- Home
- Speakers
- George Verwer
- 10 Words From Gcowe 97
10 Words From Gcowe 97
George Verwer

George Verwer (1938 - 2023). American evangelist and founder of Operation Mobilisation (OM), born in Ramsey, New Jersey, to Dutch immigrant parents. At 14, Dorothea Clapp gave him a Gospel of John and prayed for his conversion, which occurred at 16 during a 1955 Billy Graham rally in New York. As student council president, he distributed 1,000 Gospels, leading 200 classmates to faith. In 1957, while at Maryville College, he and two friends sold possessions to fund a Mexico mission trip, distributing 20,000 Spanish tracts. At Moody Bible Institute, he met Drena Knecht, marrying her in 1960; they had three children. In 1961, after smuggling Bibles into the USSR and being deported, he founded OM in Spain, growing it to 6,100 workers across 110 nations by 2003, with ships like Logos distributing 70 million Scriptures. Verwer authored books like Out of the Comfort Zone, spoke globally, and pioneered short-term missions. He led OM until 2003, then focused on special projects in England. His world-map jacket and inflatable globe symbolized his passion for unreached peoples.
Download
Topic
Sermon Summary
In this sermon, the speaker shares ten words that came to his heart while praying about his report. He emphasizes the importance of sharing the message of God in a way that provokes people to take action. The speaker expresses gratitude for the work of God around the world and urges listeners to pray for more workers in the harvest field. He also mentions a recent gathering in Pretoria, where thousands of people from 133 nations came together to make decisions and implement strategies for spreading the Gospel. The sermon concludes with a prayer for the implementation of these decisions and a reminder of the importance of reaching the unreached.
Scriptures
Sermon Transcription
Lord, we thank and praise you for what you're doing around the world. And our hearts go out as we think of this world of six billion people. And we would, in obedience to Matthew 9, we would pray specifically that you would send workers out into the harvest field and that, Lord, you'd use this little video or this little audio tape to challenge people wherever they are to be more obedient to your word in praying and giving and going. We thank you, God, for what you did there in Pretoria last week and for that three and a half to 4,000 people who came together. And as they've gone back to their individual countries, 133 nations across the globe, we pray that they'll be able to implement those things that they made decisions about. Strengthen us as we in Operation Mobilization and here on ICT and in the Special Project Ministry especially attempt to launch in a greater way Acts 13, Breakthrough 2000 and other strategies and visions that you've given us. Don't let us grow lukewarm about these things, especially as other people around the world are getting so excited at this point. We look to you and we praise you. In Jesus' name, amen. I especially would like to dedicate this report to those of you who have been praying for Chicoe or for 82,000 and also praying for ICT and Special Projects as in the last two years, this has been one of the most labor-intensive, challenging ministries that we have been involved in. I remember when Louise Bush asked me to become the co-director of a consultation for missionary executives. There has been no such consultation in my lifetime of this kind. It had been a dream that Ralph Winter had for a long time, a dream also that I had. Not that there have not been missionary executives at other events in attendance, but they have not come together to deal with the issues in a large way on an international scale that face the body of Christ. And after consultation, especially with Francois Bousslo, because the whole Chicoe Pretoria event has been built on what God has been doing in Love Southern Africa, of which OM is one of a number of the main players. And each one of these great global consultations are quite different. And there certainly isn't time tonight to go into the history, but it is exciting to see how over the past years, things like the Doulas visit to South Africa, Love South Africa, the Wellington meetings have all built up to bring this partnership between 82,000 and what God has been doing in Southern Africa, which included the 82,000 movement in South Africa. Email has been coming at a phenomenal rate, and I learned more through the email I went through in the last couple of hours than almost I learned when I was there, because this consultation was totally unique in that it was 10 consultations going on simultaneously. When I arrived, they gave me this, Dreen and I, this big book with all kinds of information about the program and also listing the various consultations. And one of the first things we had to do on the Saturday evening was go have a reception with the mayor of Pretoria. On Sunday, we were mainly involved that first Sunday in preaching at different churches, churches that were committed to this event. And then on Monday, we came together for the first plenary and then immediately into the separate consultations. I thought it would be good because I'm sure many of you are not aware of all that was happening there. And this cassette and video may go quite widely. But just hearing the titles of these 10 consultations, I think, is a challenge in itself. There was a consultation for business executives that was attended by over 500 people. And again, seldom has there been a consultation of that kind. That has led to a new network in 82,000, the Business Executives Professional Persons Network. That may not be the exact title, but that's what it's all about. Then secondly, the mission executives, especially for Africa, this included people who weren't necessarily mission executives, but very much were shakers and movers in world missions. About 550 came to that consultation, though there are many other missionary leaders who chose to go to other consultations. The biggest consultation being the African Initiative, where Howard was also involved. One of the smaller consultations was Caring for the Poor and Needy. That is also, I think, birthed a new track in 82,000. That may have a different name than that, because people going around with this badge, Poor and Needy, there was miscommunication about their personal situation. Then there was the African National Initiative. I think 1,100 approximately were involved in that. Many people saw that as the most crucial consultation as far as Africa. Then there was a consultation for training for church planting movements. It was good to see a number of former OMers involved in that, other people that I knew. Then South African local pastors, and then perhaps the most unique of all, presidents and academic deans. It looked for a while, 10 months ago, that they were going to be a very small consultation. But in the end, 200 or more presidents of colleges, academic deans came together, and believe me, something major happened in that gathering. Then there was the consultation for university students and youth leaders. That was rather small, a couple hundred. I went over there to speak. But an alternative youth event for any young people that wanted to go was going on. Bill Drake led in a prayer meeting there for a couple of hours, and 2,000 young people were there. Then there was worship and performing arts consultation. That somewhat tied in with the track that Frank Fortunato is helping to lead. Then finally, somewhat last minute, a new consultation was added for focusing on children. When the final reports were given on the final plenary day, the children report, with all those children up on the stage, certainly was one of the most exciting. In trying to enable you to pray for what happened there, I'm going to try to break down this report into 10 words that I hope you can remember. And if you're taking some notes, a little hard if you're listening on cassette driving your car, but if you're taking some notes, you may want to just write down these 10 words that came to my heart as I was really praying about this report and what I should say and how I should share it. Because sometimes it's how you share something you've just been involved in that really determines whether what you share provokes people to do something. And I share this with the hope that it will provoke you. I wish each one of you could be there. I talked to a lot of people. I talked to more people in the last week than any week this year, including OM conferences, because they just rush you, especially Africans, and they want to talk. And everyone I talked to, of course, there are negative factors. Of course, there were criticisms. But everyone that I talked to just sensed this was such a powerful time and that God was doing something unusual, especially for Africa, but not exclusively for Africa. I think we in OM need to especially in all humility, humble ourselves and acknowledge what a privilege it was to be so involved in such a conference when they can choose from the whole world who can be involved. And believe me, it was an amazing range of speakers, some of whom had only six minutes total time. And I am just humbled by the doors that were opened not just to us in OM, but many of our associates and former OMers who were involved in a very major, major way. Faith is the first word on my little list. And I want to try to keep this report brief, which as you know, is not my major gifting. Though in my major presentation to the whole congregation on the final day, I had four minutes and I stuck to my four minutes. The next morning in the big march and open air meeting, I was given 20 minutes and then asked to give an invitation to the whole audience out there in this big square to come forward and register to become a missionary. I was really under pressure to do this. I didn't really want to do it. And Francois assures me, as one of the ones who gave me this challenge, they had all the follow-up materials already. 500 people came forward and filled out forms to go. So it was a venture of faith from day one. There wasn't enough money. There wasn't huge structure. The people in South Africa had never done anything like this before. This kind of partnership with Louise Bush in 82,000, their little team out there in Colorado Springs. It was a great step, a great adventure of faith. And God heard our prayers. He brought the people in three and a half to 4,000. He brought key leaders together. Just so many things came together. So many obstacles were overcome. Almost everyone who went there paid their own air ticket. Most people had to pay their own registration and other expenses. For many from two-thirds world countries, that was quite inexpensive. And in South Africa, they raised a lot of the money to help subsidize that, including the money from the church meetings that many of us took. That leads me to the second word that just jumps to my mind as I attempt to give this report, and that's the word church. In all the big events that I've been in, including OM events, I've never seen local churches so proactive. All the venues were low budget because they were in churches. More people stayed in the homes of Christians than I've ever seen in this kind of conference. It was just exciting. The church where we had the mission executives consultation, we had to do very little. They had it organized. They had extra phones. They had transport. They gave us all the room we needed for literature. They had all the meals prepared. As a so-called co-director, I didn't really have too much to do. I had met with them many months ago. Of course, people like Francois had a little more, and I'm sure things were happening that I didn't even know about, but praise God for what he is doing in the local church in South Africa. And without exaggeration, it's one of the reasons I'm giving this report, many churches in South Africa now are pace-setting churches for world missions. And there's nothing wrong with churches in other countries and other parts of the world, including our beloved Britain, to just look a little bit at what these people are doing in regard to missions. Missions conferences, giving over Sunday morning meetings, raising money, esteeming the whole work of missions. And no wonder that South Africa, together with Korea, are the two fastest growing new sending countries in the world. They gave statistics about the number of new South African missionaries from all the different agencies just in the past few years, and it seems that it has doubled in the past few years. And I believe this is partly because the church is seeing its role. There's no country in the world where there's more excitement about the Acts 13 breakthrough strategy. This is the greatest opportunity I've ever had in the last year and a half since that vision came to really present it to a lot more people. It was featured, the leaflet, we printed a special edition for South Africa, went out widely, and I'm sure that we and the Mission Mobilization Network, whose address is on that leaflet, we're going to have a lot more work and a lot more correspondence with people who want to see that Acts 13 reality. What is that? It means have an Acts 13 prayer meeting, seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit as to what your church should specifically do in regard to sending people into missions. We had some lively contributions concerning that. Both Sundays, before and after the major consultations, were considered part of the event. And so speakers went out to those churches. On the first Sunday, I think I covered 350 kilometers for the two churches. I think Howard here went, didn't you even go by air to get where you had to go? And I think it will be a long time before we get full feedback concerning that. Let me just share what happened Sunday night. One of the largest Dutch Reformed churches in the nation, a church that I previously had to cancel as I got double booked some months ago. But they were very proactive about that. They felt this Sunday was God's timing. Just before going to the meeting again, Francois gets on the phone, says, I really think you should give a full invitation for people to go and an invitation to call them forward. That is not the normal thing in Dutch Reformed churches. But I decided to do it. However, I wanted to talk on personal revival. I wanted to talk on missions and marriage. I wanted to give my testimony. I wanted to bring in the gospel. I had one or two other things on my mind. In the last eight minutes, I shifted into the you should go, gave the invitation, and 25 people came forward to the front, including the pastor's son. This particular pastor, a very godly man, by the way, has a serious eye problem and is losing his sight. But a phenomenal church. And they sold, I guess, about two or three thousand dollars worth of books. Dollars, not rand. Fourteen, fifteen thousand rand of books just in that one evening meeting this past Sunday. That was, by the way, the church that had the mission executives' consultation. So maybe they were prepared. How exciting that was. The third word that comes to my mind is the word hospitality. I've already commented on that, but I just wanted to say personally, because maybe some in South Africa will hear this report, how it stirred my own heart to see people reaching out in hospitality across racial lines, across denominational lines. Just quite encouraging because it's always been a struggle with me why God's people across the world aren't more hospitable. We all know the story of how the conventions and they send their people in advance and get all the JWs. Maybe they changed in the last years, but get all the JWs staying in the homes, often of Christians. And of course, they come back from the meeting. They're all excited. The Christians and others have to be courteous. They have to listen to these people. And that has been a factor bringing many people into that false cult. So the hospitality on many, many levels is the only conference I ever went to where they registered to you and welcomed you before you got to customs or immigration. They were there. Just came down the escalator. You saw where you're going to get your passport. There the Jokowi people were. Within three minutes, you were registered through all that red tape, which is often such a pain in the neck in conferences. And I thank God for the way that went. The fourth word is the word partnership. I wish you could have been there and listened to Phil Butler of InterDev share with his mission executives the challenge of what God is doing in this whole area of partnership. Of course, what some of you have been involved in for years with CERV, that that is the kind of partnership they're talking about. So it's not completely new, but it's it's not been done that much. And when I was talking to Phil Butler and some others later, they just fell behind the scenes. And through ad hoc meetings, many new mission partnerships were born last week. And that's a challenge for prayer to be able to follow up. In a sense, the whole conference was a partnership as I teamed up with the leaders of the Southern Baptist to lead the mission executive consultation together with Louise Bush and, of course, people in South Africa. There are all kinds of other partnerships. Almost every one of these consultations involves some kind of partnership in funding, in prayer, in preparing the program. And it's exciting. And I believe another one of the factors that brings great rejoicing in heaven. The small group meetings that often took place that weren't even originally on the agenda are something else that were quite exciting. There were Christian leaders, major Christian leaders at this event that had known of each other's ministry for years and never once spoken face to face. And it was exciting. Perhaps our particular consultation was the one with the most excitement, as we had very strong disagreement on a number of areas. Maybe I'll touch on that later on. The fifth word that I want to mention is the word unreached. And I guess that's one of the reasons we in OM are so proactive in AD2000. With all of its messiness, with all of its complexity, and just after this consultation, Louise Bush met with those of us who are leaders or chairpersons of AD2000 task force or networks, tracks, and that in itself, just that meeting of leaders would have been worth flying to South Africa for, because a number of things were clarified. And I'm just convinced that the best three years for AD2000 are now between now and the end of the year 2000. There's very little now of the idea that in the full sense, the gospel is going to be in every people's group in the world in terms of churches that can be reached by all the people living in that population area. There is a general sense that that's not going to happen. But we want to have a church planting team in all those groups. We've also faced the reality of the large blocks of people, Hindu and Muslim people, that will not be reached through the Joshua Project. We even stated publicly that in many situations, the Joshua Project is just the beginning. It's not the end. There's no further use of the word closure in the AD2000 movement, apart from maybe some people that are not involved in the center anymore. There's just a lot more reality that will get me to another word I mentioned later on. One of the exciting things in the consultation for business executives is that we were able to get mission leaders to sign up and make a commitment to the unreached people on the list. And amazing lists have come. Tremendous amount of work. This is the list that Louise Bush and the AD2000 people provided. Global Guide to the Unreached People. You can feel free to take a look at this. And it shows who's working. It's incomplete. I'm sure parts of it can be criticized, but it's incredible. The 1,700 people's groups listed here. Information about who's working among them. And so when it came to our consultation, we had about 500 people's group where we didn't seem to have anybody much committed. And over half of those now, we've got people committed to see Ray Tomlin of Arab World Ministries get up in Louise Bush's session and share why he had ticked off all these people's groups in North Africa. The Indians had their own special meetings, which they're very gifted at. They've also produced a new book of peoples of India. And at the beginning of the consultation, it looked like there was considerable tension between what Louise Bush was trying to say and what some of the Indian people were trying to say, including our brother Joseph D'Souza, who was very active during these days. But by the final day, I went to Joseph and I went to one or two others, and it seemed to be coming together. There seemed to be, I don't actually understand how that happened, but it seemed to be there's agreement that we need this India people's guide, which is more thorough, but we can also use this other guide and somehow try to reach everybody in India with the gospel and try to, and it's going to take long past the year 2000 to see the church established in every people's and in every place. So it was exciting. And whatever problems there may be, just the fact that this movement continues to be so focused on the unreached people is quite phenomenal. Maybe some of you are aware of what we've been battling for the last 35 years. But to find a business consultation going on where the main focus is the unreached people, they were focused on other things as well, especially money, and took a huge offering there. I'm going to figure out where that's going. But their report back to the main body was very, very exciting. And some of our own friends and people were there. It would take a long time to give a report on each consultation. That's impossible right now. The sixth word is our old favorite. It's the word mobilization. It's certainly happening in South Africa. It's certainly got a great liftoff in connection with this whole body being presented with a challenge of mobilizing 200,000 new missionaries. Unlike some other situations, I found very few opposed to recruiting 200,000 new missionaries. Most of those people seem to think this isn't really enough. Of course, that includes tent makers. Last minute, we got a tape about tent making from Ruth Siemens. We got a $1,000 gift to reproduce that. We reproduced over the weekend. From the time I arrived to Monday morning, we got 1,000 of those reproduced. They went out, everybody, or at least 1,000 people in the consultation. That was just one of many cassette tapes that got distributed. The materials that were being given out, quite amazing. Just before I left, Nate Williams mentioned to me that he and Kathy Hammond both agree, without realizing it, the best book they ever read was Blake Locke's book, Knowing and Doing the Will of God, or Henry, not Blake Locke, Henry Blackabee. I've heard about this book. I knew that God was using this book, but I wasn't proactive in distributing it. In our consultation, I find out that Avery Willis is planning to give every single person in the consultation a copy of Henry Blackabee's book, Knowing and Doing the Will of God. That's the kind of material people are going back to their church, back to their mission society with. Our total book sales, as we had book tables in every consultation, 10 book tables. The story of God providing free of charge, beautiful table covers from our friends in Cape Town who has that factory making those things, is another little exciting sideline story. And there are hundreds of those kind of sideline stories. But I remember going to the Asian Congress on Evangelism 1968 and seeing a little tiny book table up in the corner and having the birth of a dream that maybe someday in these world consultations, there could be book tables that are worthy of the number of people that come. And certainly this, in many ways, was the ultimate opportunity, though, of course, Jikoa Korea was also very exciting in regard to books. They sold about $80,000 in powerful missionary and discipleship and other books, about 450,000 Rand. Believe me, it was a breakthrough. And that is going to multiply right across the 133 countries that were represented in this consultation. The seventh word is the word reality. And perhaps that's the most important thing I'd like to comment on. There were disagreements. In our consultation, we had a panel that was supposed to discuss funding God's work. And one of my many mistakes in my part in all this, and I made a few, was that I didn't get very involved in that panel. I didn't look at who was on it. And last minute, we discovered everybody was more or less saying the same thing, which was very upsetting to some other people. It was very much that we must do everything to never, ever be dependent on foreign money. Very much came out of problems in Africa, where churches had been receiving foreign money too long and didn't become indigenous. But then it became generalized, and some amazing statements were there. At that point, KP Yohanan came up to me, and he was very upset. And he said, if I had known this was going to happen, I wouldn't have even come. I hope you'll forgive me for mentioning that on this tape. But we had some good fellowship. There were some other people more close to us who also were in agreement. And I tried to talk my way through it. But as I went to bed that last night, I realized that panel, that was not good. KP Yohanan was set to speak the next day on some other subject. When he got up in front of this group, and he took on this panel, some of whom had seemingly disappeared by then, it was a momentous occasion. I cannot say that all of his statements were totally grace awakened, but his point got across. Other people were very much wanting him to say that, just to bring the balance. And he almost got a standing ovation. Certainly, there was a great sense of agreeing with him on much of what he was saying. And to summarize, it's simply this. We saw from the very first day when Paya Baba spoke, and I also spoke, that our unity was going to be in the midst of diversity. And we saw that in action. And I think a lot of people who didn't even necessarily agree, they just felt it was good that people were expressing themselves. Up to that point, there may have been the sense that people weren't really speaking out. In the evening session also that Ralph Winter gave, there was a sense that he said some things that a lot of people didn't agree with. And there was pressure then for question and answer session. So during the lunch on the last day, we had a question and answer session over the lunch. You could bring your lunch into this big room. There was Jerry Rankin, President of Southern Baptist Missions Society, myself, Ralph Winter, Patrick Johnson, and someone else. Ralph Winter again, answering a question, said some things that were interesting. And an Arab brother jumped up, known to some of us here. And I will tell you, Ralph had left the room by then for some reason. But this brother really, really tore into what dear Ralph was trying to say. And it was on this very controversial issue of contextualization in reaching Hindus and Muslims. And for the next 10 years till the Lord comes, that is going to continue to be a very hot issue among missionary leaders. Obviously, we did not resolve that issue. But we at least saw some fireworks. And many people who didn't even realize there was such an issue are quite aware of it now. It was hard. Maybe some people were hurt. We never want that. But it was reality today. Major world missions movements are not in harmony and unity. And I say, and this is one of the reasons I got involved in this, we need to at least be talking to one another. We need to be listening to one another. And we saw a lot of personal fellowship. There came times of confession. There came times of also recommitment. When I went over to the pastor's conference and spoke, I shared one of the strongest messages I've given to pastors in a long time. Pastors can be quite intimidating. And if you're in a foreign country, you want to be careful what you say. But somehow with the ethos of this conference and the way things were going, I just felt so completely free to combine the challenge against lukewarmness from revelation with a challenge to go, with a challenge about people's prayer life, tied in with the neglect of the unreached. At the end, I found myself giving an invitation for these pastors to repent and to be filled afresh with the Spirit of God and to go anywhere and do anything. And in fear and trembling, I gave the invitation and 80% of these pastors came to the altar to make a recommitment. And many of them in confession and brokenness and many new relationships were born at that time. The next morning, I spoke to the Advocate Initiative. I didn't give an invitation, but I felt a similar response there. And it certainly was a unique opportunity. There was some reconciliation going on. The business people in the final day, including people from different nationalities who don't easily do this, knelt before the whole body, a couple thousand people, and apologized and repented of their bad attitude toward missionary leaders and mission societies. And then suddenly, I was sort of encouraged to go and receive this, you know, and forgive these people. And of course, what could I do? I had to apologize in front of all these people that we sometimes, as mission leaders, do have a wrong view about business people. And sometimes we don't always have the right agenda. Just think of them for what money they might be able to give. All of this, in all of its messiness and other moments of reconciliation, just to me spoke of reality. There was brokenness. Calvary wrote in Afrikaans and English, one of the fastest-selling books in the entire event. And I believe only eternity will tell the story. The eighth word is the word fellowship. Jokoe represents a further Africanization of George Burwer. Africans are so responsive when you share your heart. And they were ganging up on me. I have invitations to more African countries than I've had, I think, in my lifetime. The Nigerians, especially, who I'd already told them I can't go to their big student event, really got ahold of me. And after praying with them, I told them I at least was open there, promising 15,000 people in Nairobi if I will come, plus business opportunities, pastor's opportunities. On every level, we had the opportunity to bring in our message about financing God's work and statements about how many workers are still waiting for finance before they can go. And I think the fact that we and others could bring that statement in brought an element of balance. It's going to do these new two-thirds world-sending countries a tremendous service to share with them some of our failures and our struggles and provide them with books like friend-raising and people-raising that we only got ahold of in the last few years. Many people would say in an event like this, the fellowship, over the coffee, over the meals, and the first evening meal, I found out so-called VIPs could have gone to a nice, warm room and had some snacks. But I just went with the multitudes, including one of my prayer partners from Iowa, and it was very cold. I thought it was going to snow any minute. And this meal was out in the open air. My dear friend Stan Vermeer, when I began to see him literally shake from the cold, I thought maybe we should quickly eat and go find some other warmer place. And we did. But the way they served thousands of people so quickly, and very good meals, impressed me. And that's where a lot of the fellowship took place. A lot of reunions, people that hadn't seen each other 20, 30 years. Everywhere you looked, you seemed to see people who were at one time on OM. And so just that was exciting. We had a little reunion. It wasn't so well attended on the Saturday afternoon, and it was great to see quite some former OMers there. Brother Kamal was very much involved, together with Joseph D'Souza and Howard here. Kevin Penman was there. Dave McBride was there. A number of others whose names just don't flash into my mind right now. Praise God for the fellowship. The reality that though we come from all different nations and backgrounds, we are one in Christ. That what we have in common is greater than what separates us. If the body of Christ could accept that across the world, it would bring, I believe, a revolution. And then the ninth word is the word unity. I felt that people there didn't want to pretend about unity. There was constant emphasis on diversity. There was some emphasis on Charles Swindoll's book, Grace Awakening. They were all sold out within the first couple of days, as we realized that on a lot of things we had to agree to disagree. And some of these things that are old hat to some of us, other people haven't processed, they haven't thought through that. What do you mean agree to disagree? You mean I'm going to work together with this brother in evangelism when we don't have the same view on eschatology, or we're not using the same translation of scripture, or what's going to happen to the converts after they come to Jesus? So we saw that our unity was going to be in the midst of diversity. We realized that there were a lot of things that people wouldn't see eye to eye on. But I felt that was quite helpful. And then lastly, my last word, I had a debate between the word follow-up and the word implementation. But I think there's a general sense that the implementation is really the big challenge. There are people around the world, of course, who are totally opposed to these big events. They've been making that known to me for at least 37 years. I almost got into that camp. But I made that decision way back in the 60s that we should be involved in these big events. And I asked Greg Livingstone to go to Berlin. And Greg Livingstone, believe me, was very active at Jokowi. And he leads the church planting among Muslims track, which is a permanent part of the 82,000 movement. And he's quite realistic and helps, I believe, focus people while at the same time bring them into balance. I personally was involved then in the Asian Congress out in Singapore, in Lausanne, and then Jokowi in Manila. And I'm convinced, though, of course, the more important work is done out on the front lines, in the trenches, among the church planters, that there is a place occasionally for this kind of major event. 80% of the people in Pretoria were not in Korea. We acknowledged in our consultation that we had less than 5% of the missionary executives and leaders of the world, therefore decided that decisions could only be made as we took what God gave us and took it back to our peers for discussion and ongoing decision making, which has to be a process. And I am convinced that this was an atomic spiritual explosion in Pretoria last week, and would ask you now to pray for the fallout. The negative always attaches itself to the positive. We try to urge our people, when they get back to their own country, to be grace-awakened in their approach on how they share what happened at Jokowi. And I'm hoping this report somehow is a report that does that. In fact, our very first morning at mission executives, we especially emphasized the need to esteem others better than ourselves, as we looked at that verse in Philippians. And that got quoted a number of times on the internet and on the daily newspaper. There's the Jokowi paper, big pictures of K.P. Yohanan asking for forgiveness, pictures of me with my global balloon. And most of this also went out across the world on the internet. We certainly do live in a different world. I wish you could have been a fly on the wall in our consultation, especially some of the meetings. I think of Eddie Waxer's six minutes about sports, and then somebody from the great movement in terms of church planting speaking, and the chairperson of Lausanne in Germany presenting the vision of Christian radio. It was exciting. So there are my 10 words. Maybe I could read them over again. Faith, the church, hospitality, partnership, the unreached, mobilization, reality, fellowship, unity, follow-up, or implementation. Can we pray that somehow these almost 4,000 people, as they go back to their churches, that probably represents maybe 3,000 churches, I don't know, that they will be able to implement what they have decided? And of course, the decisions will be ongoing. Let's pray. Lord, again, we're reminded of this world in which we live. The great 1040 window with lands that were mentioned again and again in Jokowi, like Libya, and Tunisia, and Algeria, and right across that 1040 window, Afghanistan, and Turkey, and Iraq, and Iran, and Bangladesh, and Pakistan, and North India, and Burma, and right across China. We do pray, God, that all of the people's groups in the world, not just these bigger ones, but also the smaller ones, somehow may soon have a church-planting team. And we pray, Lord, that we may see a major liftoff of all the burdens and all the visions that are upon our heart. Again, we would ask you for 200,000 labors to be spread out among all the mission fellowships, and many local churches now that have their own mission society, that many of them would go out to the 1040 window, and the places where hundreds of millions have still never heard. Father, we are excited because you have met with us there in Pretoria in South Africa, and you met with us in our flights and in our vehicles, and you have met with us, we believe, here tonight as well. Enable us, Lord, to take the steps of faith, to follow up on what you've said to us at this time. Release, we pray, O God, the finance that's so desperately needed to carry forth this great worldwide mobilization and church-planting effort. For we ask in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
10 Words From Gcowe 97
- Bio
- Summary
- Transcript
- Download

George Verwer (1938 - 2023). American evangelist and founder of Operation Mobilisation (OM), born in Ramsey, New Jersey, to Dutch immigrant parents. At 14, Dorothea Clapp gave him a Gospel of John and prayed for his conversion, which occurred at 16 during a 1955 Billy Graham rally in New York. As student council president, he distributed 1,000 Gospels, leading 200 classmates to faith. In 1957, while at Maryville College, he and two friends sold possessions to fund a Mexico mission trip, distributing 20,000 Spanish tracts. At Moody Bible Institute, he met Drena Knecht, marrying her in 1960; they had three children. In 1961, after smuggling Bibles into the USSR and being deported, he founded OM in Spain, growing it to 6,100 workers across 110 nations by 2003, with ships like Logos distributing 70 million Scriptures. Verwer authored books like Out of the Comfort Zone, spoke globally, and pioneered short-term missions. He led OM until 2003, then focused on special projects in England. His world-map jacket and inflatable globe symbolized his passion for unreached peoples.