Ministry opportunities abound at the 28th Olympiad.

By June 9, 2004

Greece (MNN)–Greece is the smallest country to host the Olympic Games in modern times.

They are also plagued with security concerns in light of terrorism threats. Greece’s top Olympic security officials began a weeklong tour of the country aimed at sealing its porous borders ahead of the Games.

Greece is devoting $1.2 billion for security, four times the amount spent for the Sydney Games, to pay for 70,000 police and military personnel and new equipment.

A seven-nation advisory group, including the United States and several European nations, is sharing intelligence on possible strikes.

The country is in the final stage of preparations for the largest-ever Olympiad, with opening ceremonies only two months away.

Men For Missions’ Warren Hardig says they’re also wrapping up details on a major project to take place at the Games. “We have a team leaving this Thursday for Athens, Greece. It’s a(n) evangelism team, and while it’s illegal to proselytize in Greece, we’re going over to do what we can.”

However, the Christian community in Greece decided to respond to the unique opportunity of serving the spiritual needs of all the athletes and people that will be in Athens for the Olympic Games.

Hardig says they’re a part of a consortium looking ahead at the future of ministry once the Games are over. “We’re working with other ministries in Athens, Greece, before, during and after the Olympic Games. One of the things that we will be doing is handing out bottles of water. On each of the bottles, there’s a tract and they can receive a free Bible; there will be people there to talk to them about spiritual things.”

Pray for the teams as they begin their outreach in earnest this week.

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