Friday Five ~ Church Olympians

Deb @ RevGalBlogPals brings us today's Friday Five:

"With the Olympic Games in Sochi just around the corner, I started thinking about all the athletes who attend the Games and never win a medal.  The hours of practicing, sacrifice and dedication don’t get noticed by the media.  Yet, for the love of their sport, they persevere.  Then I began to reminisce about the 'Olympians' in the Church.  Perhaps you can think of faithful ones who never get up to preach, sing or read, but faithfully come, week after week, to serve.  It seems to me they deserve a medal of sorts.  So, for this week’s Friday Five, share stories or memories of those 'medalists' of the Church who have encouraged you in their faithfulness."

"The Olympic symbol, better known as the Olympic rings, consists of five intertwined rings and represents the unity of the five inhabited continents (Africa, America, Asia, Oceania, Europe), according to Wikipedia.  "The colored version of the rings — blue, yellow, black, green, and red — over a white field forms the Olympic flag.  These colors were chosen because every nation had at least one of them on its national flag."  My five church Olympians are all from one country (and one town, where I met each of them), but they are from five different churches in Chattanooga and three denominations.  hese five win gold medals for the categories beside their names.

Chuck in Nicaragua with a child he befriended

1.  Chuck Cardwell ~ driving the church bus, collecting supplies for Nicaragua all year long, and going on mission trips to Nicaragua at least once a year.

2.  Donna Carey ~ agreeing to be church treasurer, even though both her degrees are in the humanities, not numbers-related.

3.  Michael Moss ~ doing audio-visual work, such as manning the camera (as shown here) and running the sound systems.

4.  Jane Yelliott ~ beautifying the church with tile mosaics filling opposite walls of the front entrance and a painting of the church in her Sunday school class.

5.  Charles Dunlap ~ mowing the lawn, repairing whatever is broken, and generally doing whatever odd jobs are needed around the church — and the community.