As millions of people from all over the world gathered in Italy for the Winter Olympics these past two weeks, a small group of NOBTS alumni and friends were leading the International Mission Board’s evangelism efforts at the games. 

The IMB’s evangelism efforts at the 2026 Olympics consisted of nearly 100 volunteers and five IMB missionary couples stationed in Italy who helped lead the volunteer teams.  

Of those missionary couples, four of them are either NOBTS alumni or have taken classes at the seminary. The remaining couple will be enrolling at NOBTS this fall with plans to return to the mission field after graduation.  

The evangelism efforts were led by Kip and Janet Dwyer*, multi-time graduates from NOBTS who have been serving with the IMB in Italy for more than seven years. The Dwyers live just a 40-minute train ride from where a large portion of the Olympic events took place in Milan.  

Kip Dwyer described the time of evangelism as incredibly rewarding.  

“These evangelism efforts during the Olympics have been so incredibly helpful to our ministry here in Italy,” Dwyer said.  

“We have been waiting on this opportunity of the Olympics in Milan for years. The Olympic games became the perfect catalyst for us to minister in that area again. The evangelical churches surrounding Milan were overjoyed when we were able to connect them with new believers. I’m still getting some messages from the churches in Milan thanking us for our help the last couple of weeks.” 

Dwyer explained recruiting NOBTS alumni and friends to join their IMB team in Italy was based around both familiarity and trust. 

“We noticed there was a lot of turnover in Italy, and we wanted to start preventing that by bringing over people that we already knew and had connections with,” Dwyer said. “NOBTS happened to be one of the central places that we knew people from and how we got to see them work in ministry. 

“It’s almost a point of pride for me to have so many people from NOBTS serving with us. Bringing more folks from NOBTS over to Italy was important to us firstly because we love the school as our alma mater, but mainly because we believe NOBTS trains people for ministry overseas really well. 

“Being able to minister in Milan with our missionary units was actually easy in a way because they have been prepared and equipped well for the challenges of international ministry.”  

Part of the evangelism strategy for this year’s Olympics continued the IMB’s popular method of trading various hand-held pins to visitors at the games.  

Volunteers and IMB personnel would hand over pins to people they encountered and give a short presentation of the Gospel.  

The IMB has used this strategy for several Olympics now, and this year's Olympics brought nearly 100 different volunteers from several different states to participate in evangelism. Thousands of Gospel conversations took places and dozens of different people groups were engaged over the course of three weeks.  

One of the volunteers who came to participate in these evangelism efforts was Chris Shaffer, NOBTS chief of staff, who came with a group from his church, First Baptist Church New Orleans.  

Shaffer has known Kip and Janet for many years, and said it was amazing to see so many NOBTS alumni lead this important ministry.  

“Going on this evangelism trip was a really cool opportunity to see these NOBTS alumni and friends serving in the context that the Lord has called them to,” Shaffer said.  

“These men and women who trained and prepared at NOBTS were able to lead this really significant and successful evangelism effort. It was incredible as an NOBTS administrator to see the work that we’re doing at the seminary coming to fruition in the leadership of the IMB’s outreach efforts at this major world event.  It was a moment of confirmation that NOBTS is doing exactly what we’re supposed to be doing.” 

Shaffer shared a story about leading someone to make a decision for Christ during his time in Milan. He was able to introduce the young man to some of the IMB missionaries who then connected him with an evangelical church in Milan due to an already-existing relationship. 

“Everything that Southern Baptists desire to see happen through our cooperative efforts happened in that moment,” Shaffer said. “It was the Cooperative Program at work in the best ways possible.” 

Shaffer pointed out that three of the IMB couples in Italy have been appointed in the last few years under NOBTS President Jamie Dew and stated this story filled with connections is just one example of the seminary continuing to fulfill its mission.  

“From our founding at NOBTS, we have always emphasized mission work and taking the Gospel to the ends of the Earth,” Shaffer said. “Dr. Dew has continued this emphasis and brought fresh life into this important part of our history as a seminary. We want to play a major part in the preparation of men and women to serve as Southern Baptist missionaries.  

“As our slogan states, we want to help people prepare here to serve anywhere, even at the Olympics.” 

*Names changed for security purposes