While we’ve watched the Olympic excitement from our homes in Ohio, seven Logan County residents have been on the ground in Paris, reaching out to people from around the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The group is part of a Sports Event Evangelism (SEE) team that arrived in France on Monday, July 29, for a 10-day missions trip.
“It’s been an eye-opening experience, seeing so many people from all over the world in one place at the same time,” Tammy Brewer, who teaches sixth-grade language arts and Spanish at Calvary Christian School in Bellefontaine, commented.
“We have been encouraged to see them as individuals who might never have heard about what God can do in their lives.”
The other Logan County residents on this trip are Dave and Esther Tyler along with Chris and Jaci Miller and their daughters, Malia and Abby. The Tyler’s twin sons, Jonathan and Andrew, who now live in Colorado Springs, Colo., are also part of the team.
Dave and Esther both work for the Logan County Board of Elections. Chris is a department head at Honda while his wife, Jaci, serves as church secretary for Grace Chapel. The Millers’ daughter Malia will be a junior at West Liberty-Salem High School this fall while her sister Abby heads to Cedarville University to study nursing.
As for the Tyler boys, Andrew works as an Amazon warehouse associate and Jonathan owns a junk-hauling business.
Being in the midst of such an international event has given the group a unique perspective on evangelism. As of Monday, Aug. 5, the team had interacted with people from over 122 countries. Brewer alone has talked with individuals from at least 15, including one notable interaction.
“I got interviewed by a reporter from CNN Czech TV. Afterward, I was able to give her one of our books,” Brewer said.
SEE has been ministering to people at summer Olympics and the FIFA World Cup since the 1996 Atlanta games. This year’s 65-member team comes from all over the United States, including Alaska.
The book, titled “Celebrate the Victory!,” was written by SEE director, Matt Douglas. It starts 100 years ago at the 1924 Paris Olympics, when runner Eric Liddell hoped to win a gold medal, but not at the cost of his convictions. As a result, he chose to stand down from his event, the 100-meter race, when it was scheduled for a Sunday.
Liddell famously went on to win gold in the 400-meter event. He then spent the last 20 years of his life serving as a missionary in China. Douglas uses that story as an introduction to share the eight essential truths of the Gospel.
SEE printed 75,000 copies of the booklet for the Paris trip.
