Day 4, Vancouver, B.C.

 It's Monday in Vancouver, British Columbia.

At the corner of West Cordova and Burrard Street in downtown Vancouver the seagulls fight for positions atop lamp posts, flapping and cawing at ravens, pigeons and each other.

From this intersection one sees the nations mingle with a city living its Monday morning, even though so much of its rhythms are set to the beat of this most prestigious of Vancouver events since the World Expo of 1986.

Canadians and Croatians alike mount the sidewalk from buses whose sides read Vancouver 2010. Some countries go to work today, and some are just beginning their celebration of global competition and camraderie.  

Vancouver is grand without the Olympics, its mountains rising snow capped at the ends of alleyways and vessels cutting wakes through Coal Harbor. But now a new world of expectations and anticipation turns every Skytrain stop and street corner into an intersection with possibility.

This is the Vancouver Southern Baptists enter with their mission of making the Gospel of Christ known among nations.

Yesterday, Quillian Mercer shared a More Than Gold pin with a family at events in Whistler. “They were just so excited just to get the pin. Then I gave them the card that explains it,” said Mercer, a student pastor at Bethany Baptist Church in McDonough, Georgia. “Some people just wanted to hear my accent. I never thought God would use my accent as a way to talk about Him.”

Olympic pins, hot chocolate, coffee and accents are all part of seed planting among the nations in Vancouver.

“There’s a lot more happening here than just sports events,” says Jeff Wagner, North American Mission Board resort and special ministries coordinator. Jeff sees a man with a book full of pins from many Olympics. “Where there might be hesitancy to talk to me about Jesus on any other day, sharing a pin or a cup of hot chocolate shows that we’re interested in them on a human level.”

This is day four and only the beginning as we watch God work in the lives of His people here in Vancouver!