Athens Revisited: The Sequel

One ministry report (from Judy) spawned yet another personal report from an onsite worker for me to add to the blog as a semi-permanent record...thanks Ray! (Sorry about the editing.)

This is a long collection of stories but gives a good idea of what was going on...multiply this report by 50 to get an idea of AIA activity alone...and there were many other Christians working just as hard in this unique harvest field!

"From the moment I boarded the airplane to fly to Athens, I had a sense that God was divinely directing my steps. One my first flight, I met a stewardess who was reading the book, "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" which led to a great discussion about the "DaVinci Code" heresies. We ended up having a long discussion on science and faith after which she said that she had a church background, but was "starting life over looking for the spiritual." She then introduced me to another passenger who was reading the same book. He turned out to be the husband on one of the women on USA Women's Soccer match. We had a great discussion about the spiritual dimension of sports (and parenting!)...

Then, in London, getting ready to board the next plane, an entire Caribbean Island Olympic team came into the lounge and I met one of the boxers. He said, "In my training, I must prepare mentally, physically, and spiritually!" He was looking for someplace to worship in the Olympic Village and took my business card with one of the AIA chaplain's info on it...plus an athletic gospel tract that I had in my bag.

In our first day of "scouting out" various Olympic venues, we discovered that you needed to buy tickets to get in at all, so we purchased tickets to the gymnastics practice session. There, through a series of events, we were able to give Jesus DVDs to the parents of an Olympian, an Eastern European gymnast, and the sister of two women on a Western European Sailing Team.

On the second day of scouting, we had the assignment of going to the Acropolis where we met several officials from various National Olympic Committees. Two of them from Caribbean Island teams were glad to receive DVDs and asked that we contact them in the future. We also met a European Photographer who was personal friends with two Track athletes, so we gave him two DVDs. Then, on the Metro, we met two ladies who were girlfriends of guys on the Canadian Baseball team and they took DVDs to give to the players.

The Metro continued to be a "divine appointment" place as we met a girl on one of the fencing teams. She told us that she and her three other teammates always tried to find a Church to go to where ever they competed and she was happy to accept DVDs for all of them.

At the bicycle road race on the first day of competition, we handed DVDs to a former Olympian in the 5000m who had an Achilles heel injury, an American coaching basketball for another country, a man who knew three or four of the cyclists from his country, a Physio Therapist from one of the Men's Soccer teams, a sports doctor from an Asian country who worked with Olympians in various sports, and two DVDs to a European Swimming Delegation leader.

Getting free tickets to the Women's Gymnastics preliminaries allowed us to give five DVDs to a team manager from Africa who was just watching, DVDs to two Asian male gymnasts, five DVDs to members of a European Gymnastics team, and two DVDs to a swim coach and a masseur from another European team.

The Metro again proved to be a divine meeting place as we met the club team manager for a swimmer from Europe in the breastroke whom we later found out may be a Christian, and a swim coach from the same country. We gave DVDs to each of them and one for the athlete. Later that evening, on the way to the US Basketball teams defeat against Puerto Rico, we gave Greek Four Laws to two girls who wanted to go to Hollywood when they found out I was from Los Angeles, and I was able to give a DVD to a woman on the French NOC who appeared to be from an African country.

It seemed that every step our feet took was blessed. One the day that we had a radio correspondent with us, we were able to give "Just Believe It" CDs to a Russian Army officer who had been stationed with the UN Mission in Kosovo, and a former US Olympian from 1980. We met two Australian baseball players on their Olympic team who also played in the Minor League systems here in the US. We were able to get their responses to the question, "What has motivated you to achieve this level of competition", on tape, as well as our presentation of seven DVDs for them and their teammates. Later that same day, we gave DVDs to a Eurpoean lightweight boxer, an Asian archery coach whose star athlete won a medal, and a women swimmer who needed directions in the Metro station.

Even on our day off, taking a ferry to the island of Aginas, God had some divine appointments for us. I was able to share some key biblical thoughts a lady from the Philippines who had won accommodations and tickets in Athens. She had been a Sunday School director in the Philippines but had gotten off the track. She had recently prayed, "God if you want me, come and get me." I was the third person to talk to her about spiritual things in the last two months! In addition, on the trip back to the mainland we made friends with two Greek guys who hardly spoke English, but were very enthusiastic about American girls and the USA vs. Greece basketball game on the TV. We gave them Greek (gospel booklet) to read, and they eagerly looked them over. Next, we met a woman from a European Gymnastics team who had not qualified for the Olympics, but was on track for the Beijing 2008 Games. She, her mom, and sister, were very friendly and gladly accepted a DVD as we docked.

During the trip, Vital, our staff member from an African country, confided in me that this had been his first trip outside of Africa. He had never been on a ship as big as the Ferry, nor had he ever swam in salt water! Standing on the end of the harbor's peninsula under the light pole, he exclaimed, "I am from a poor family in a poor country, and here I am in Europe on a Greek island at the Olympics! God is GREAT." Shouting out into the crashing surf. The next day, we were invited into the Olympic Village to meet with the delegation from his country. He was able to introduce himself and explain our vision to the head woman of the delegation, their track coach, and the doctor of the team. He was able to meet each of his country's Olympians establishing himself as a spiritual resource for years to come."

Great report...glory to God!