February 18, 2002
Czech fan leaves Olympics with 'More Than Gold'
___By Ferrell Foster
___Texas Baptist Communications
___PARK CITY, Utah--Sylvia Jordan went to the Winter Olympics hoping to share Christ with children. On the first Saturday night, she found herself posted outside a beer tent where few moms with children ventured.
___Restrictions in Park City prevented Christians from sharing their faith unless someone asked, Jordan said. Before the evening ended, she had been asked, and a man from across the ocean heard about Jesus Christ and prayed to become a Christian.
___Jordan, a memberof Paramount Baptist Church in Amarillo, was part of a 17-person ministry team organized by Texas Woman's Missionary Union to work as part of Global Outreach 2002 at the games in and around Salt Lake City. The Texans went before the Olympics began and returned home Tuesday, Feb. 12.
SYLVIA JOHNSON (in cap) and 16 other Texas Baptists shared their Christian faith at the Winter Olympics.
___"It was very cold," Jordan said of her night outside the beer tent. Few people of any age came by her "warming fire." She was bored. She prayed. She counted the hours until she could leave her spot.
___A giant outdoor television screen displayed a hockey game. In the midst of her misery, she noticed a young man in misery of his own. His home country hockey team, the Czech Republic, was losing.
___"This young man was very upset because his team wasn't doing well. He was talking to the screen," said Jordan, who with her husband, Bob, are Mission Service Corps consultants for Amarillo Baptist Association.
___After the game, Jordan told the Czech man she was sorry his team lost, and they began to talk.
___The Czech man asked about the colorful "More Than Gold" emblem on her coat and hat. Then he asked if she were a Christian. That's was all she needed; Park City restrictions didn't prohibit answering a direct question about faith.
___Jordan told him how he could have a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. They read from Scripture. Finally, the man used his own words, in English, to pray to receive Christ into his life.
___The man then asked for three more gospel tracts to take home to Europe to give his parents and siblings.
___"I told him that was the sign of a true believer," Jordan said, because he wanted to tell others what he had experienced. "We hugged, and he left."
___The trip, for Jordan, was "the culmination of months of prayer," not only by herself, but also by eight prayer partners, plus Girls in Action groups and various churches. "Everyone who prayed had a part in that one salvation."
___Global Outreach 2002 is made up of churches in the Utah-Idaho Southern Baptist Convention. The group partnered with the SBC North American Mission Board, the SBC International Mission Board, the Georgia Baptist Convention and other state conventions and evangelicals.
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