Olympic Mission & Eric the Eel

If you didn't notice, the Olympics are taking place right now in London!  Okay, you probably noticed. For some weird reason my brain keeps wanting to compare the Olympics to a missions conference! So for no other reason than to get it out of my head here goes:

1. Like the Olympics, a missions conference brings people together from obscure parts of the world.
2. Like the Olympics, a missions conference is often used to celebrate triumph and highlight causes.
3. Like the Olympics, a missions conference seems to create sudden expertise in cultures (events) we knew nothing about 10 minutes ago. (A quote from a friends facebook feed... "The woman swimmer in lane 7 during the breaststroke so looked like she was not swimming correctly. She wasn't coming out of the water as much as the others... hmmmm")  "And yes, the churches in Botswana could have a lot of their problems fixed if they would appoint elders.... or something... maybe... I guess."
4. Like the Olympics, a missions conference is fascinating to attend with lots of stories and insights into things you'd never think of otherwise.
5. Like the Olympics, educated commentators (veteran missionaries) are essential guides to gain deeper insight into the issues being presented.
6. Like the Olympics, a missions conference often has an element of competition to it as diverse ministries and mission fields seek support from a finite pool of resources.
7. Like the Olympics, a missions conference will always reveal obscure ministries (events) that you'd never considered before, but they are incredibly important to those involved with them.
8. Like the Olympics, a missions conference seeks to promote peace around the world. The Olympics promote the values of: respect, excellence, and friendship as a pathway to peace. Christian missionaries also promote a set of values with the goal of creating peace with God and neighbour.

As you can see, I'm two short of a Top 10 list, so please feel free to leave a comment and help me out.

Okay, I know this post is a bit lame, so since #8 talks about Olympic values & #1 mentions obscure countries, I thought I'd share the highlight of the Sydney Olympics: Eric the Eel. The commentators are classic Australian comedians Roy & H.G..

Youtube won't let me embed the video, so click HERE!   Eric is now the coach of the Equatorial Guinea national swim team!!

And here's a similar story about the London Games with a rower from Niger who's only been rowing three months!! He finished 90+ seconds behind the winner!