offered him nothing as temporal
as a dollar—but eternity with Jesus, just to stay....
MISUNDERSTOOD:
Gunston was a man upon whom the Spirit of the Lord dwelt.
He had no guile. He'd attract attention as was his way,
something many could not understand. When he'd gain
control in a school class, rustle the fellas hair, tickle
the girls, and generally make mayhem, till it was known that
it was on his terms. Teens could not figure him out; he believed
in the element of surprise. He told someone to cool down;
because 'in just two days tomorrow will be yesterday!' Then
he'd laugh uproariously, sing a song, pull up his baggy
pants, and settle the teens down. They never got the better
of him. Why, he'd wrestled with the notorious Chief
Little Wolf!
In
Dec. '97 with the exhausted rice-chippers at Gundawindi, after
they'd worked a 5am till 5pm work day in the paddocks, he
yodelled them into blessed quietness, then sang, "Precious
Lord, take my hand, lead me on, help me stand ...." ever
so sweetly, they could not wait for the invitation to respond
to the Saviour. I know of one fellow who volunteered
for missionary service after that ... "Always please
the Lord and honour Him, so that you will always be doing
good kind things for others, while all the time you are learning
to know God better and better" (Colossians 1:10).
SHADOW
OF FORMER SELF:
He
and Mel Stevens ran every day on one of those patrols in the
70's. Miles. That's unusual. One day they ran from
Port Hedland ten miles to the airport and back; in that heat.
After a month of that, and a couple of schools and meetings
each day, too, Richie was down to a slim 14 stone, and he
had to have his pants brought in, or wear Mel's After
two months of that, they landed at Essendon in the Dragon
and he told Joan not to cook tea; we'd all go to Chinese.
He stayed till midnight, and he never saw his feet again....
RG AND THAT EVANGELIST!
Some people enter a room and say 'there-you-are'. Others
say, "Here I am!" Richie went with Brian Willersdorf
to New Zealand, sometime in the 80's. Brian told Les Nixon
recently that the first week they were introduced as Evangelist
Brian Willersdorf and his singer. Second week, it was Brian
Willersdorf and Richie Gunston his singer. Third week it was
Richie Gunston the singer, and Willersdorf. Final week
it was Richie Gunston the singer and that evangelist!
"And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home
in your hearts, living within you as you trust in Him.
May your roots go down deep into the soil of God's marvelous
love; and may you be able to feel and understand as all God's
children should, how long, how wide, how deep, and how high
his love really is, and to experience his love for yourselves,
thought it is so great that you will never see the end of
it or fully know or understand it. And so at last you
will be lifted up with God himself" (Ephesians 3:17-19).
EARNED
A DEGREE
In Korea he led a Senator to Christ introduced by Billy Kim.
In his car, on the side of the road.In Indonesia, he prayed
for a thousand farmers who responded road side when the car
broke down and they sang and preached to the crowd. In Hong
Kong, his music in roof-top schools echoed through the streets
and attracted new friends. Koreans actually presented him
with a theological degree, but he didn't know what to do with
it.In India, he sweated through endless youth rallies only
to kneel and pray with the converts.One was an Indian actress
... "Reverence for God gives a man a deep strength; his
children have a place of refuge and security" (Proverbs
14:26).
NEVER
MISSED AN OPPORTUNITY:
He lost his passport in Jakarta, his suitcase in Tokyo and
his addresses in Delhi, and his pants at Mt. Isa, but he
never lost his guitar, or his sense of humour. These
zany events added to his wardrobe when he had to outfit
himself each time. He missed his plane in Denpassar,
missed a meeting in Singapore and missed the boat in Manila.
But he never missed a time to witness for his Saviour. Never
... He was transparent ...When a wizened old tiny Indonesian
grandmother delivered a heavy Balinese carving to him balanced
on her head, before he left to fly home, he was so touched
at her frailty, he picked them both up and carried them
into the terminal surrounded by gales of laughter all around.
He'd made another friend ...
He caught
a thief stealing from a missionary on the street in Jakarta
and gave his money back; he caught a crook with a bad deal
in Korea, but he was caught with others by slick business
deal in Java, but he never let a bad transaction make him
sour. It was always a step up to greater trust and deeper
love for the body of Christ."We are pressed on every
side by troubles, but not crushed and broken. We are
perplexed because we don't know why things happen as they
do, but we don't give up and quit. We are hunted down but
God never abandons us. We get knocked down but we
get up again and keep going" (II Corinthians
10:2)
WHAT
WAS HIS ESSENCE?
These few events only tell a little of what Richie did.
Nothing tells ho he was! What made him the man he was? What
was his essence?
Seeing
him as a Christian man, everyone knew that the Spirit of
God rested upon him in a perfectly normal and natural manner.
He never returned to the old life again. The one thing you
can say is that Richie knew what and Who he believed in.
When
I was so ill with a virulent stomach bug and roaring temperature
in the Timor meetings, back in the '80's, Richie would not
hear of canceling the meetings. Don't let the people down,
they've been waiting all day; so he held me up to play for
his singing, then prop me to the pulpit so I could preach.
It went on day and night. Hundreds were saved. The reason
I know all this as he told me. I have no memory of it at
all.
No,
he was not a theologian, but he had his trusty Bible with
him everywhere, and when it came to Gospel truth, he knew
it inside out, personally. John Robinson taught him well
in the early days. Noone Street was a boot camp to prepare
the troops.
Nothing
anyone could throw at him weakened his basic faith in God,
and his love for Jesus Christ and the people. A stranger
was a friend he'd not met yet, because that's how Jesus
was. That's what shone through. He'd say, "Hey, that
fellow knows a lot about the Gospel-but isn't it a pity
he's so-dull!"
He wanted
to display flags and buntings and banners for the Gospel.
Bring on the band. Richie may have been miscast, or even
misunderstood, but was never dull. He'd whisper 'the world
has many religions, but only one Gospel!' He often quoted
what Jesus said: "Let your light so shine before men
...." Be a showoff for Jesus.
He was
often called God's Clown. He knew that the jester in the
King's Court in Medieval times was a man of wisdom. He not
only made the King laugh at his dilemmas, but he was the
wisest in the kingdom, as the King often confided in him,
because counsellors often failed. If Richie was thought
to be the clown or a jester, it was for Jesus' sake, alone.
He saw the whole picture. He was so humbled by people's
response to him, that he'd rather be a fool for Jesus, than
a genius for the system of the world. "Who dares accuse
us whom God has chosen for his own? Will God? No! He is
the one who has forgiven us and given us right standing
with himself" (Romans 8:33).
FIERCELY
PATRIOTIC:
His Australian-ness shone brightly. Optimistic for his beloved
Carlton Football Club, even when low on the ladder. Patriotism
drew tears to his eyes. He loved the outback, the people,
swaggies, OP shops, hoarding, "Waltzing Matilda,"
Southern-Cross in the outback night, jokes, biros, Melbourne,
gadgets-the more useless the better; any bed for a nights
sleep, and Holdens, Meat Pies and Kangaroos. And more than
anything, people. He never visited Canada or the USA, and
didn't consider they would need him. Yet he studied Charlie
Chaplin, Marx Brothers and Laurel and Hardy and Barnum &
Bailey Circus. His favourite western song was "Australia,
Land of my Dreams." Next were the Gospel Songs: "Just
As I Am," "The Old Rugged Cross," and "Face
to Face With Christ My Saviour," which were sung at
his memorial, November 17, 1999.
REMARKABLE
LIFE:
The astonishing thing about all this is that Richie's birth
mother was Margaret Everingham, who in 1928 was a single
mum and unable to support him. He became a Ward of the State
and before two was fostered by Doris and Henry Gunston.
They subsequently adopted him.
In the
same house lived one the Gunston's daughters, Dorrie who
was married to Stan Briggs, a showman from a circus dynasty
who operated carnivals at many of the agricultural shows
around the country. So Richie gravitated into the travelling
show business to which he was suited given his characteristics
and temperament. It gave him a natural outlet for his humour,
which he carried with him for the rest of his days.
Elva
McLean at the Noone Street Mission in Clifton Hill in Melbourne
attracted him into her Youth Group, and that's where he
was converted at age sixteen. Through the friendship of
the McLean family and under the preaching of the Rev. Gilbert
McLaren, Richie committed his life to Jesus Christ. Hearing
of Jesus' love for him was so radical, he was never the
same person again.
Much
of the mission activity involved music, and after a few
basic lessons on the guitar, he used his God given talent
to develop it further and from then on he was self taught.
His special gift was Swiss yodeling. Jack Wilson clearly
recalls the Saturday night around 1951 when they went together
to the 3UZ radio studio on Bourke Street Melbourne, near
the Salvation Army Temple, where he participated in Christie's
Radio Auditions for amateur artists, compared by John McMahon.
The judged rated the talent one two or three gongs. Of course
you guessed it-Richie-three gongs! He earned a short stint
on the stage.
It was
at the Noone Street Mission he not only met his Saviour,
but he met and courted and married Joan Hall, who became
his lifelong companion and encourager, and thus begins the
story of an unforgettable man. Joan was his inspiration,
and of course, the mother of his three wonderful children,
David, Debbie and Ros. If ever a marriage was made in heaven,
Jack Wilson said, this was it. "I cannot imagine that
anyone could have been more suited than Joan as Richie's
wife. And believe me, he knew what a treasure he had!"
Quietly,
he'd say he had three families. His biological mother, whom
tracked down in later years and the Gunstons; his spiritual
family, everyone who served His Saviour too; and his own
family, Joan and his three wonderful children. His six grandchildren
delivered precious insights to Grandpa during the memorial
without the slightest dismay or regret. What they said was
wholly family and loving, and without any sense of despair.
They worshiped Richie so much they were well prepared for
his passing....
His
unsure beginnings may have been why he knew how to leave
unsaid the wrong things at the tempting moment. He joked,
but he never lampooned. He was funny, but never a wit to
embarrass others at their expense. You never felt uncomfortable
in Richie Gunston's presence. Even his critics were disarmed
by his openness. He was the happiest Christian around. "So
Christ has made us free. Now make sure that you stay free
and don't get tied up again in the chains of slavery"
(Galatians 5:1).
BACK
TO YOU:
One of Richie's life's verses was Luke 6:38 which he half
quoted in his testimony many times, but never really got
the text exactly right. "If you give, you will get.
Good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running
over. Whatever measure you use to give, large or small,
will be used to measure what is given back to you."
He meant is as a testimony of the blessings of God's Grace
in Jesus; 'pressed down, shaken together and running over;'
but he conveniently overlooked how actually he met the
requirements to avail himself of those blessings ... 'if
you give you will get!'
If you
had to decide what was Richie's motto, what would you say?
Through all the zany days and all the hype, all the adventures,
all the serious and solid stuff, what was Richie's motto?
We think it could have been something like this:
"If
you haven't failed lately, you haven't lived risky enough!"
"Last
of all I want to remind you that your strength must come
from the Lord's mighty power within you" (Ephesians
6:10).
"No
one can predict to what heights you can soar. Even you will
not know until you spread your wings."
Richie
lived on the cutting edge. If you didn't understand that,
you'd never grasp the essence of the real man.
Outback
Patrol friends send their affectionate love to Joan, David,
Debbie and Ros, their spouses and his six grandchildren.
He is not here, but he is larger than life itself. The instrument
is silent, but the melody lingers on ....
G'bye,
mate. Won't be the same around here without you ... and
it's likely, heaven'll never be quite the same with you
there, either ....
Opportunity down under
Home Page