Creation Evangelism at the Rio Olympic Games

Recently a team of 96 people from 7 different countries gathered in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to share the good news of the gospel with the millions of spectators, athletes, and Brazilians at the Rio Olympics. They returned from Brazil praising the Lord for His goodness after an incredible outreach. This team handed out “wordless bracelets” and 125,000 Olympic-themed gospel booklets in 10 languages to people from 104 countries (that’s over half of the countries in the world!). Thirty-one people, that we know of, made first-time professions of faith in Christ after receiving a gospel booklet or speaking with a team member. We praise the Lord for this update!

Among this team were Creous and Elizabeth Ramdath of Peru, partners with Answers in Genesis in spreading the message of biblical authority and creation in South and Central America. Dr. David Crandall, retired international director of AiG Worldwide (now Answers International Outreach), led the trip—his eighth Olympics—with the assistance of his wife, Diana, and daughter Stefanie Cannon, both former AiG employees. During his eight Olympic trips, over three million gospel booklets have been distributed in many languages to people from all over the world. This was Dr. Crandall’s final trip as he passed the torch to Matt Douglas, a missionary in Australia who will be planning an outreach trip to Japan in 2020 for the Olympic Summer Games in Tokyo.

Dr. Crandall said to us,

I have really enjoyed ministering at the various Olympic Games. I know that when information begins to come out about the Japan Olympic Summer Games in 2020, I will feel that I should be going.

God has always helped us put together great teams and we have records of nearly 3,000 people being saved and at least 20 churches started as a direct result.

I praise God for organizations like AiG and ABWE [Association of Baptists for World Evangelism] that have supported my ministry and helped make international outreach possible.

We also heard from Bill Peters, a longtime supporter of AiG, who was a team leader during the Olympic outreach. He said,

To see how God worked at the Rio Olympics was awesome. What touched me greatly was the number of Brazilian people who approached team members and thanked them for what we were doing for their country. That something was sharing the Gospel. Amen!

We praise the Lord for how He used these Christians to reach people from around the world with the gospel. I’ve personally been on some of these Olympic trips, and it is always exciting to see what the Lord does when His people are faithful to share the gospel.

Handing out gospel booklets and tracts can be a very effective way of striking up conversations and sharing the gospel. Together with our friends at Living Waters, we’ve developed Noah’s Ark-themed tracts that tell people about the “one Door” they must enter to be saved. With the opening of the Ark Encounter in Northern Kentucky, the Ark is a popular topic—and these tracts are eye catching. You can order these dollar-bill-sized tracts from our online store.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,
Ken

This item was written with the assistance of AiG’s research team.