Lexington man merges faith with Olympic pin trading around the world

A Lexington man is bringing new meaning to a hobby that’s become wildly popular at the Olympic Games in recent decades.

Pin trading is a cultural phenomenon at the Olympics, serving as a rite of passage of sorts for attendees. Across the globe, people bring different pins, including country flags, past Olympic Games, and personalized ones of all shapes and sizes.

And Jerry Johnson, of Lexington, has a specific aim in mind with his pins.

This year’s Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina, Italy, are Johnson’s seventh. His first was back in 1996, at the Summer Olympics in Atlanta.

He originally began pin trading because his church, Porter Memorial Baptist church, on Nicholasville Road in Lexington, started making gospel pins. He wanted to be a part of the evangelizing after being a campus minister for more than three decades.

And at this year’s Olympics, he was joined by two others from his church, Danielle Banks and Ellie Ransdell.

“We have an awesome, mission-focused church that is just wanting to share the love of Jesus with the world around us,” Banks said.

The mission has grown from when Johnson first launched it. The three attendees have been walking around Milan carrying three different pins. Each has a different phrase — “lo sono la via”, “la sono la vita”, and “lo sono la luce”, which translate to the bible verse “I am the way, the truth, and the life” in John 14:6.

They’ve already had conversations with fans from all over in the first week of these Olympics while walking through the Duomo, the main Olympic merchandise store, and wandering around the venues.

“It’s been amazing to hear the stories from all over the world — from Lithuania or Latvia or Switzerland and all of these countries I would never have access to on my own,” Banks said. “To have the opportunity to come to one place and meet people from all over the world with different faiths and different beliefs and be able to discuss. It’s just been absolutely amazing.”

The church members put a QR code on the back of each pin that goes more into the three phrases and makes it accessible for fans who don’t speak English.

“Even if there’s a language barrier, we can have them scan that [a code] on their phone,” Banks said. “It immediately pops up, and they can select their language and immediately start to engage with what we’re saying because they can see it in their own language.”

And it’s not just fans — Johnson is having meaningful conversations with athletes, too. At the start of these Olympics, he met Laila Edwards, a member of the United States women’s hockey team. The 22-year-old made history this month when she became the first Black woman to play on the U.S. Olympic hockey team.

Johnson talked with both Edwards and her mom in Milan when he ran into them in the city.

“Her story has inspired me,” he said. “So, I just talked to her about that and shared with her about the message of the pin … so that was a really cool experience.”

“I talked to the Trinidad and Tobago bobsled team, and it was so funny they were saying, ‘We’re really trying to be number one in the Caribbean,’ and I prayed with them,” Johnson said. “I think it was a God moment — it was such an encouragement both to me and to them.

The Winter Olympics run through Feb. 22, and Johnson, Banks and Ransdell’s goal remains the same until then: to exchange pins with people they meet on the street, in hopes of starting a conversation about the bible and Porter Memorial Baptist Church.