Three teams of Olympic volunteers from South Carolina met in Columbia on Saturday, September 26, to prepare for the upcoming games in Vancouver. After an overview of the ministry opportunities in the Vancouver area, we looked at creative ministry ideas that teams can use such as face painting, ballooning, and the ever popular pin trading that is always a hit at the Olympics. The importance of building relationships with the people we meet was also stressed. Interacting with and responding to people with respect goes a long way.
In other Olympic news:
While we know the locations of the next three Olympics, (Vancouver 2010, London 2012, Sochi 2014) the Summer Games of 2016 are yet to be decided and that is cause for excitement because our very own US city of Chicago, Illinois is one of four finalists (Madrid, Spain, Tokyo, Japan, and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil are the others) in the bid process. There is a large delegation going to Copenhagen this week to lobby for votes from IOC members. Landing the 2016 Olympics would be a huge accomplishment for the United States and would open up limitless opportunities for Olympic ministry. If Chicago secures the bid, it will be an unprecedented fifth time the United Sates has hosted the Summer Olympics and ninth time overall (four Winter Olympics). The announcement of the winning host city will take place this week! Regardless of location though, be in prayer for what God wants to do with Olympic ministry. No matter where the games are, we still have the opportunity to tell people about something that is worth far more than gold, and that is a relationship with Jesus.
