With less than three months to go, plans for the Vancouver Winter Olympics are well on their way. Along with athletes and coaches, city leaders and Olympic Committee staff, spectators and thousands of volunteers, will be those who are attending the Olympics to share an important message—there is something worth more than winning gold. The highest of all prizes is receiving Jesus as Savior.
I will be leading a team of volunteers to minister to those in bondage to human trafficking. Not surprisingly, several reports link international sporting events to increased human trafficking for the purpose of the sex trade. Vancouver was singled out in the U.S. State Department’s 2007 Trafficking in Persons Report as being a destination city for trafficked persons from Asia. The report also stated that a “significant number” of victims, particularly South Korean females, transit Canada before being trafficked into the United States. Undercover police investigations have revealed the use of student or visitor visas to spirit young women from Asia into the sex trade in Vancouver, and then on to other cities, including Calgary. Click here for more.
Our team will be serving from February 20 through February 28, 2010. I’ll begin to post information about the ministry from time to time. Seldom will you find a place where people come together from all over the world with a desire to interact with people from other places in the way they do at the Olympics. The team is limited to 20, and we have about 5 spaces left. Serving at the Olympics requires a heart for the gospel, a love for people, good health, flexibility, relating across cultures, and the ability to walk a lot, stand most of the time, engage people in conversation, and use your gifts and skills to minister to the needs of people. And did I mention you’ll most likely be sleeping in a church with several other people and often eating as you go?
This is my sixth Olympics ministry experience. My teams and I have enjoyed French coffee with French believers and puppet shows by Scottish Christians. We’ve toured the Blue Mountains and held a koala. We walked in the steps of the Apostle Paul and enjoyed coffee at Starbucks on the Grecian coast. We’ve been to Ephesus as well as Bucharest. We’ve had Italian coco and watched snowboarding in the Alps. These are just a few of the amazing experiences we’ve enjoyed.
But best of all, we’ve seen people come to Christ—high level officials as well as the homeless. God has worked through us to share His love. Olympics ministry is life changing for both volunteers and those whose lives the volunteers touch. Remember, only a few places are left for a few good women who will leave their comfort to see what God can do.
To learn more about the organization that organizes Christian ministries for the Olympics, visit the More than Gold website. You don’t have to stay home and watch. There is something worth more than gold for you to share. See you in Vancouver!
