Fewer mission groups working at Olympics

Greece (MNN) — Greece is a country quite different than Australia, the site of the last summer Olympics. This year’s Olympics event is being hosted by a country where there are fewer evangelical churches in which ministries can launch ministry.

International Bible Society is printing special outreach literature for the event. IBS’ Director of Outreach Sues Hyde says, “There are not nearly the same percentages of evangelicals in Greece who are interested in seeing ministry happen. As a result there’s not nearly the same kind of infrastructure on the ground to do all the preparation leading up to massive evangelism there.”

But, that’s not the only problem. “I think the whole world we live in today is different than it was in 2000. And, the threat of the terrorist possibilities in Greece may have frightened some people off. There are far fewer teams going over on short term teams to do actual ministry on the ground than there were in Sydney,” she says.

That doesn’t mean they’re not doing something. “We have worked with Greeks for Christ and produced a Greek/English New Testament,” says Hyde, “they have prepared 35,000 of those. Then, we’ve also prepared a Gospel of Mark that we have entitled, ‘One More Powerful’ which is specifically designed for Olympic outreach.”

While the Olympics are taking place in Greece, it really impacts the whole world. Hyde says, “People here in the U-S will know what’s happening every day with the Olympics.” She says this is a great opportunity to use it as a way talk about Christian athletes and use their material in evangelistic outreach.

Go to their web site IBS.org to find out how to get ‘One More Powerful’.