2022 Winter Olympics

 Winter Olympics 2022 | *Beijing, China

The official theme is “together for a shared future”.
The unofficial theme is “don’t mess with us – we are creating our own reality”.
Well, maybe that is very unofficial - but it is reality.

Here in Canada, we have people upset about vaccination and mask mandates.

In China, Christians and others are worried about their lives.

Since China last hosted the Olympic Games in 2008, it has undergone a massive change: 

• it is richer, 
• more heavily armed 
• openly confrontational
• Facial recognition technology and tracking of individuals is commonplace. So much so, that many countries are telling their athletes to take a burner phone & to be very careful about what they post.
• It is illegal for anyone under the age of 18 to attend church. 
• Church youth groups are outlawed 
• Young Christians are warned not to share their faith at school; if they do, their graduation could be denied.
• It is buying up and taking over many countries in Africa. 
• It is trying to redefine political boundaries.

In the news we will see coming out of China over the next couple of weeks, what is important is what China doesn’t want us to see: 

• imprisoned pastors, 
• destroyed church buildings 
• and a complete lack of religious freedom. 

There are egregious human rights abuses and atrocities in Xinjiang – the homeland of the Turkic Uyghur people. 

Canada and other countries have implemented diplomatic boycotts of these Olympics.

I pray that every Christian will use each event and every Olympic update as a reminder to pray for our persecuted family members in China as the Scriptures instruct us to do.