Encouragement

OK, let's get to some of today's highlights:

I met with a young lady from our church named Teresa this morning. Teresa says "hi" to everyone back in Lake Placid! She works for the USOC (United States Olympic Committee), and although we have both been here for 10 days, today is the first day our schedules allowed us to see each other. She is doing well in her role of helping to support the USA athletes, their families, media, coaches, etc.

Later on in the morning I met with Tim Ellsworth from BP Sports. He's writing articles on many of the Olympic athletes who are followers of Christ. Check out his articles at www.bpsports.net. We had a great chat, and then he talked with some of the mission teams who are here in Whistler doing ministry during the Games.

At about lunchtime I headed over to the Athletes Village for some important work: SHOPPING!! I got some great Olympic souvenirs for my family. I can't wait to see their faces when I get back home to deliver them. I love my family and wish they were here with me. That's probably about the only thing that could make this experience even better.

In the afternoon I spent some time with John Napier. We watched some luge on TV, chatted a bit, and played some pool. I almost beat him in 2 out of 3 in pool, but I scratched going for the eight-ball on the last game! We had a good time hanging out as always. It's great to hear about all that the Lord is doing in his life.

A worker in the village who is a Christian and who is from a country in South America stopped by the Multi-Faith Centre today. He just needed a place to be quiet and pray. The folks like him who have come from other nations to work during the Olympics are living in crowded conditions, with no peace and quiet, and are working very long hours (like the volunteers!). I prayed with him, then left him alone to spend some quiet time with the Lord.

For dinner, I ate in "heaven" -- the athlete's cafeteria. I call it "heaven" because compared to the volunteer cafeteria it seems like heaven. Maybe in heaven we will be able to eat all that we want, whatever we want, and never have to worry about gaining weight! I had dinner with Erin Pac and some of the other US athletes. A cool thing that Erin and her teammates do is intentionally sit with athletes from different nations every meal to get to know them and to be an encouragement to them. Tonight we talked with an athlete from Croatia who is in her first Olympics.

During Bible study tonight we discussed Philippians 4:5-9. It was another great Bible study.