Clergy/Leaders’ Mail-list No. 0-191 (General: Good News!)

(1) CHRISTIANS CARRY THE TORCH

When Australian 400m gold medallist, Kathy Freeman, lit the Olympic cauldron at Stadium Australia to mark the opening of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games on 15 September, five women former Olympians had relayed the torch to her before a cheering crowd of 110,000 inside the Stadium and a worldwide TV audience of more than three billion.

Christians Betty Cuthbert and Shane Gould were two of those women.

BETTY CUTHBERT gained three gold medals for Australia in the 1956 Games. Injuries eliminated her from the 1960 Olympics. She switched to a different event, the 400 metres, for the 1964 Games and won, defying a dislocated bone in her foot.

In 1969, Betty was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. Eleven years later she publicly committed herself to Jesus Christ. Before this, she had been indifferent to God, even though from the age of eight she knew her running abilities were a gift from him.

In 1996, she told a press reporter, “We all live with faith. You have faith sitting in that (wheel) chair that it won’t collapse under you. A lot of people think born-again Christians are loopy. I don’t mind that but I wish they would take time to find out what it means.”

Betty’s favourite verse from the Bible is Isaiah 40:31 which was given to her by her grandmother just before she ran in the 1956 Olympics: “But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will be strong like eagles soaring upwards on wings: they will walk and run without getting tired.”

SHANE GOULD was a swimming star of the 1972 Olympics where she won three gold medals, a silver and a bronze.

Shane was named Australian of the Year in 1972 but retired from competition just a year later, disillusioned and in search of answers.

In 1995 and after more than 20 years of personal struggle, Shane Gould, was renewed in her Christian faith – a faith that began when she first acknowledged Christ as her Lord and Saviour at 17 years of age.

In 1997 she noted that: “While international sport gives utopian promises of reconciliation and redeeming salvation from personal and national ill, it will never be able to do that, it’s not it’s job description! God in Christ has that job and it is finished. It has already been done.

“I know that I am extremely significant to God, not because of my sporting and life skills, but because ‘He knit me together in my mother’s womb’ (Psalm 139:13-14). I know His love for me because Jesus died for me so that I would be able to freely relate to His Father.”

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(2) ‘ETERNITY’ CONTINUES ON

Part of the Olympics opening ceremony featured a light show that symbolised the Sydney Harbour Bridge on New Year’s Eve 1999. That night, the word ‘Eternity’ had been proclaimed from the famous arch to a worldwide TV audience. Once again this simple but powerful word was beamed to a watching world from the Olympic Stadium.

“It (‘Eternity’) reminds us of our place in the schema of things,” stated Australian TV Sports Commentator, Gary Wilkinson, during his Olympic Opening Ceremony commentary.

For 37 years, Arthur Stace chalked ‘Eternity’ in immaculate script on the sidewalks of Sydney and other cities, reminding Australians of their eternal destiny. A derelict and a petty criminal, Stace was converted in 1930, and took up literally the challenge of a preacher’s wish that “everyone here could go out and write the word ‘Eternity’ for everyone to see.”

[See CLM 981 – If you would like a copy, send a message to <> with the subject – Send CLM 981]

So Arthur Stace’s simple ministry, performed some 500,000 times in his lifetime, has been multiplied – maybe one billion plus on New Year’s Eve and three billion plus on 15 September!

Oh yes, and while we are thinking of these mind-boggling numbers of people watching a (seemingly!) world captivating event like an Olympics Opening Ceremony, just ponder what the word ‘Eternity’ will mean when EVERY eye will see the Lord Jesus Christ when he comes again. (Rev 1:7)

– Compiled by Ron Clough (Moderator, Clergy/Leaders’ Mail-list), including information provided by the Bible Society in Australia (Contact: Graeme Cole <>)