Names are very important. In scripture, people were given names that indicated their character or nature, or had a prophetic significance. Abram changed his name to Abraham and Jacob's name was changed to Israel. The angel told Mary that her son was to be called Jesus... and the angel told Elizabeth to call her son John.

The name of this ministry is also significant and was not chosen because I needed something that sounded good. It was the answer to prayer. The desire was to adopt a name that was not just unique, but one that reflected the ministry style and nature.

The Lord had been speaking much in many ways over an extended period of time about His plans, reminding me of the early experiences and visions He gave me in the mid 1970 era, most of which had mountain themes. Late in 1991, He showed me a vision of a mountain that was shrouded with a thick heavy cloud. A large right hand appeared out of nowhere with the forefinger and thumb extended as if to grasp something and the other fingers curled into the palm. This hand grasped the cloud and began to lift it upwards and to the right, away from the mountain. The Lord instructed me to read Isaiah 25, which states- On this mountain the Lord of Armies will prepare for all people a feast with the best foods, a banquet with aged wines, with the best foods and the finest wines. On this mountain he will remove the veil of grief covering all people and the mask covering all nations. He will swallow up death forever. The Almighty Lord will wipe away tears from every face, and he will remove the disgrace of his people from the whole earth. The Lord has spoken. On that day {his people} will say, “This is our God; we have waited for him, and now he will save us. This is the Lord; we have waited for him. Let us rejoice and be glad because he will save us.” The Lord's power will be on this mountain (verses 6-8).

It seemed that every time I opened a bible, the first words I saw referred in some way to a mountain. God was clearly saying something and I had to make sure that it was in fact God who was directing me. Whilst I was praying about this, the Lord again spoke with instructions to read Haggai. Chapter one and verse eight says- Go up to the hill country and bring lumber and rebuild [My] house, and I will take pleasure in it and I will be glorified, says the Lord [by accepting it as done for My glory and by displaying My glory in it] (the King James Versions says- Go  up to the mountain). 

I then decided to relocate to Mount Tamborine in Queensland and a picture began to unfold. One evening, Jesus visited, reminding me of those experiences of the 1970’s and the visions flooded back. He said that it was now time for their fulfillment. Something brand new was happening and at that point, I asked what name I should call this new ministry. He replied, “Bashan Ministries”. The ministry name is therefore His choice and not mine. After researching the name, I discovered some very interesting facts.

Bashan:
Bashan is a geographical district that was part of the inheritance given by God to the half tribe of Manasseh. The region is comprised of smooth, soft earth. It is a fairly level, very fertile, grain-producing plateau of south Syria extending across the Yarmuq to the foothills of Gilead. It is largely many-peaked mountainous countryside that is rich and fertile and was renowned for its agriculture and dairying industry. Some commentators described it as “The salad bowl of Jerusalem”. It is possible that it was richly forested with great trees (see Psalm 68:15; Isaiah 2:13; Ezekiel 27:6).
 The fat bulls and cows of Bashan were proverbial (Psalm 22:12; Amos 4:1), as were rams, lambs, and goats, all of them fatlings of Bashan (Ezekiel 39:18). It features in prophecy, describing Calvary. Psalm 22 speaks of Jesus on the cross, saying, “Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round”.

It was not until after I moved to Mount Tamborine, that I discovered the similarity between the Bashan of Israel and Mount Tamborine, Australia, but we came here for a specific assignment and that assignment is completed.  For many years, Marge and I functioned in an itinerant role, traveling to the United States, Japan, India, Canada, Europe, Africa and elsewhere, with material circulated in many other nations, but always had the vision of creating a ministry center on a mountain that would be vastly different to what is often seen in Australia.
I wanted to start a new church on Mount Tamborine for a long time, but the Lord kept telling me to wait and it is hard for a preacher to be given a vision and told to wait. Over the years we laid a strong ministry foundation and cultivated relationships with prominent ministries around the world. If you look at a construction site, a lot of preparation work goes on before actual construction of the building itself commences. The site has to cleared and prepared before anything else is done, the foundations laid, services and support infrastructure made ready, often taking extensive time with no apparent development. A casual observer might see nothing but a security fence and a big hole in the ground as the foundations are prepared and the utilities and other services are brought in. Eventually a structure emerges and when finished becomes occupied.

We did that and the dream is now reality. Many years ago, the Lord said, "Robert, the day will come when people will walk through the doors of your church and into the tangible presence of God. Watch and see what I will do".

At his request, we do not hold evening services and concentrate on a Sunday morning service starting on time and finishing when he says he is finished. For this reason we start Sunday meetings at 9:30AM and close the gates at 3PM. We occasionally provide good quality, restaurant quality food and actively discourage junk foods and drinks of all kinds.

At the time of writing this, we are relocating to the Adelaide Hills of South Australia and I find that also very interesting. I am not advocating that everyone does this, but it seems that many ministries I know in the United States grew suddenly and in amazing manner only after they moved. Now that our assignment on Mount Tamborine is finished, we are moving on. Our plans also include establishing a base in the United States and building a church there. Pastoral care will be appointed to care for the people in both churches and we will share our time between the two places, thus freeing us to conduct crusades and training meetings around the world.

Our Vision:
Bashan Ministries has a global vision that extends far beyond the boundaries of a local church environment. Our vision may be summed up several ways-

• Reaching the lost: To reach the lost whenever possible, wherever possible and by every means possible.
• Healing Crusades: To conduct healing crusades throughout Australia and in other countries.
• Practical Aid: To provide practical aid and support to people in our community and beyond and to help God’s people in any way we can.
• Preparing God's People: To help God’s people prepare themselves for a massive visitation of the Holy Spirit.
• Preparing God's People: To help God’s people prepare themselves for the return of Jesus Christ.

Reaching the lost:
This is a powerful driving force within us. My personal desire is to conduct as many crusades as possible on a global scale as we can. We are already reaching into other countries, where our goal is to reach Millions of Souls and change the destinies of nations.

Healing Crusades:
All of our meetings are open to the Holy Spirit. We allow the Holy Spirit to have his way at every opportunity and witness signs, wonders and miracles, as the Lord goes with us confirming His word. I take scriptures literally, in that if God said it, that is good enough for me. As a result, we experience the tangible manifestations of the presence of God. We do not seek for the spectacular, but there is a definite marked and often tangibly evident anointing on us that the observer can see and feel physically. The Gifts of the Spirit are often evident, with remarkable accuracy, impact and effect.

Practical Aid:
Our vision is to provide practical aid and support to Christian and non Christian alike. We have a commitment to our community, to our churches and to other believers in particular.
Practical aid and support will be via many means, ranging from the growth and distribution of fresh fruit and vegetables from our own agricultural projects that are being planned, to helping others in distress. In those situations we will not be acting like a traditional charity, but will embark on Spirit-led or guided assistance. On most occasions this may be on an ad-hoc basis, although planned programs and projects will be employed.
Some of these matters are already operational.

Practical aid also extended to other ministries and churches.

Training is an inherent part of our vision. We include this in the practical aid section to help other ministers and ministries by training them in the ways of God. We do not plan on having a bible school as such as there are enough already in existence, with varying degrees of success but aim in teaching God’s people principles of faith, ways of living and ways of obtaining revelation from God for themselves. This training will be by all possible means.

Preparing God's People:
This is a two fold operation. The first is to help people get ready to receive and retain the blessings and the anointing that is upon us in these closing days. The Holy Spirit is visiting the church world wide, but many parts of the church still do not know the importance or the significance of this wonderful event and the person causing it. We have had “revivals” in the past, but this will eclipse all them and it is a new thing. It is not a revival as such, yet many areas of the church still pray for revival, because they so not know God’s timetable and agenda.

Our vision is to reveal his ways as well as his acts to God’s people. We are committed and dedicated to preparing the saints for the imminent return of Jesus and to the spreading of the Gospel in the whole world… to every tribe and nation in accordance with His great commission.

The core of this part of our vision is depicted by our motto, “Preparing the way”. We function like a modern day “John the Baptist”, who came to God’s covenant people telling them to get ready for the coming of Messiah. It is evident that a very large portion of he church is simply not ready for his second return and without getting off onto tangents and the like, our objectives are to reveal the ways of God to his people so that they will be ready. John was in fact a revivalist. He was the voice of revival speaking life into dead religion, turning people away from rules and regulations that religion binds people with, towards true emancipation that can only be found in Jesus. He did everything wrong according to the way most ministries or denominations think today! He deliberately sent his disciples away by redirecting them to Jesus. 

Part of our objective is to help the restoration of all of the five Ascension Gift Ministries to the church. According to Ephesians chapter four, they are the Apostle, the Prophet, the Evangelist, the Teacher and the Pastor. They have been provided to release the saints into the work of the ministry and come into a full knowledge of the truth. Our desire therefore is to see Christians everywhere, regardless of race, color or denomination, fully liberated and enjoying all that God has for them and thus fulfilling the great commission to preach the Gospel in every nation.

• Helping them to become rooted and grounded in the Word of God
• Helping believers receive revelation in the word of God
• Helping believers to enter into and enjoy a deep intimacy of relationship with God
• Revealing to believers that we have an amazing covenant relationship with God (a covenant relationship involves certain rights, privileges, duties and responsibilities that are binding upon both parties. This is a covenant signed, sealed and ratified by the Blood of Jesus Christ)
• Helping them to reach the place where they live victoriously
• Helping them to become proficient in the biblical principles of faith, love and righteousness
• Showing that Christians can and should exercise the levels of faith that are pleasing to God
• Showing that all of God's promises are good and available to all who will accept them
• Showing that not only are we are called to proclaim the Good news of the Gospel, but declare in every way that Jesus Christ is Lord

Global Evangelism:
God has a heart for the nations, as scriptures reveal many times (at least 336 times in the bible). The Hebrew Word is gôy, meaning nation, heathen, Gentiles and people (and God loves people).  Jesus gave commandment And He said to them, Go into all the world and preach and publish openly the good news (the Gospel) to every creature [of the whole human race]. Mark 16:15.

Global evangelism is obviously on his heart and he has placed this desire on our hearts. Global evangelism is not easy. It is plain hard work at times and is certainly not glamorous. Flying to international destinations is no light task as there are many factors to consider. Obtaining entry visas, crossing international datelines with the jet lag factor, security risks, health (particularly when entering foreign countries where hygiene is different to that at home) are examples. The food may be strange, the water may not be pure, travel to remote locations is often primitive, encountering wild animals and disease laden insects etc are things to consider and the list continues.
Sitting in a foreign airport with primitive facilities for eight to twelve whilst waiting for another aircraft is not glamorous, but it has its rewards when one sees the faces of people change as the Master touches their lives.

I am committed to global evangelism, because Jesus said that his gospel had to reach into every nation, tribe and village before he returned.We can reach these places with television and in person and my goal is just that.
I have visited places in India for example where the local people advised me that I was the first foreigner to EVER visit that region. I found it hard to believe, but from the responses by the population, it was evidently true. God has placed at least sixteen nations on my heart already and I intend to go as often as possible to each and every one of them.

Our ministry vision is to own our own aircraft. God has shown me which type and we believe that this will be provided my miraculous means. A man once offered to purchase a Partonavia aircraft for us, but I declined as this is not the aircraft God showed me. Our aircraft will be a Gufstream G650. It is a necessary ministry tool that will permit us to travel easily and quickly between our churches and other ministry locations.

We envisage a television ministry and are expanding into the internet. The recent changes to our web site presence are to prepare for theses things.
Please pray and help us in any way you can to see these things cone to their fruition. We invite you to partner with us in these ventures. 
I hope that you have been blessed and inspired by our ambitious yet realistic vision. I invite you to share with us and sow into the ministry and help us fulfil the commission.

Thank you for your time and support.

Robert.