MXp

As the world watched a spectacular opening ceremony at the start of the Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy last week, local churches were gearing up for an outreach called "More than Gold".  OM Italy has played a leading role in bringing churches together to share the love of Christ at this major sporting event.  Chaplains will serve the athletes at every venue and in the Olympic village while teams of volunteers will reach out to visitors and local residents of Turin and the surrounding area. 

Fifteen people (from France, USA, Italy, Switzerland, Germany and Australia) will be working directly with OM Italy.  Teams will distribute food and drink, run sports clinics, hand out literature and take part in creative evangelism (including performing arts, face painting, balloon modelling and more).  Further events are also planned for the Paralympics in March.

"We hope that the interest generated by this event will get more Italians involved in sports ministry," said Martin Bateman from OM Sportslink. "There are great opportunities to reach out through sport and OM want to help Italian Christians to do this. Together with SportsLink, they hope to have a Global Action Sports training programme running in Italy in the near future.