Austin was born into a dysfunctional home with a violent father, an abused mother and 12 siblings!  He was regularly beaten by his father, bullied by his elder siblings and at the age of 8 years stood up to his father to protect his mother from his father’s drunken anger.

At the age of 16 Austin had been frog-marched from his family home by local police, had been leading a violent youth gang, working for two years, was living independently and became a Christian.  He was greatly influenced by Ellen White’s book, the Great Controversy.  

God lead him to Avondale Missionary College and from there Austin graduated, met and married Mavis Wade his faithful and hardworking wife of many years, worked as a Literature Evangelist, and became one of Australia’s and New Zealand’s most successful evangelists of all time.

In the Foreword to the book pastor Allan Lindsay says – 

I was privileged to work with Austin in the two evangelistic campaigns he conducted in Christchurch  …… .  They gave me many opportunities to observe how he related to the conference, the pastors, the church members and his team, resolving issues with vision and integrity.  Austin treated others with respect and empathy, relating easily to people from all walks of life, and they respected and liked him.  

Tragically, Austin’s strong defense of faith, when he believed that Faith was being undermined and opposed, reached its climax in the 1980s and 1990s, when the teachings of Desmond Ford were causing some amongst the Church leadership and laity to question doctrines that lay at the heart of the message of the three angels.  These were foundational to the Adventist Message and clearly affirmed by the writings of Ellen White.