By Dominique Stewart | BSU at the Games

Seven years ago, Marc Ira and Kellye Hooks sold their home in Middleburg, Fla., and moved to Russia with their three children.

The reason was they had a new thrust as Southern Baptist Church missionaries reaching out to people for Jesus Christ through church planting and mass evangelism.

“We had to leave our life in America,” Kellye said. “We sold everything, sold our house, gave away the cats and moved to Russia.”

Vision for Russia

Engage Sochi's core group includes Kellye and Marc Hooks and their three children along with other missionaries affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. (Photo: Dominique Stewart/BSU at the Games)
Engage Sochi's core group includes Kellye and Marc Hooks and their three children along with other missionaries affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. (Photo: Dominique Stewart/BSU at the Games)
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The move was initiated after the Marc had a vision for Sochi in 2010, three years after Russia was chosen to host the Sochi Winter Olympics.

“The Olympics is an important time in the life of a city, an opportunity to engage people not just during the Olympics, but before, during and after,” she said. “If there’s a chance to share the Gospel with people and to disciple them to help the church in some way, then it’s worth the chance.”

The Hookses are part of the Southern Baptist Convention, which claims to be the largest evangelical Christian denomination in the United States with more than 16 million members.

With the help of other Southern Baptist churches through the convention's International Mission Board, the Hooks formed Engage Sochi in 2011 and have been reaching out Baptist churches for help through donations and information kits that include a theme song "Where the Sea Meets the Snow" written by Nashville songwriter and worship leader Jeff Bourque.

The missionary group’s purpose is all about promoting faith in Jesus Christ and to evangelize the greater Sochi region.

Engaging

Engage Sochi is seeking to engage using more than 400 Southern Baptist volunteers during the Winter Olympics and the Paralympic Winter Games. In addition, native Russian-speaking volunteers from Eastern Europe and the U.S. are in Sochi neighborhoods connecting and sharing the Gospel outside the Olympic areas and venues.

“The target is Sochi. The people who live here, who work here, the church that’s here, to strengthen it, to partner with it, is really our focus,” Kellye said. “Every city deserves someone who loves it. If we are who we say we are, then every city, every person deserves the chance to know who Jesus is.”

Engage Sochi has been working in the city for three years and has partnered with Central Baptist Church in Sochi for church planting, the process of establishing a church and community.

“Our goal is to share the Gospel primarily with the people who live and work in Sochi, and then connect those people with our missionaries and others involved in local church plants,” said Marc, who is co-director of Engage Sochi and is the International Mission Board's European affinity media director. “But it is kind of like archery. That is our bulls-eye.

"There will, of course, be arrows that hit other areas of the target, and that is not a bad thing. However, you have to have something specific to aim at and so we are trying to reach the people of Sochi.”

Connecting

Engage Sochi's trading pin. (Courtesy Engage Sochi)
Engage Sochi's trading pin. (Courtesy Engage Sochi)
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The effort in the Black Sea city is distributing trading pins with Biblical verses in both English and Russian attached and is reaching out through social media on Facebook and Twitter. In addition, it often uses a men’s choir and flash mobs to interact with people. Also, Engage Sochi

“Every culture has its own identity and passion,” Kellye said. “For Russians, it’s the arts. They’re really musical (and) ... artistic. (Our) guys are professional musicians, and they just draw a crowd.”

The language barrier has had little effect on their ability to communicate, Kellye said. “You can do a lot with hand gestures and pin trading.”

Engage Sochi plans to remain active for six more years to help strengthen the local faith community, with Sochi also hosting a Formula One promotional event this summer and the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Meanwhile, the Hooks are planning to soon return to their home in Vienna, Austria.

“There was a moment when we were out and the guys were singing, drawing a crowd," Kellye said. "We saw some people we knew (and) met new people.

“There was a moment where I thought, after four years of planning this, it’s a little humbling to watch it happening.”

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