Suzy Wall and Cherry Peach attended the Sochi Olympics in Russia not for the games, but to do what they enjoy most—sharing Jesus while clowning around.
The pair of clowns from Hereford have ministered at five Olympic venues—Salt Lake City, Beijing, Vancouver, London and, most recently, Sochi.
“The Russian people were just unbelievably wonderful,” said Wall, who goes by Twinkles while in her clown persona.
“They were real excited that we were there. They don’t smile a lot, and if you don’t smile at them first, you don’t get a smile at all.
“Most of the people who talked to us said they had never met an American. They would come across the restaurant, across a street—anywhere—to talk to you.”
Their trip to Sochi was much more in doubt that their previous forays to the Olympics. The organization they had worked with in the past chose not to participate, but they found another organization—Engage Sochi—through the Woman Missionary Union’s International Initiatives.
The group invited seven WMU women from across the country to join their group.
Wall’s husband, Billy, now is pastor of Avenue Baptist Church in Hereford, but for 35 years, she was a member of Frio Baptist Church in Hereford, where Peach’s husband, James, is pastor.
Their clowning experience grew out of a mission trip Frio Baptist Church took to Honduras in 2000. They traveled to Central America to repair two churches and a clinic that had been damaged by a hurricane, but while working, they noticed there was nothing for the children who lived there.
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