The Feeding of the 5,000,000

Jesus and the disciples had two loaves and five fish with which to feed 5,000. At the Olympics, the Beijing committee is going to need more bread and more seafood than that to feed the crowd that’s going to be in town in August.

The 2008 Summer Olympic Games open in Beijing this week, which means that even as you’re worshiping this Sunday, some 550,000 spectators from around the world are descending on the Chinese capital to take in the action at the venues. That’s not counting the seven million tickets the Chinese government has released at low cost so that its own citizens can attend the games, or the more than 11,000 athletes who will be competing, or the 16,000 journalists who will be covering the events. That’s a lot of people converging in one place, and that means that while the world will be watching the athletes, the organizers will be engaged in an even more challenging contest transporting, securing and feeding all those people.

How many? Let’s just round it off at 5,000,000. Nice round number.

And you think your last church potluck was chaotic!

Officials estimate that the Beijing Olympics will cost more than $40 billion and a big chunk of that revolves around logistics and food. For the athletes,...