Metro Vancouver's SkyTrain system will play a key role in the upcoming Olympic outreach. It is anticipated that public transportation will be chaotic at times during the Games. Many Olympic visitors will likely be waiting for lengthy periods of time, in cold weather. With the blessing of TransLink and VANOC, volunteers from a large number of Lower Mainland churches will be at designated stations, ready to show Christian hospitality to frustrated commuters - offering refreshments and fellowship. Photo by Atomic Taco.

By Frank Stirk

AS THE OLYMPICS are fast approaching, many Christians in B.C.'s Lower Mainland are anticipating some extraordinary opportunities.

Over in Richmond, The Fridge - a Youth For Christ (YFC) drop-in centre at Fraserview Mennonite Brethren Church - is getting ready to accommodate 50 underprivileged and 'unchurched' teens from California.

It is thanks to the generosity of two San Francisco-area doctors, who are underwriting the cost of the trip, that they - along with their sponsors - are able to come here for a week during the Olympics.

"We'll be transporting these kids to the events that they have tickets to, and having a time to build a relationship with them - and, through that process, hopefully show God's love," said Eric Enns, YFC's Richmond area director.

At the same time, the city of Richmond will be using The Fridge as a temporary community centre, while its regular facility is closed over the Olympics.

"It's kind of neat that all this stuff is coming to our place, and we'll see how it goes," said Enns. "It might be a mess - but hopefully not."

Making an impression

More than the world-class competition and the pageantry of an Olympics event, it will be the memories of such encounters with the Christians of Metro Vancouver that have the potential of making a long-lasting impression upon athletes and tourists alike.

Making a memorable impression on behalf of the city is also the goal of secular participants.

"That's really the endgame for Vancouver," said VANOC's CEO, John Furlong, to Globe and Mail columnist Gary Mason.

Furlong added: "I think Vancouverites hold in their hands an opportunity to put these Games in a special category. It's them alone who have that power."

One segment of Metro Vancouver's population will be focusing on a higher power.

For the region's Christian community - which has been praying and planning for years how they can best touch the lives of the thousands of people who will soon be arriving here - the challenge goes far beyond what others might define as hospitality.

"This is a great opportunity," said Bob Kraemer, operations director of More Than Gold, the officially recognized coordinator of Christian activity during the Olympics, "to show the radical hospitality of Christ to visitors from across the world and across the street. Not everybody is embracing that, by any means - but many are."

Commitment to serve

That spirit and commitment to serve will be felt across the Lower Mainland.

A number of churches are seizing the opportunity given More Than Gold to provide refreshments to people lined up at Skytrain stations, and at VANOC's four departure hubs for buses to Whistler and Cypress. Some, such as Cedar Grove Baptist Church in Surrey and Vancouver Chinese Alliance Church, have pledged to 'adopt' an entire station.

Rod Heppell, pastor of community life and care at Sardis Fellowship Baptist Church, is urging sister churches in the Chilliwack area to do their part. He knows of one church, Greendale Mennonite Brethren, where some 40 people had signed up as of mid-January.

"That's a pretty good response," Heppell said. "I mean, if we had 50 churches, and 40 people out of each church go and do that, it makes a big difference."

"The encouraging thing," Kraemer added, "is that between our mission team groups and the churches who are coming on board, we have about 85 percent of the shifts already spoken for. That's pretty darn good."

Friendly conversation

"We'll be serving coffee, hot chocolate and cold water, and just engaging in friendly conversation with people as they're waiting," said Sharon Tidd, Vancouver/Whistler Olympics outreach coordinator for the Salvation Army, which will provide the beverages.

"We are still looking for donations of coffee and hot chocolate, but the churches are coming through. It's amazing."

At the same time, many churches downtown are putting out the welcome mat.

Holy Rosary Cathedral and the offices of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vancouver will be offering information and assistance. First Baptist Church will house a More Than Gold information centre, as well as host creative and performing arts concerts.

Coastal Church plans to set up laptop computers for visitors needing internet access.

Other downtown area ministries are getting ready for the anticipated extra influx of people who could need more than a hot drink or directions to an Olympics venue.

"There's going to be some who just may fall through the cracks, like a temporary worker that misses an employment connection, gets stranded and can't figure out what to do. Or somebody lost or cold," said Bill Mollard, president of Union Gospel Mission.

"UGM's going to ensure that we have high levels of food stocked. As demand increases, we're prepared to add staff to our emergency shelter and to our drop-in centres."

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The Salvation Army is also making up several thousand 'care kits' for homeless and low-income individuals, that include items such as a toothbrush, toothpaste and soap - as well as 'welcome kits' for visitors.

The latter will include a pocket guide, a rain poncho, some hand-warmers and a small souvenir to remind them of their visit to Canada.

Radical hostesses

But some Downtown Eastside residents are also getting the chance to show as well as receive some radical hospitality.

Gwen McVicker, who runs Linnwood House Ministries on the Sunshine Coast, has helped train 12 women who will be serving, in her words, as "radical hostesses" in the Great Room, a round-the-clock hospitality centre on West Hastings. They have been trained to assist people in distress and to be goodwill "ambassadors" for their community.

"It's really neat how they've risen to the occasion. They're very excited about the role they're playing," said McVicker.

"Our purpose was to give them dignity and value, to be part of the community and to be a positive influence during the Olympics."

McVicker is now looking to local churches and Christian groups to help provide the food and entertainment. "We're going to play it day by day," she said.

More Than Gold working group leaders, left to right: Nicole Preston, Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada - Hospitality; Sandy Rosen, Nondenominational - Creative and Performing Arts; Brian Wahl, Seventh Day Adventist - Sports; Sharon Tidd, Salvation Army - Hospitality; Janet Campbell, Canadian National Baptist Convention - Missions Teams. Photo: Peter Biggs.

First aid & prayer

Trinity Lutheran Church in Richmond, meanwhile, has put out a call to other churches for upwards of 500 volunteers to help staff its own Olympics outreach - everyone from bakers to people with first aid training to prayer warriors.

Located directly across from the O Zone, the city's official Olympics celebration site, the church is hoping to attract several hundred people a day to an internet cafŽ and a big-screen TV that will show Olympic hockey games.

"I'm sure people have never thought, 'Gee, I could go to a church and watch a hockey game,'" said parish services director Don Hindle. "We're just inviting them in, and creating an opportunity for us to start a dialogue with them."

In fact, there are many churches planning to extend similar open-door hospitality to their communities and visitors by hosting big-screen viewing parties of some of the significant Olympic events, such as the opening ceremony and the gold medal men's hockey game.

"We're looking to offer an alternative location for families, large groups, to come together to watch the events, as opposed to just staying at home or going to the local sports bar," said Tidd, who is also More Than Gold's hospitality working group leader.

But neither are they overlooking the reality that some will be coming more in need of spiritual guidance than to cheer on the athletes.

"A lot of the churches," she said, "are looking at opening up a prayer room and having counsellors available - so anybody that comes in for those events, that needs prayer, [can] sit down with somebody [and] ask for it. Some are going to be hosting special Alpha programs during the Games."

Street festivals

Helping churches to connect with their communities and visitors over the Olympics is Fusion Canada. In the third week of February, it will be dispatching teams across Metro Vancouver, which will organize street festivals - fun stuff like face-painting, crafts, games, tug-of-wars and sack races.

"In Vancouver, we're working with 10 different churches, which has been really great," said Fusion team leader Heather Robertson. "This is part of a broader vision and ongoing strategy, to see our communities become more the way that God intended them to be."

Other Christians will be seeking to develop a more personal connection with Olympics visitors, including the families of international athletes, by renting out space in their home at an affordable rate.

When people contact More Than Gold to ask about homestay, they are referred directly to a secular, non-profit organization called Home for the Games.

Acting project manager Tracey Axelsson has no actual breakdown of the number of homestay families that are Christian. But she said her impression from visiting them is that many of them are. "It does seem that the overwhelming majority of the homes are. They're definitely more into the hospitality element of the Games."

As of one month before the start of the Olympics, Home for the Games had signed up about 200 families, with two to three more applications arriving each day.

Fighting homelessness

One requirement is that host families must agree to turn over half of the rental costs paid to them to Home for the Games, which will in turn donate it directly to local charities fighting homelessness. Participating families will be issued a tax receipt.

"They're seeking to raise a million dollars," said More Than Gold executive director Karen Reed. "We're inviting our hosts to donate the full amount."

But for all that is going on, and all the Christians who have volunteered, More Than Gold still can use more help.

"I'm sure there'll be people signing up even in the first week of the Games, for service in the second week of the Games," Kraemer said.

"That's good for us, because we have about 85 percent of our mission teams showing up in the first week of the Games and only 15 percent in the second week. So as a result, it's the second week where we really need the locals to step up to the plate and cover more - which gives them a little bit more time to plan their schedules. And they can still register late."

February 3/2010