While the world was captivated by the Olympics, the Living Waters team saw an opportunity to share the gospel. Despite the controversy surrounding the event, particularly the mocking portrayal of The Last Supper in the opening ceremony amongst other things, E.Z., Mark, and Oscar focused on evangelism. Thousands joined in handing out tracts, seizing the moment when the world gathered in one place.
The French Olympic organizers claimed to celebrate unity, diversity, and neutrality, yet their actions, like banning the hijab, mocking Christianity, and injecting the LGBT agenda, contradicted this message. This reflects a broader issue: mankind’s attempts to create a utopia on earth always fail when God is excluded. True unity and a world without discrimination cannot exist without God at the center.
Ray observed the blasphemy in Paris from the United States, noting the hypocrisy in how neutrality was claimed while promoting specific agendas, such as homosexuality, without anyone speaking out. This fear of standing against popular opinions highlights an important value that is hard to put into practice. When we fear God, we don’t need to fear man. The double standard is clear—if a church mocked the LGBT community, it would be labeled hatred. This raises questions about the true meaning of tolerance. Genuine tolerance, as a gift from God, allows for disagreement while respecting the image of God in every person. However, in today’s world, tolerance is often confused with acceptance and celebration, where disagreement is not allowed.
A video produced by Mark’s sons in Paris garnered millions of views, showing the incredible reach of the gospel message. The team’s like-mindedness and spontaneity in sharing the gospel demonstrated their unity, a gift from God. Despite the overwhelming support for the controversial Last Supper performance, some people were open to discussing the hypocrisy it represented, showing that even in a world desensitized to numbers, individual hearts can still be reached. The guys share some of their personal experiences with the outreach.
As Christians, we must capitalize on current events to share the gospel, responding not with outrage but with truth and love. The world expects Christians to be offended and outraged, but our response should be marked by righteous indignation, which stems from love for the lost, not hate. We must be humble, advocating for beauty and goodness because we serve the God of truth. Even when evil seems to prevail, we trust that God has a plan, and the gospel will not return void.