From the Sydney Olympic Games to the Spirit Olympic Games

We must seize the opportunity of the Olympics as missions opportunities. People from all over the world will be going to Sydney to participate and to observe the games. There are great efforts being made by local evangelical churches to seize evangelistic opportunities during the Sydney Olympic Games which will be held in Australia from September 15 to October 1, 2000. During May 8-4, 2000, Dr. David Yonggi Cho preached at the Leadership 2000 conference in Christian City Church in Sydney. Since then, there have been aggressive efforts made to raise the level of the Olympic games to a spiritual Olympiad. Dr. Cho has strongly desired that there would be a spiritual movement in Australia and emphasized that the Olympic games should be used as great opportunities for evangelism. In 1993 the evangelical churches in Australia formed an organization called, "Quest Australia More Than Gold," with the purpose of using the Olympics as great missions opportunities. The purpose of the Quest is to spread the gospel through volunteers who will share and promote "Festival 2000 -Global March of Jesus Christ." On June 10, 2000, more than 50,000 people participated in this effort in the Olympic Stadium. Quest will be involved in prayer, accommodations, sports, with missionaries, children, youth missionaries, in creative arts, evangelistic training, and other volunteer activities as well as in the opening and closing ceremonies. The churches in Sydney have opened "The Reachout 2000" command center and plan to share the gospel to audiences in the stadium by sending thousands of Christians there. In addition, they will open 500 churches where the Olympic Games can be watched on television. The Korean churches in Australia are also actively participating. The Olympic Mission of the Sydney Korean Church Council (Chairman / Pastor Kwanpyo Hong) invited Pastor Sukkyoung Yoon of Taeneung Training Center church on February 4-6, 2000. Following this meeting, they had a second congregational meeting with Pastor John HanHum Oak (Sarang Community Church) on July 7-9, 2000. Koreans in Australia have formed cheering teams to help promote the image of a unified Korea and to promote the 2002 World Cup as Olympic teams from South and North Korea will simultaneously enter the stadium. The efforts to use the Sydney Olympics as opportunities for evangelism will provide new possibilities to heighten the spiritual movement in Australia.