|PIC1|The Montreal Olympics in 1976 coincided with a gradual movement toward affordable air travel. In essence, this meant that family members of Olympians could travel to Olympic host cities as supporters, without the need for making the huge sacrifices of previous generations. Today, it is expected that there will be hordes of families and visitors, including young travellers, arriving from overseas to any of the Olympic events. Indeed, the host cities count on the economic rewards from such an influx of people in submitting their budgets when they bid for the right to hold the Games in the first place.
"Many groups of temporarily itinerant young people, my son included, often plan to combine various sports fixtures with a tour of the region," mused M V Tronson. "Some 'grey nomads' are also following this trend, when they visit to overseas-based children and grandchildren, they plan their trip around the sporting events of their interest. It has become a huge enterprise, and the host countries now depend upon this family tourism to 'break even' financially when they build improved sporting facilities."
Australian Olympic officials have identified 'family supporters' an issue in Beijing. Australian IOC member, Kevan Gosper AC, has stated that, for the first time, there may be a 'full house' at 'every' Olympic venue. Some visitors may not get in to see their family members. Just like the Australians in 2000, the Chinese nationals want to be part of 'their' Olympic Games. Of course, like all of us, they think they should have priority over 'foreigners' to see their favourite sports.
Australians felt the same about Sydney. In Australia, the Government had a ballot in the situations where there was a 'full house'. In China, people are queuing in the sun for hours, sometimes only to hear an announcement that there are no more tickets, when they then have to decide if 'any event will do'. The passionate desire of the locals to attend has clashed with the equally passionate desire of the visitors to attend the events they have spent time, money and effort to get to.
In Australia, with our wonderful climate and social expectations that families will 'play with their kids outside', sport and family events have had a very long tradition. Kids see their parents 'having a go' and feel confident to follow. Then, as they grow, they are encouraged in their own endeavours from pre-school swimming lessons to the Christmas day cricket match to Little Athletics to the more universal situation of Mum and Dad taking 'time off' work to watch the school athletics or swimming carnival.
Moreover parents and grandparents along with baby brothers and sisters attend 'EVERY' athletics and swimming carnival, every year. This exemplifies the 'Australian family spirit'. No wonder the families want to see their youngsters compete in the Olympics, and feel affronted if they can't 'get in'!
An illustration of this family attitude is Jamie Dwyer the Kookaburra (Australian mens hockey team) Athens Gold medallist, who scored the winning goal in extra time, sums up this common attitude when he explained that his his parents put a hockey stick in his hand when he was just four years old. Dwyer said: "When you grow up in Rockhampton (Queensland) with mum and dad, your two little sisters, and your great-grandparents and grandparents living a few blocks from home, you don't just score goals for yourself."
It is to this 'family spirit' that Queensland Baptist Minister the Reverend Russell Hinds, who was a chaplain at the Seoul, Barcelona and Sydney Olympics has tapped into. He has a remarkable record of encouraging the growth of suburban Baptist churches.
Rev. Hinds most recent duplication of his previous 'church family' wonders is the 'Gold Coast Family Church', which is notably without Pentecostal associations. It began with a membership of two families ten years ago and has now grown to a congregation of 600. Once again he supervised the 'construction' of its multi-purpose building in three days, as astonishing as this sounds. This followed similar previous constructions in both Helensvale, Queensland and in Atlanta, USA.
The central motif of Rev. Hinds' philosophy over his thirty years of ministry, is catering for the way Australian families live in the present society. He has been a past President of the Baptist Union of Queensland, and in high demand as an international speaker at Christian seminars on the subject of integrating families into Church communities.
Rev. Hinds notes that national statistics can be misleading when referring to 'nuclear families'. He comments that there is a high prevalence of single people in a single household, as well as single-parent households with children. He is also distressed at those pushing anti-family barrows who ignore the numerous grand-fathers, male family members and live-in male friends who are part of 'households'. His ministry respects all family units. The 'nuclear family' can no longer be defined as a rigid group of people – maybe it never could, as in the past people lived in much larger family groups.
"Like my ministry, the Olympic spirit represents the aspirations of families. It also embodies the spirit of family life, encouraging the athletes to perform to the maximum of their abilities," Rev. Hinds explained. "What I've done is to take these ideals and to link them philosophically, and entwine them in my ministry. I have found that by linking these two aspects of 'family' into a wider framework, the Lord has touched those communities centred on 'families' in remarkable ways."