Sharon Tidd is the Vancouver / Whistler 2010 Olympic outreach co-ordinator for The Salvation Army British Columbia Division. In this role, she serves as the Army's liaison with the More Than Gold network. She speaks with Melissa Walter about this Olympics outreach initiative.

What is More Than Gold?
More Than Gold is a network of Christian denominations and agencies involved in Olympics outreach. With each set of Games, different churches and groups in the host country join together under the name of More Than Gold to share God's love with the world. The network for the Vancouver 2010 Olympics has 15 denominations involved, including The Salvation Army. More Than Gold's outreach falls under four major categories: creative and performing arts, hospitality services, social initiatives and sports-related events.

What will The Salvation Army be doing leading up to and during the Olympics?
The Salvation Army's overall goal is to use every opportunity we can find to reach out, to serve and to share the gospel. To do this, we will be involved in all of More Than Gold's types of outreach. Leading up to the Games, Salvation Army churches along the path of the Olympic torch route hope to mobilize their canteens to help with the torch relay celebrations, and to lend support with whatever their communities are planning—festivals, performing artists, sports camps. Aside from the torch relay, Salvationists can help prepare for the Games in other ways, such as making care kits for the homeless and knitting special scarves to be distributed during the Games.

During the Olympics, we're encouraging churches involved in the torch relay celebrations to continue the same kinds of outreach: canteen service, sports camps, concerts and arts performances. That way, they'll have a follow-up connection with the people they connect with during the torch relay. In Vancouver, the Army will be deploying our canteens and offering refreshment services. We will also mobilize mission teams from Canada and the rest of the world. We expect 10-12 teams to come with The Salvation Army to the Games, and across the More Than Gold network we'll have about 3,000 workers.

Why is it important to work alongside the More Than Gold network?
We're trying to reach out to our neighbours and to the world. Matthew 8:28 says that we are to take the gospel to the nations, so if God is bringing the whole world here, we need to take advantage of that. When opportunities come to present the gospel, we'll make use of those, but sometimes we will simply serve a cup of cold water or hot coffee as an extension of God's love. It's also a way to show our community that we care and want to support them. Many of these communities have been hit with economic issues, so they need a bit of hope.

If we really want the world to see the love of God, we have to work in unity. As people come to a warming station, they'll see a Salvation Army canteen, but as they talk to the workers, they'll discover that a Baptist, a Pentecostal and a Salvationist are all here working together. To see that we're breaking down those denominational barriers will be a powerful sign of God's love.

What can we do after the Games to continue the outreach?
Many of the visitors will be from around the globe, so it will be difficult. The mission teams will track the conversations and commitments that are made, and if a person who is curious about Christianity happens to be from abroad, we'll give them information on Alpha programs, and also a card to access online resources and contacts to other Christians in their country. Of course, if churches hold torch relay events, they can reach out to members of their own community and continue building on those relationships.

What would you say to Salvationists who want to get involved?
The first step is to go to your corps officer or divisional youth secretary and find out about any local plans. All it takes is one person to get passionate about it, and something can happen. To learn more, go to Salvationist.ca/action-support/more-than-gold.