I’ve been watching as much of the Vancouver Winter Olympics as possible.  My wife and I lived in Europe for almost 30 years and had loads of winter-sports experience.  European television is full of the events making up the Winter Olympics so we feel like we’ve gone into the time-machine-tunnel and exited at an earlier time. 

The death of a young man from the Republic of Georgia competing in the luge event was especially sad.  Now the “talking heads” are speaking about the inherent danger of some events and it seems everyone knows “now” how to make everything safe enough for your grandmother to participate.  I don’t think that sort of competition would be very interesting for typical spectators.  We like danger, some of us personally, and most of us when it involves others in sports apparel on the other end of a camera.  Events involving racing down icy mountains on slick slats of carbon or hurling people down a tube of ice in vehicles engineered to slide without friction are inherently dangerous.  When I used to live and work in Austria I routinely experienced skiing events with my Austrian friends (that I suspect are born with skis attached to their feet) which endangered my life.  My friends were having a great time and thought I was just being adorable, but I was often on the edge of becoming extinct.  You might ask, “Why did you ski with such friends?”  Or, “What were you thinking?”   My initial answer would be, “I was having fun.”  Sure some moments were more “white knuckled” than fun, but 90% of each outing was fun.  I still count those Austrians as friends..not assassins. 

Some Global Mission field personnel live and work in places which are dangerous.  They can’t blend in with the locals and risk being associated with all the negatives of the western world despite the fact that they are doing much good among some of the most needy and neglected people around the world.  I continue to be humbled by their faithfulness and their joy in living dangerously in their adopted culture.  If I were to use theological language, I’d refer to their presence as being “incarnational”, but I think I’ll stick to sports analogy and call them “world class.”