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WEST POINT — Randall Hamer was the guest speaker at the Wednesday meeting of the West Point Lions Club and talked about the recent trip he took to Paris as part of the International Sports Chaplains’ participation in the 2024 Olympic Games.

The International Sports Chaplains (ISC) was founded some 30 years ago by former Olympic wrestler David Guinn.

“The ISC does not replace the church, but comes alongside the Bible-believing church as evangelists in the sports world to share Jesus with people where their interests are,” Guinn said. “Sports has become god in the world today. Unfortunately, more people will attend sporting events than will be in a Bible-believing church on Sunday. It should not be like that, but it is.”

A long-held tradition at the Olympic Games is the exchange of pins. International Sports Chaplains take part in this through a Jesus Pin. Since the 1988 Olympic Games, participants of ISC have seen the Lord Jesus open thousands of doors to share God’s word using this tool.

Guinn has since passed the torch to Hamer, who now directs the International Sports Chaplains while serving as pastor of the Plant City Baptist Church.

The exchange of pins at the Olympics first started with the athletes but spread to the fans who come from all over the world to see these Games. In most cases, people purchase pins and trade them. The ISC Jesus Pins are free, provided the recipient listens to the story about the pin. In the arena of the Olympic Games, these pins communicate Christ’s love as the ISC chaplains talk to people from all over the world on sharing, loving, telling and showing Jesus to people who have come to see the Games.

“Athletes from all over the world were in Paris to compete for medals,” Hamer said. “Our group was there to present the word of Jesus Christ. Everyone is looking for something. There is a hole in everyone’s heart that only God can fill. All of us have sinned. We’ve all done things we regret. God sent Jesus to die for our sins. His death gives us life.”

Giving someone a free pin, said Hamer, is a way of planting a seed. Each person who gets one has a story to tell the person they may trade that pin to.

Hamer was part of the 24-member ISC team that journeyed to Paris of the 2024 Summer Olympics, which began on July 26th and extended through August 11th. The U.S. and China tied for the most Gold medals. Each had 40. The U.S. led in total medals with 126; China was second with 91. Host country France had 16 golds and 64 total medals to finish fifth. Japan was third, Australia fourth, The Netherlands sixth and Great Britain seventh.

Hamer said the love of Jesus transcends all language barriers. While in Paris, Hamer once sat on a train next to a man from China, who was interested in the pins he had. They didn’t speak the same language, but Hamer did get across what he was doing with a smartphone that could translate English into Chinese. He gave a pin to the man, explaining the message behind it. He was deeply touched.

“There were tears in his eyes,” Hamer said. “I know God had touched his heart.”

Hamer and his group stayed in the section of Paris that’s between the famed Basilica of the Sacred Heart (Sacre-Coeur) and the Moulin Rouge. “I guess it was a little bit like being between heaven and hell,” he joked.

One member of the team came upon a group of people who were having trouble starting their car. He asked them to pause for a moment and say a prayer. They all did it together, and the green Volkswagen they were in had no trouble starting after that little prayer. Everyone went away happy.

Hamer said the Olympics aren’t the only place that’s in need of the Jesus story. There’s a need for it in our own backyard. Since returning from the trip, he’s come across people who have emptiness in their lives that having trust in Jesus can leave them filled. He said he likes telling the Jesus story to local athletes. “We have work to do here,”: he said. “I challenge people all the time to do it.”

Hamer has been to four Olympics since getting involved with ISC. “I met David in 1995, and he got me involved in the 1996 Summer Olympics that were in Atlanta,” he said. “I have been to three more Olympics since then. I was planning on going to the Tokyo Olympics in 2020 but didn’t get to go because of Covid. I didn’t expect to go to the Games that were in Brazil but got to go there.”

Hamer said that Guinn did a great job in getting this ministry under way and it was up to a new generation to keep it going.

Technology is advancing all the time. This can be a good thing in a fast-paced world. At the Paris Games, for example, lots of people they met were in a hurry and didn’t have the time to try to communicate in a language they didn’t understand. Many of these people, though, would stop to scan QR codes that were on the business cards and literature they had. This allowed them to get across the Jesus Pin story in a different way.

Hamer said he was surprised how open many Muslims he met were open to discussing their religions beliefs and the curiosity they had about Christianity. “Of about 75 Muslims I met only two or three of them would not discuss their beliefs with me at all,” he said. “Some of them told me they had a hard time believing that Christ actually died on the cross. They couldn’t understand how anything that was part of God could die. ‘God doesn’t die,’ they told me.”

Hamer is active with the Chattahoochee Valley Church Network that’s heading up a storm relief effort for areas impacted by Hurricane Helene. Donations are being accepted at Valley Sportsplex from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Cleaning kits can contain such items as a five-gallon bucket with a lid, liquid laundry detergent, liquid household cleaner, dish soap, insect repellant, scrub brushes, cleaning wipes, sponges, scouring pads, 33-gallon to 45-gallon heavy duty trash bags, dust masks, dishwashing gloves and work gloves. Hygiene kits can contain such items as hand towels, washcloths, combs, toenail clippers, bath-size soap, toothbrushes, adhesive bandages, one-gallon size Ziploc bags, toothpaste, deodorant, diapers and wipes, diaper rash cream, bottles and formula.

The West Point Lions Club will be having a chickencue on Thursday, October 24th. Plates will be available at the West Point Presbyterian Church that day from 10 a.m. till 1 p.m. EDT. For information on tickets, call Eddie Lanier at (706) 518-0674.