The founder of Operation Mobilisation (OM) died last month at his home near London, England, following a short battle with cancer. He was 84 years old.
“It is with profound sadness that we share that George Verwer, founder of Operation Mobilisation (OM), passed away,” OM USA tweeted. “Through our tears, we give thanks for all George has meant to us and take comfort that he is with Jesus, whom he loved and served faithfully.”
Sunday Celebration host Alex Milne spoke to Neil Cummings, the National Director for OM in Australia about the life, work and legacy of George Verwer.
“What I admired the most about George was his transparency; he would openly share about his failures and mistakes, because he didn’t want people looking at him thinking they could never do ministry.”
The seeds of OM would be planted in the 1950’s, when an 18 year old Verwer decided that he and a few friends should sell what they owned, buy a truck and as many Spanish language editions of the Gospel of John as they could afford, and drive to Mexico where the majority of the population had no access to the Bible.
That zeal to act quickly and selflessly saw OM become one of the largest missions organisations of the 20th century. OM now has over 3000 workers sharing the news of Jesus in 147 countries, as well as operating OM Ships, whose vessels, since 1970, have averaged around 1 million visitors per year.
“I think the major legacy of George in Australia was him coming here and sharing, with his passion and enthusiasm being so infectious,” said Neil.
“Before George started OM the way you got involved in missions was to go to Bible College for three or four years to train and go overseas long-term.
“By having short-term mission options it opened the door to so many people who never thought they could go to college and become a long-term, professional missionary.”
“I really think his legacy in Australia is by how many people had access to missions through a short-term trip with OM. And of course many of those people went on to become long-term workers with OM”
Listen to the full interview with Neil in the audio player at the top of the page.
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