I finally arrived at Athens, Greece, home of the 2004 Summer Olympic Games!
I would be assisting Pat at In The Bible along with YWAM (Youth With A Mission) students and leaders from around the world to help reach out to visitors and locals with the Good News! Here’s the entire group:
One of the things I LOVE about the Olympics is that the whole world comes together to celebrate sport and the human spirit. The atmosphere is so electric, and people are always there to have a good time, not to fight or cause problems. I met this team from Iraq and they were incredible people, so happy to be in Greece to cheer on their countrymen in the games. We talked and joked, and never even brought up the fact that the US war in Iraq had just started the year pervious and was still ongoing.
I was given the opportunity to use some of my training in audio production to help run sound for open-air concerts.
Some teams would be out performing dramas on the street while others would be helping local churches or performing musicically. Here we are getting ready to put on a show.
This team from Russia helped with street evangelism.
I made great friends that I’m still in contact with almost 20 years later. Here my buddy Gilbert sports his new hair cut!
We were camped out at a small preschool during the outreach. Night time worship was enjoyed when we weren’t out performing.
We also got to attend quite a few sporting events. As long as you aren’t super picky about what sports you want to see, you can catch all kinds of events very cheap or even free!
Not only did I get to meet so many cool people, share the gospel through a variety media, but I felt I was part of something larger. Here I run sound for an all-female Christian heavy metal band. We would host concerts on most nights and then local pastors would give a message and offer people to come forward to receive forgiveness of their sins through Jesus Christ who died for you so that you could have the assurance that you would live forever with Him.
With all that running around in the summer heat, we had to make sure we were keeping our clothes extra clean using Barf! 😊
I was impressed with the intricate stonework on this church entry arch.
