God's Plans

The 5th grade students at Keeseville Primary School were great to talk to this morning. I had a Skype interview with them and they asked a lot of great questions about the Olympics. It was fun telling them about what has been going on from my perspective, and telling them about some of the local North Country athletes who are in the Games. Their teacher, Mrs. Melinda Preston, is a member of our church - thanks for setting that up, Melinda.

I had another Skype interview later on in the morning, where I got to share about what the LORD is doing through the chaplaincy ministry inside the Village.

A little while later, as I drank a Venti bold black coffee - with just the right amount of sugar - I began reading Soul Cravings, one of the books the More Than Gold groups are giving away to people who are interested. The first couple of chapters were pretty good. I really liked the way the author said something like this, and I'm paraphrasing: we Christians really believe that every single person has the ability to change. We believe that God can change each person's life. They are not stuck because of their pedigree, or social status, or economic status, or anything. God can change their life, and He can change their destiny. I like that.

It was time to go meet some friends and head up to the grandstands at the Start for the four-man bobsled race. I had a long conversation with a guy named Christopher from Ohio as we sat and waited for the race to start. Beside us sat some folks from Germany, behind us some fans from the USA. The folks from the USA were the family of Steve Langton, one of the guys who slides with John. They were nice enough to give me a "Team Napier" red-white-and-blue cap and t-shirt.

The weather was SNOWY! Huge flakes of snow fell from the sky. The track crew and volunteers were working extra hard to keep the bobsled track in drive-able condition.

Unfortunately for many nations, the track proved too difficult today. Out of the 25 sleds that started the race, 7 sleds crashed either on heat 1 or heat 2, ending their dreams of a medal. Our own Team Napier was one of the sleds that crashed. All of the guys who crashed were banged up, but no one sustained major injuries (praise God). We are proud of all of the teams - they are Olympians!

The bobsled team of USA1 (driven by Steve Holcombe) sits in first place right now, hoping to earn the first USA four-man gold medal in 62 years! Canada1 (driven by Lyndon Rush) is in second place, followed by Germany1 (driven by Andre Lange). It should be an exciting conclusion tomorrow. By the way, if you didn't catch the video of Lyndon Rush sharing his testimony of his faith in Christ, you can view it HERE.

After the race, I headed over to the Multi-Faith Centre, connected with the chaplains who were there (they were all glued to the nearby TV watching the Canada/Sweden curling finals, then on to the Canada/Slovakia hockey game). We did have time during commercials to talk about some of the ways we have seen God at work during the Games, and to begin to think about ministry in Sochi, Russia in four years.

When I arrived back at the host home, I talked with everyone in the house for a while. Each person has been used by God to point people to Christ. They are seeing how they are part of His plan during these Olympics. The team from GA all served as official VANOC volunteers today at the bobsled track (called the Whistler Sliding Centre officially). They have great souvenir uniforms to bring home with them.

Today in Numbers I was reading about how God had chosen the literal land for His people to live on in the Promised Land, and how He divided it out for them. It reminded me of how God has every detail of our lives planned out. We need to seek Him, listen to Him, and obey Him. He knows the plans He has for us, for tomorrow and for the future. God knows the big details and the little details. We need to walk closely to Him so we know and obey His plan.