Churches
to reach out
at Pan Am Games
Pan
Am missionaries end up in
Manitoba rather than Mexico
By ChristianWeek staff
 COURTESY OF MIKE AND JANET CHANDLER An answer to prayer: Christianoutreach coordinators Mike and Janet Chandler. |
WINNIPEG–Given
a choice between Mexico and Manitoba, many
warm-blooded Americans would choose the warmer
option. And so did Mike and Janet Chandler, appointed last summer as sports missionaries by the Southern Baptist International Mission Board. Their assignment was to prepare for the 2003 Pan American Games, scheduled for Guadalajara. But in December they found out the games would be in Dominican Republic, not Mexico, and the Southern Baptists already had a sports missionary there. A month later, in mid-January, the Chandler family, including three children, moved from Texas to Winnipeg to work with the 1999 Pan Am Games. For local Christians planning ministry during the July 23-August 8 games, their arrival was an answer to prayer. Although the churches have been planning activities, they needed someone to coordinate outreach to the quarter of a million people expected, including 8,000 athletes and 2,000 media personnel. |
Reach Out 99 is planning a variety of activities, from distributing a special booklet (in cooperation with the International Bible Society) to providing chaplains.
"I just hope that we’ll use every opportunity that’s available to us to accomplish what God wants us to," says Chandler. An athletic therapist, Chandler was director of rehabilitation for a Texas health care organization for two years before his appointment. Through their church he and Janet have also been involved in discipleship training and teaching.
Outreach to kids
Janet, whose specialty is in early childhood education, will concentrate some of her time on ministry to children during the games. Under the leadership of children’s minister Debbie Neufeld of Grant Memorial Baptist Church, Reach Out 99 will include 13 "Kidz Villages" for children ages three to 10.
The free day camp has been especially designed for the children of Pan Am Games volunteers.
Besides coordinating local ministry volunteers, Mike Chandler will also be a liaison with groups coming in from out of town, such as Youth Ministries International’s Sold Out And Radical (SOAR) volunteers, who are designated as "garbage busters" by the games.
The Salvation Army is planning to provide between 40 and 45 young people to act as hosts in the athletes’ dining room at the University of Manitoba. Stan Folkins, chair of The Army’s Pan Am ministry committee, says hosting athletes "is a tremendous opportunity to be part of this." The Salvation Army will also work with Childfind Manitoba in operating lost children booths.
The Chandler family will be in Winnipeg for at least two years, allowing them to follow up ministry begun before the games and to help local churches establish ongoing sports ministries.
Chandler is looking forward to his time here. The children have settled into school, and El Ni–o seems to have stayed longer than predicted. "The weather is not as bad as we expected," says the new Manitoba resident.