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00:02 This morning we're going to have um a guest with us who's basically um it's
00:09 going to be a tremendous privilege for our church to welcome in our midst uh founder of OM Mr. George Verver. Can we
00:16 have him on the stage with uh Pari the OM director of Malaysia. Can you give them a warm welcome?
00:27 We're going to have the tremendous privilege of interviewing our brother George. Welcome.
00:35 He's going to be center stage. Okay.
00:43 Good morning everyone. Um yeah, like Dr. Peter said, it's a real privilege and joy for us this
00:49 morning to have George Verver in the house. Joe is the founder of OM
00:54 Operation Mobilization, founded in 1957. So that's uh something like 62 years
01:00 ago. And this morning we're going to just ask some questions of him to learn
01:06 what life has been like for him, what journey um to become missional and start this movement that's today um 500 5,000
01:13 strong in over 110 countries. So welcome George to First Baptist Church. Good to be here. Thank you.
01:25 later. We want to get to know George uh a little bit more about yourself and your family maybe to begin with.
01:33 Well, I'm from the New York City area. My father was an immigrant from the
01:38 Netherlands. It's not not a Christian. His father was an atheist.
01:45 My mother more English, Scottish, and Irish combination. And sorry to say that
01:51 grandfather was an alcoholic. So I didn't have any great Christian legacy, but I was doing fine as a young
02:00 person until a woman put my name on her prayer list and prayed that I'd become a
02:06 Christian, that become a true believer, and she prayed that I'd become a missionary. Interesting. She didn't even
02:13 discuss it with me. So that woman then sent me a gospel of John through the post.
02:20 This whole story now is is on a film by the way that you can get. Some may have seen it on television.
02:26 And through reading that gospel, God really began to move in my life. And then Billy Graham, God's servant,
02:33 just came to New York City, not a crusade one night as a guest speaker. And somehow a business person was
02:40 proactive in getting us to go to that meeting. And that's where I experienced
02:45 new birth as Billy Graham was so clear about
02:50 faith and believing on Jesus and being born again. Uh just to run forward real quickly,
02:56 ended up uh getting married to a woman I met at Moody Bible Institute. I was in
03:02 university for a couple years and then transferred to Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. Whole lot of things happened
03:08 before that. Never planned to start any big organization. and I was just winning
03:13 my high school friends to Christ and started going door to door in my hometown. Anyway, as soon as we were
03:18 married, we went to Mexico. I'd already been there several summers and winters. That's really where OM had its birth. We
03:25 were all just students. I was only 19 and soon our first son was born and he
03:32 started in Mexico City, but he landed in Madrid as our vision was really Turkey,
03:39 Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan. That all changed when uh I was taking on the Soviet Union, was arrested by the KGB,
03:46 accused of being a spy. And that's what led me to this famous day of prayer when
03:51 God gave me the name Operation Mobilization and the vision to see these nations that had been fighting each
03:57 other, Germany, Britain, France, the Netherlands, to see the young people from those nations in a mobilization of
04:04 love. And God gave me the name Operation Mobilization. By the next summer, we had
04:09 200 people trying to reach 25 million in Europe with the gospel. The next summer,
04:15 2000. Meanwhile, I had another son and a little later, I had a daughter, so I had
04:20 three children. Not time to go into details, but we ended up with five grandchildren. And now we've just had
04:27 the number six greatg grandandchildren. So, you're looking at really one really old buzzard here. And kind of you to
04:35 even invite me when you're our age. you you often don't get invitations. I mean, people think you're dead. They're not
04:41 going to invite you to their church. So, thank you for your gracious uh invitation for this old buzzard uh to be
04:48 among you. I gave up all the leadership in OM 18 years ago and um the transfer
04:55 to M Peter Maiden and then to Dr. Lawrence Tongue has gone really well and I really celebrate what OM is doing uh
05:02 today. Amen. George, I was going to ask you, um, was there a time when you
05:07 experienced this call where you actually struggled with fear? Uh, because the
05:13 life ahead was never certain. Um, because we're all ordinary Christians
05:18 here. We struggle about missions giving everything up and following God. Um,
05:23 could you relate uh some of your struggles when you first started or were you always that gung-ho? My whole life
05:31 has been struggles. Yeah, I'm still struggling. Not getting hardly any sleep last night
05:38 and having a wake up call at 7:00 did not give me a good attitude toward this
05:44 first service. Hallelujah. Struggled with fear and I almost fell
05:50 into the world of pornography. I've lived my whole life on the edge of pornography. somehow managed not to fall
05:57 off the cliff, but I've certainly looked down there a number of times. And God's
06:03 grace is sufficient. His strength is made perfect in weakness. And so we won't go into details, but one
06:11 of the most powerful messages I ever preached was the confessions of a weak missionary. And I sailed I shared seven
06:18 areas where I was, you know, I felt I was weak and needed to be stronger. I'll
06:23 never forget one man though the message was for believers. This is in Chicago. One man a tough man from the advertising
06:31 world was powerfully saved in that meeting and became my friend and supported our work for the next uh 30
06:38 years. So I don't believe in pretending. I think we should take off the mask and be real. And I constantly confess my
06:45 faults and sins uh to my wife, to my co-workers, and we pray if that's the
06:51 other side of the coin. I've got stronger and stronger in battling all the temptations. So, never missed a day.
06:58 Never missed a day serving Jesus. Since the conversion, March 3rd, 1955, most of
07:04 you were not doing much. Well, could you tell us
07:12 the most difficult time in your entire ministry and how what was it and what
07:17 got you through it? I think one of the most difficult times is when a man I greatly trusted and put
07:24 into leadership turned against me and started like a campaign against me. Um,
07:32 and that was probably the most hurtful thing that I remember and then I had a
07:38 similar thing later on. But considering the size of OM and the growth of OM,
07:44 I've not had many really of these kind of uh experiences and you learn you
07:50 learn through them. You learn through them. But my life has not been all
07:56 answers to prayer. Many of my prayers are not answered yet. So that means I'm dealing with a lot of discouragement at
08:02 my my age and then a lot of shattering. If you're like my me, you aim high,
08:08 you'd be get you'd better get ready for some disappointments because that's the way life is. And I've just been reading
08:15 a very godly man, something I've never read before, how to embrace even total
08:21 disillusionment and somehow come through that worshiping the Lord. Powerful thing that I'm study
08:27 I'm studying right now. Let's go back a little bit. 1957 OM was
08:33 founded. I've got a short video clip. This is about less than three minutes long. A little bit of the history. And
08:39 then we want to ask you a few more questions. You'll see the lady who prayed for me. I
08:46 think it's one of the first pictures. This is a different one.
08:53 There was a lady. Yeah, that's prayed and for George on a Holy Ghost hit list.
08:59 The result, a life radically changed. I always had this message which I started giving at youth fellowships when
09:05 I was only two years in Christ of total commitment to Christ. Let's not play games. Let's take what the Bible says
09:12 seriously. Totally commit ourselves to Christ. That has to be in reaching all
09:18 those around us with the gospel. And then that has to be of course the whole world through George Fer. The work of
09:24 Owen began in 1957. While most students were winding down
09:29 for their summer break, George was heading off to Mexico to distribute Christian literature. More holidays
09:35 followed and more friends joined George on his mission. What would be accomplished in a few short years would
09:41 be astonishing. Several million portions of scripture, gospel tracks, and booklets distributed. Seven Christian
09:47 bookshops, 10 full-time Mexican workers, hundreds of Decisions for Christ, Gospel radio broadcast, 150 churches working
09:54 together to distribute Christian literature, 3,000 correspondent students. It was just an exciting move of the Holy
10:00 Spirit, all in answer to prayer. When George shifted to Spain in 1960,
10:07 more young people caught the vision for World Mission and got involved in distributing Christian literature. Soon,
10:12 massive amounts of literature would be distributed across Europe. In the summer of 1963, 2,000 people uh
10:20 were involved and a couple hundred of those stayed on. And that was really the
10:25 tipping point that put OM on the map and led to it being a serious global movement.
10:35 By the following year, Owen was working in Mexico, Quebec, France, Spain, Italy,
10:40 Belgium, USA, Austria, Switzerland, UK, Germany, Holland, Sweden, Turkey, Iran,
10:46 Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Israel.
10:56 Leading up to the 70s, there were many logistical obstacles in expand the work of OM across continents. Let's get
11:02 George to a god idea. A ship and the idea of having housing with
11:09 vehicles, literature, auditoriums traveling at the same time. It was a
11:14 winner. OM's first ship, the Logos, exceeded all expectations in how
11:19 effective it could be as a tool to help facilitate Christian ministry. Literature and a variety of programs
11:26 were provided for locals, meaning more people caught the fever for world miss. The ship's ministry was very much the
11:32 public face of Oel. But a lot of the work was going on elsewhere, hidden from public view. And by the mid80s, over 4
11:39 million Bibles, Christian books, and tracks have been smuggled into the communist Eastern block. That's where
11:45 people were more regularly arrested and sometimes put in jail for a while. But
11:51 the government opposition has never been a major problem. lukewarmness among
11:56 God's people and other fiery darts of the enemy has always been a much bigger problem.
12:02 The fall of communism would soon allow for the expansion of OM ministries throughout Eastern Europe and Central
12:07 Asia. Another factor of expansion in the '90s was the development of ministries
12:12 directed to meeting people's physical needs. OM has been completely transformed in
12:18 the past 10 years to a ministry that has married the holistic social action,
12:24 social concern, challenge with proclamation, church planting, discipling, leadership training which
12:29 we've been in and mass evangelism for our lifetime. George, one of the pillars of OM would
12:35 be prayer. Wouldn't you agree? Yeah, I I think many people would say it
12:40 was basically a prayer movement when it started. There was no vision for a great
12:46 organization. There was a great global vision that the whole world would be reached. But we didn't know what our
12:53 part was going to be. But we started these prayer nights influenced by Billy Graham who emphasized these nights of
12:60 prayer. My first one I organized was a total disaster. Nobody came and the
13:05 second one was better and those prayer nights have continued. uh today in OM
13:11 more the prayer is is during the daytime but the highlight on the ship uh that I
13:17 hope some of you will get involved with I think it's one of the greatest things you could ever do and so many Malaysians
13:24 have been on the ship whatever their career is later on but the night of prayer on the ship to me is one of the
13:30 uh one of the highlights so praise the Lord God answers prayer of
13:36 course mixed with worship mixed with communication fellowship ship. It's It's a great event. The prayer meeting in
13:42 many ways should be the greatest event of the week and we because we're fellowshipping with the living God.
13:51 What did you what made you think of a ship? Well, I traveled to India. I first of
13:56 all, I came to Europe on the Queen Elizabeth. There's not time to explain that. Uh that brought the seed of of how
14:05 you can do so much while you are traveling. I was fanatic on redeeming the time. I didn't believe in losing one
14:12 minute. Everything is under the lordship of Christ. People are lost. We need to
14:17 reach them. And so the vision of the ship partly came because we travel to India and these old trucks. I tried to
14:24 enforce everybody to redeem the time. I had listening equipment and and tapes back in those days. But the dust and the
14:31 bumpy roads, I mean, I've done the journey myself, but then OM, we never
14:37 had much money. Housing was a problem. We'd live on church floors. We'd live in vans. You know, we started from nothing.
14:44 We had no big money behind us. And housing was a problem. And so the ship,
14:49 the housing is there. Uh, of course being able to carry vehicles because we were big into these vehicles that would
14:56 go through towns and villages reaching literally hundreds of thousands. Um, a
15:02 number of things just came together and living on an island Great Britain for a while and keep every time I left there's
15:08 no tunnel where you had to get on a ferry and it just looking at the map of the world it seemed to be like 75%
15:16 water. What if Pakistan closed its door for the overland route? Many many factors led to um making the decision to
15:25 get a ship. Took me a couple of years to persuade other people because our movement was becoming more consensus
15:31 driven not not driven by George Fer. So it took a while to win and God gave me a
15:37 tremendous sea captain who helped me pioneer this though he never shared as captain of the ship. Yeah, I could get
15:44 going on the ship but praise the Lord. We celebrate 50 years
15:50 of ship ministry and it's a ship that birth to work in Malaysia and today OM in Malaysia is quite a
15:57 significant mission agency sending people into all kinds of missions and many of our graduates work
16:04 with other mission agencies which was our vision from day one not say with OM
16:09 only if the Holy Spirit really confirmed it but to go back to your church wait on God with your church leaders and then
16:16 many go out with their own denom denominations, you know, good denominational missions. Others join groups like OMF and and Wack. So, um, we
16:25 celebrate about 200,000 have been on OM and about 25,000 of those are in
16:31 leadership, many in their local church around the world. You still have any more ships running around?
16:37 Yeah, we have a much bigger ship now, Logos Hope. It's been here to Malaysia many years ago. It's just finished
16:43 Africa, Latin America. Uh it's been moving for about 10 years and we're looking forward to it coming to Europe.
16:50 There are always Malaysians on that ship and many will testify because we're older now. It was the greatest one or
16:57 two years of their whole life. U to be able to be on a ship to be exposed to
17:03 many different nations in one year living with a community of 40 nationalities. So, Lagos Hope is much
17:09 bigger, about twice the length of this auditorium, and 400 people live on board from about
17:15 40 or 50 nationalities. So, it's just it's incredible.
17:21 And in Mexico, we had a quarter of a million visitors in one port in a month.
17:27 Just shows you how the ship, these are people that often will never never enter
17:33 a church, but a ship, you know, somehow attracts them. And then of course we have this big book exhibit. It's about
17:40 uh twothirds the size of this auditorium all filled with books and that's what
17:46 wins um respect of the government because a lot of educational books but of course it's packed with Bibles and
17:52 Christian books and people are constantly coming to Christ through the ship ministry.
17:58 Was it easier to gain access to restricted countries if you're using a ship instead of just flying in? Yeah,
18:05 that happened. I think because that's so exciting, it gets a bit exaggerated because we don't want to give the idea
18:11 we were the key to reaching those countries. You know, we've been in Libya, we've been in a lot of Libya act
18:17 restricted access because of the educational side. Whether we can go back to those countries in this totally
18:23 transformed world is is you know a big question that we we have to face.
18:30 So what is the main focus of the fish uh the the ship ministry today? What what is OM doing today with the ships?
18:36 The focus is that everybody in the world have the gospel and that the church be
18:41 mobilized. So if we're in a city where there's a lot of Christians, the part of the big focus mobilized calling people
18:48 to the lordship of Christ, hundreds of thousands have recommitted their lives coming to our ship. And even though they
18:55 didn't stay with OM. So it's, you know, revival, the mobilization of the church. You know,
19:02 many of God's people around the world, you may think, well, this is our problem in Malaysia. So many of the Christians are lukewarm. It's a global problem.
19:11 So we are fanatic against lukewarmness. Be hot or be cold, you're lukewarm. I'll
19:16 spit you out of my mouth. I mean, that's enough to scare even the most sleepy, laid-back Englishmen.
19:23 So that's why you don't take people for three months on your ship rather than two years. Some people go to the ship on very
19:29 short-term trips. Yeah. Called a step program. Oh, good. Yeah. I myself still have a passion to
19:36 get people to give us at least one year so they can really pick up what the Holy Spirit. It's not about what we're doing.
19:42 It's about what the Holy Spirit is doing. Just to give an example, um, one of our
19:49 number one birthplaces was Cambridge University. And now a research historian
19:55 has just written a booklet, the impact of operation mobilization and our leaders and my own ministry at Cambridge
20:02 University among the Christians and how many missionaries went out. And at this
20:07 book launch, some of those missionaries came back from different parts of the world. Uh, some OM graduates, some still
20:13 with OM. And it's just an example of what the Holy Spirit is doing among
20:18 students. We have a big student mission convention. Uh OM's only one of the players. At the end of this year, the
20:25 Americans have always had a big one called Urbana. 15,000 students. I've spoken a number of times, but finally
20:32 Europe um Europe's had similar conventions, but never basically a student missions convention. So that
20:39 happens right after Christmas in Germany this year. It's called revive.
20:45 Does OM have any ministry with the ships into China? We've been to China, but
20:51 they just put too many restrictions. So, I don't think we consider that a
20:57 priority. We've been, of course, the tremendous ministry in Vietnam.
21:02 Um, we wanted to go to North Korea. That door didn't open yet. Korea is a very
21:08 major uh country in operation mobilization. One of our directors of
21:14 the ship, two different directors were both Koreans. Yeah. Yeah. Have you experienced the organization?
21:20 We'd like you to go on the ship for your, you know, you Yeah. Okay. We we'd have to interview you first, of
21:26 course. Maybe there's an age limit. Has the organization experienced much
21:33 persecution over the years? And how how did we how did you overcome it? Any instances?
21:38 Well, I believe persecution also gets greatly exaggerated because it's exciting.
21:45 Um, and bad news travels quicker than good news. And we have not had a lot of
21:52 persecutions. We've had, you know, we've had martyrdoms. I mean, we've been 60
21:58 years at it. So, we've the missionaries mainly die in car crashes. Miss Yeah,
22:04 missionaries don't die being martyrs. There are a few. And of course, Raymond Ko kidnapped
22:10 uh but basically the door is so wide open and even in
22:17 China where there is persecution, it seems to have just caused the church to grow more. Not that it's unimportant,
22:24 not that we shouldn't be concerned, but I think we need to be realistic. People who are not believers in the world
22:30 today, they are suffering more than Christians. It's unbelievable what's going on in
22:35 probably at least 15 different countries and we need to have a heart because when we get martyed we go to glory but if
22:44 they get slaughtered in some terrorist attack you know they have no hope from the word of God which is of course the
22:50 toughest thing for all of us but we have to hold to the word of God rather than our human reasoning and Jesus said I'm
22:57 the way the truth and the life no man cometh to the father but by me so That's
23:02 that's a tough one for this day of hyper toleration you know but we want to hold
23:08 to the word of God and I think the strength of OM today under Lawrence Tong Biola University graduate has also been
23:14 given a doctorate from there he's holding to the word of God.
23:20 What advice would you give the average church person who's not really into missions uh but really you know want to
23:28 be open to what God would have them do? uh what steps could he take? Well, I think the first thing is just to
23:34 repent. Just to acknowledge that you're being really stupid and you probably
23:39 don't read the Bible. You're probably watching too many dumb television programs. So, it's really easy. Just
23:46 repent and do a U-turn. Let me tell you one story. A young man from India, he
23:52 almost was not accepted on OM. The foreigner in Carerala did not want him. They said he's too young. He's immature.
23:58 But the Indian leader overruled and sent KP Yan on OM. His next step, he was in a
24:06 meeting like this when I was speaking and called people to repentance and radical commitment. He stood up and um
24:14 got trained on OM for a couple of years, met an amazing German woman because he was on OM. He disappeared for a while,
24:20 went to the States, went to a small Bible school, and then he birthed a movement called Gospels for Asia. Okay,
24:26 let's run 40 years later. He has 15,000 congregations.
24:32 He has 4 million people involved in his ministry in Burma, India, Nepal. He has
24:39 a state-of-the-art hospital. He has some businesses to help the thing stay
24:44 resourced. So, he gets a lot of donations as well. So that's just one person that he's got a wonderful family,
24:51 all godly kids, and I was just with him at a meeting at Heathrow airport for a couple of hours. Just stunned at what
24:58 God is doing through this man. He's made mistakes. Of course, he's criticized social media picks on anybody. And so
25:05 don't trust everything you see and read on the social media. Fake. This is the day of fake news. But God, I've just
25:12 seen God's hand on him. I didn't always agree with everything. one book he dedicated to me. I thought it was a
25:18 terrible book. And this is why I'm encouraging people to read my new book
25:24 called Messiology because as Christians, we do mess up sometimes.
25:29 For years, I've been preaching a joy because I'm into the book of Proverbs. Now, I've started to write my own. I
25:35 won't get in the Bible. I I don't know how to apply for that. But my proverb is where two or three of the Lord's people
25:41 are gathered together, sooner or later there's a mess. And that's rather discouraging, right?
25:48 Especially when you're in them. I've only been in a few hundred. But me theology is how God works in the midst
25:54 of mess all through history. And it sets us free from unrealistic expectation and
26:01 gives us a bighearted view of a God of mercy and grace. So case B, you know,
26:07 he's been in a court case and he's got tremendous enemies and yet God is
26:13 mightily using him and he's strong in the Lord. One person and I believe there
26:20 are people here this morning that need to make a Uturn and embrace the message
26:26 of the word of God. And part of that message is to reach the whole world with the gospel. It doesn't mean you have to
26:32 immediately become a missionary. It's firstly a transaction of the heart connected with the lordship of Christ to
26:39 live 100% for him where you are which is not easy and if it wasn't for business
26:45 and professional people putting their money into OM we wouldn't be here there'd be no ship
26:51 but as it brought out in this new book gospel patrons whenever the Lord raises up an unusual servant with a message in
26:57 a ministry like Billy Graham God raises up two kinds of people who pray and
27:03 often gives small amounts and he raises up a few who somehow have money and can
27:08 help big things happen like you know buying another ship.
27:14 So you going to buy another ship? Well, they're going to be eventually getting another ship. I understand. I'm
27:20 not involved in all that, but that's certainly being prayed about seriously right now. We always get old ships, so
27:27 they, you know, I've just been on the dulas. We had 30 years. Uh it was a one
27:33 of the hardest decisions in my life was to buy the second ship, Dulas. Uh we bought it in Venice from Costa
27:40 Line. It was already old. That ship built in 1914
27:46 has served for 30 years. There was pressure to scrap it. It was finished as
27:52 a ship. And a Singaporean businessman bought that ship. And we've seen a
27:57 miracle. It's now a deluxe hotel. I just stayed on overnight in Bintang. Um, you
28:04 take a little ferry out of Singapore and you're in Indonesia,
28:10 but it's really a Singaporean resort. It lots of Muslims go there as well. So,
28:15 Dulas has just been resurrected. Uh, you need a few shekels to stay there
28:21 overnight. Might give you a discount if you give him my name.
28:27 Well, George, I I noticed your your shirt, you've got a map of the world on your on your shirt. Can you just share
28:33 with us, you know, God moves in waves and different times. Where do you think
28:40 today is is one area where God is really moving in a very exciting and dramatic fashion that we could get behind in
28:46 prayer, too? Well, I think the unique thing about today is God is moving everywhere in a
28:52 very powerful way. This is the greatest time of harvest in the entire history.
28:57 We're looking at 2,000 years, friends. We're looking back to Acts 13 when Paul and Barnabas were sent out as
29:02 missionaries. And today, there are probably 300,000 missionaries and
29:08 national missionaries around the globe. And the response is huge. Now, the slowest is Europe, but Europe already
29:16 has a large number of believers. So just to make up for those going to heaven takes a certain amount of growth. So in
29:23 Britain we're we're sort of leveled off but a lot of people are coming to Jesus. In Great Britain we have a lot of new
29:29 churches and things have greatly changed. There's now 45,000 different denominations.
29:35 So the guy that stands up and says our denomination is the only one, you know, he he would need a psychiatrist real
29:41 quick because I mean it's just ridiculous. God is worked through families. And again, this is a main
29:47 theme of my book, Messiology. How God works in these messy situations. The
29:53 church, I'm very involved in Africa now. Church growth is off the charts. Millions in the last few years turning
29:59 to Jesus. Many of them don't even have a Bible because they're they're still very poor. And now in India, which is my
30:05 number one where I live for some years, um in our little OM at work as well, so
30:11 many thousands were coming to Jesus. It it had to be transformed. So, it's now a church movement. It's not part of OM.
30:17 Technically, it is in our hearts. And we have 4,000 congregations and 110 schools
30:23 and 100 different humanitarian ministries, especially preventing sex trafficking. So, this is I'm so thrilled
30:32 that God has allowed me to be here still at my age. I have many friends that have gone on to glory because surely it's one
30:39 of the most exciting times uh for the church. And many of you are getting older. You all look like teenagers to
30:45 me, but any of you getting older, there's no retirement program. Some of
30:51 the best years of my life have been in the last few years. And if you study unsaved secular pagan business people,
30:58 many shakers and movers in politics and business are over 70. So this retirement
31:04 thing, that's is just one of many tricks of the enemy to get you to fall asleep and sit there like a couch potato
31:11 watching another stupid TV program. May God give you the grace to run the race
31:16 right to the end. A health of course changes that. We know that. And Alzheimer's would change me really
31:23 quick. I'll wear a sign. This is not George Ver. I've had a great life. So,
31:30 please don't go away feeling pity. Go pray and praise the Lord. But
31:35 Alzheimer's is a terrible thing and we've had close friends with it. But and I sometimes speak at the funeral when I
31:41 said this lady we knew for the last couple years that is not who this woman was you know she had this unusual
31:48 illness it becomes like a different person but if you don't have a health problem then run and deal with laziness
31:55 I interviewed a bunch of missionaries in India I said what's your biggest problem these are missionaries
32:01 they all said our my biggest because they were in the tropics not used to the heat they said my biggest problem is
32:06 laziness it actually surprised me I thought they had other bigger problems. So deal with any laziness in your life
32:13 and go for Jesus. I'm I'm sure I'm just preaching to the choir. They're all
32:18 radical turn the world upside down disciples sitting here. George, I know that you are very
32:24 passionate about books and books are a Christian literatur is a great way to turn our hearts to God as well. Um can
32:30 you tell us a bit? Well, Perry is one of the number one book distributors in the whole OM world because some are really
32:35 sleeping in this area. And look at that book display. And I want to give you one
32:41 of my own books. There's quite a few of my own books there. No turning back. Help you keep running the race. We even
32:47 have one of my books in Chinese. And then out of the comfort zone about global missions, my new book, uh,
32:54 Messiology. Um, so one of my books is a gift. So please don't pay for it. just take it as
33:00 a gift. We publish these in India at a very low price but generally the books are on a donation and of course number
33:07 one is operation world though it is slowly getting out of date it's 90%
33:14 relevant you can get this uh in England where I live this is 15 pound sterling
33:20 you can get it even for a couple what is this money you have ring it a donation yeah you give you know give well one
33:26 ringit that's not much is it anyway Well, I this book is very hard to get
33:34 and I come in here and see Perry's, you know, out of the box book table and she's got a whole pile and there's a
33:41 similar operation world for kids. Some of you, your reading level isn't that high. You really enjoy this operation.
33:50 Uh I just love this book. I love kids books and it sometimes it keeps it simple. And
33:57 there's my new book if I can dig it out. um called Messiology. Look at that
34:04 cover. It used to be called More Drops. This is the most influential book in my life in the last 10 years about women
34:10 about what women suffering. If you can read that and not be highly impacted,
34:15 well, you're an unusual person. This book helped change the course of OM and what we're able to do in empowering
34:22 women and releasing them into ministry as well as all these other 15 areas
34:28 where women are suffering including uncontrolled rape in many parts of uh of
34:33 the world then um you need to go for it. Thank you.
34:39 So today actually we've got a big book table and you can take anything you want. Just put a donation in the box.
34:45 All of the proceeds from that will go towards the fight against modern day slavery. That's our Christmas appeal for
34:51 this year for OM and all the funds will go to Bangladesh, Malawi or to Muldova
34:57 uh to fight modern day slavery. Things like um women being trafficked and and girls being sold into slavery.
35:02 You'll find my newsletter there. I'd like to meet as many of you as possible. I'm going to try to get to the door uh
35:08 just to meet you and give out my card. But I'd love to pray for you. And I'm not just saying that. I often spend
35:15 eight, nine hours in prayer, especially stuck on an airplane. Um, and I I need
35:20 information. I don't believe in just generalized prayer. I believe in specific prayer generally for people.
35:26 And if you have a prayer request, my email's on my letter or my card. I will
35:32 personally pray for you and the request you put. And if you want more books, just put
35:40 your address. But don't be surprised if a large truck pulls up to your house
35:45 with some books. And George does that. He will remember to pray and he'll send you a line and
35:51 say, "I've just prayed for you." So, thank you, George, for being very faithful with that. I want to show a quick video clip of the one of our
35:58 ministries in Muldova. So, if you do give a donation today, this will be one of the beneficiaries of that.
36:10 My role with Freedom Challenge is working with the vulnerable girls, mentoring, organizing the conferences,
36:17 the camps for them. And human trafficking is a huge problem because uh parents are away. They are going to
36:25 different countries to earn some money. And children, they stay here without parents. Yeah. Without love. And they're
36:33 trying to find this love in the wrong places. and traffickers are taking uh
36:38 advantage of their children who are looking for this love.
36:46 Human trafficking became a problem when the Soviet Union fell. So Muldova was
36:52 totally in collapse and I can tell you the statistics that 80% in the villages
36:58 they're unemployed. That's why uh people were tricked by traffickers to go and
37:05 work abroad, earn some money. It's the poorest country in Europe.
37:11 Freedom Challenge is bringing hope to these uh girls and uh we explain them
37:17 what actually God loves them so much and they're really loved and freedom
37:22 challenge supports in Moldova three ministries. It's elderly and uh disabled
37:28 projects. uh day centers and beginning of life. The elderly ministry provides
37:34 one hot meal per day and um spiritual blessing for these people. In the day
37:40 center, these children they receive a hot meal, they come after school. Yes. They do their homework, they Bible
37:47 lessons and day center. This is the safe place for these children. That's why the
37:53 chance for being in the traffic is lower. uh beginning of life organization. They prevent human traffic
38:01 by working with the girls by mentoring them and they rehabilitate girls who
38:08 already have been in traffic.
38:15 So I noticed there's a increasing social action dimension in the ministry of OM.
38:21 Um when has that come about? I think um we started it in a special way a long
38:27 long time ago for Afghanistan because that was a key place and that's the only way you could be there.
38:34 But theologically through the Losan Congress and other men and women of God it wasn't just something you did in
38:41 order to get in a country. It became part of the DNA. You did it because you
38:47 love people because you see it in the scriptures. So the the shift started around the year
38:53 2000 and it grew was more under the leadership of Peter Maiden though in my
38:59 own special projects ministry a little tiny part of OM I started then for the
39:04 first time not only raising money for books and Bibles and tracks which I've been doing for 60 years but I started
39:11 raising money in connection with sex trafficking the impure water crisis malaria crisis I got very involved in
39:18 the global AIDS crisis So the year 2000 to the year 2005 things really changed.
39:25 Now some people feel it's gone too far and we're trying to uh address that
39:31 balance because we want to be especially under Lawrence tongue to be a movement that is planting
39:38 vibrant communities of spiritfilled believers. I think that's my paraphrase.
39:45 It's always the tension, isn't it? just says me and life is full of tensions.
39:50 Yeah. That's 60 years of it in my marriage. One of the best books you can ever read
39:57 especially for marriage is and I was thrilled you're going to have this this session on forgiveness. Forgiveness is
40:03 one of the strongest messages on my heart. And again I was just reading how many times to forgive? Seven times 70
40:11 times seven. I mean that is so radical. that is so radical and that doesn't come in. So I'm thrilled that you're going to
40:17 you're going to have that and I just believe with all my heart disciplehip which has been OM strong emphasis but we
40:25 always had that grace through first Corinthians 13 that emphasis on grace and then humbling ourselves and dealing
40:32 with our toxic side. So uh we need disciplehip and radical
40:38 grace combined. How does your wife deal with you being away but most of the time, right?
40:44 No, I I'm I'm not totally changed because my wife isn't well. That's why I don't come to Asia hardly ever at all
40:50 anymore. I just preach around Europe. So, I'm home. She doesn't mind if I'm
40:55 gone one or two days. But I really feel the Lord told me to be with my wife. I
41:00 was away from her one-third of my life. We were together a lot when we lived in India. We lived on the ship. My wife,
41:06 people think she doesn't travel because she's not traveling now at 81 years of age. We had 20 different houses we lived
41:13 in in the first couple of years of marriage. But I wanted to urge you to read Charles Swindle's book and the
41:19 chapter so powerful graciously disagreeing and pressing on. And if
41:25 churches also practice that, it can prevent disunityity. You're not going to all agree on every single thing that
41:32 different people even sometimes bring from the pulpit. We're all different and
41:38 God's unity is in the midst of diversity. So, if you can find that book, Grace Awakening, and then oiling
41:44 your marriage by grace. And now that we're getting older, my wife and I seem
41:49 to be more different. She's getting very feisty and uh not afraid to exhort me.
41:55 So, I'm having breakfast and one Rice Krispie falls on the floor. She comes down the stairs. I I don't get any
42:02 greeting. She just looked at what what's that on the floor. So, sounds familiar.
42:08 We need prayer. What about your children? How have they taken your
42:14 ministry? Uh um have they resented time away? And was it a struggle bringing up
42:20 children when you're all over the world? Yeah, I think of course the children of Christian leaders have a, you know, a
42:26 special pressure, but I think all children really have pressure. It's just different times we focus on different
42:32 people, especially leaders. And I had two two sons and one daughter.
42:38 My older son loves the Lord. His son join came to Jesus on our ship. He just
42:44 had it in the head and God met him on the ship and he's Britishborn but then
42:49 lived in America and of course you know if you really serve well on our ship we
42:55 we honor you with a wife. So we gave him we gave him a Swiss wife. So I got I
43:03 have three Swiss great grandchildren living near Bassel and he's just a
43:08 spiritfilled young man preaching on the ship though he started in the engine room as a welder. Now his two sisters
43:16 they they seem to love the Lord but I won't comment right now on their spiritual pilgrimage but one of them's
43:23 just got married to a guy and joined the American Air Force. We have a lot of contact but they moved from London to
43:30 Idaho. My older son has walked away from his faith for now.
43:35 My daughter walked away for a while, then came back. So, we, you know, we've had our pilgrimage. Don't let things
43:41 that happen in your family hinder you from running the race. These things are normal. One of my favorite expressions.
43:48 Simple. Be real. Because Christians tend to create a fantasy world. If you listen
43:54 to some of their prayers, you really know they're in Disney World. You know, we need to live in the real world. Bad
44:02 things do happen to good people. And be careful of blaming yourself. Uh it's
44:08 just it's often a great mistake. All of us as parents fail and the children can make a mistake just
44:16 as serious ours. One of the biggest mistakes children make and I believe especially here in Asia, unrealistic
44:23 expectation about their parents, especially if they're a church leader. And soon as they see this church leader
44:29 or maybe their own father doing something really stupid, woo, it's like an atomic explosion. The Bible says if
44:36 we say we don't sin, we deceive ourselves. So there's a sense we've got to learn to live with one another's sin
44:43 even as everything we want to do is to get out of that. And so I said this is part of being real as a kingdom person.
44:51 Yeah. Okay. Yes. It's really George. Um and now closing 101 15 minutes. I
44:57 believe the Lord would have laid upon your heart to share with us some final
45:02 words from the word. Uh we'll we'll leave you to do that. I'll be very quick. I've been you know at our age we
45:08 go to a lot of funerals. I had four in one week and I'm often
45:15 asked to speak and in our culture they give you like four minutes, five minutes. But actually I like funerals
45:22 better than weddings. They're they're a lot shorter. But I just wanted to share from just one
45:29 verse which became my life verse when I was still a teenager. I was still in business uh selling firefighting
45:35 equipment which later I sold and started selling Bibles and Christian books which led to the birth of of sort of the
45:41 literature side of OM. But I was traveling setting up agents for my firefighting equipment and I met a woman
45:49 who's really strong on baptism. So I read the whole book of Acts looking for what the Bible said about back baptism
45:56 and there's not time to say much about that but God that night from Acts uh
46:02 chapter 20 uh gave me this verse which is
46:07 really at that time my life verse do you have a life verse that you know now I
46:13 got many life verses let me read it this is after sharing about Paul's
46:19 difficulties what was going to face him difficulties possible imprisonment
46:24 and then after we read that he says however I consider my life worth nothing
46:33 to me only aim is to finish the race
46:40 and complete the task that the Lord has given me the task of testifying to the
46:46 good news of God's grace and I want to encourage you this morning to take that
46:52 verse doesn't mean you're going to go the same way that God led me. We're all different. And I thank the Lord that OM
46:60 from the beginning was always teamwork. It wasn't George Ver. It was a team of
47:05 people. Three of us went to Mexico. My next group, five of us went to Mexico.
47:11 And then later God gave me my own team partner, my wonderful wife, who's
47:17 radically committed to Jesus in global missions. My wife had a much tougher background, had many emotional
47:24 difficulties as a woman, producing even physical symptoms. Her father was killed
47:29 in the war. Her stepfather uh abused her mainly verbally
47:35 and she was a wounded person. When Jesus came into her life, he kicked her out of the home and so she came to Chicago or I
47:43 would have never met her. I'd been I had so much complexity with girls after my conversion because my big thing was
47:51 kissing girls. That's that was a national sport in New York City. And uh
47:56 in those days we weren't jumping in bed with these girls. We're just, you know, just having fun. And so then after I
48:03 became a Christian, someone now says as a Christian you can't you're not allowed to kiss and I went all through the Bible
48:09 looking for that thou shalt not kiss and you know I never found it. So you know I kept kissing every girl available. Of
48:16 course many were not available. I was like a kissing Pharisee because I was very judgmental of my school friends who
48:23 were sleeping with their girlfriends. I said that's wrong. And but then God broke me. It took time and I think we
48:30 need to be very patient with new believers and one of the reasons I grew strong so quickly I did I did not belong
48:38 to cons a conservative gracekilling bash the new believers kind of church you
48:43 know you come to Christ by faith and grace and as soon as you're in the church they give you 15 rules and
48:49 telling you even how you're supposed to cut your hair you know legalism was alive and well I can tell you in the 50s
48:56 and I think one of the things that's difficult for us in the church and I'm a church person fanatically committed to
49:02 the local church to be more honest about our struggles and failures especially in the past and how the church has
49:08 persecuted in the past certain kinds of people but anyway the Lord convicted me
49:14 that I was addicted to romance and so I just stopped kissing was cold turkey
49:22 no girlfriend no date that's when I went to Mexico that's when I learned Spanish that's when I devoured the word of God
49:29 and I lived that way for two years. Uh, and then I left university, arrived at
49:34 Moody Bible Institute. All born again girls, some real beauties as well. They're carrying big Bibles. You know,
49:40 you try to kiss one, you get King James to the head. So, I was infatuated with
49:46 about seven girls, but I didn't touch any of them. I just, you know, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his
49:52 righteousness. And it's only when I went to rent a film because of my passion for
49:57 evangelism, the woman in charge of the films was to be God's choice for my
50:02 life. For me, it was love at first sight. I broke my fast, moved in on the target.
50:10 Said something totally stupid. So, for me, it was love at first sight. For her, it was fright at first sight. And but I
50:17 managed to get her on a date. I'm not exaggerating. It's on that film. And um
50:22 I thought this might be a trick of the devil. I was so cuckoo in love with this girl. I thought this is a trick of the
50:27 devil. I was learning not to trust myself. So I tried to scare her. I said probably nothing going to happen between
50:33 you and me. But you need to know I'm going to be a missionary and if you marry me probably in the end you'll be
50:41 eaten by cannibals in Papa New Guinea.
50:46 Imagine trying to win a woman's heart. I don't recommend you try that here in Malaysia. Really, you might want to be a
50:53 little more subtle. Anyway, she was not in love with me, but I mobilized my prayer partners. God began to warm her
50:59 heart, and she read in the Moody School paper because I'd come back from Mexico, George Burer is a man of God. Woo. The
51:08 the Lord, she wanted to marry a man of God. And so, you know, she agreed to
51:14 marry me. We didn't really know each other. I was very strong on Ephesians 5.
51:19 Not the whole chapter, just that one verse. Submit to your husband as unto the Lord. And she agreed. She gave me
51:27 all of her money. We gave it for global mission. She had an inheritance from her father killed in the war. She gave We
51:33 sold everything she had. We were big, you know, and selling everything, putting the money into Bibles. And of
51:39 course, I didn't believe in spending any money on the wedding. No money for rings, no money for honeymoon. and we're
51:45 just, you know, we're in a war. I was big on warfare. And so we went right to
51:50 Mexico and everything I asked her to do, she did it. I mean, we had a fantastic
51:55 marriage for several weeks.
52:02 Then she read the other verses. Husbands, love your wives as Christ
52:09 loved the church. January 31st, our 60th wedding
52:14 anniversary. I celebrate 60 years of uh
52:20 semifailure trying to obey that verse, but I'm still working at it. So if you
52:26 have Yeah. God's grace. So if you have areas of struggle, if you
52:33 have areas of difficulties, if you at times feel you're failure, you're not doing so well, let me tell you, God can
52:39 use you. God can use you. If he could use a character like me,
52:46 then God can use anyone. My final story that's inspired a lot of people. You may
52:51 have heard it on the internet, but a family was in a terrible thunderstorm.
52:57 Even the adults were nervous about the lightning. Then they realized their the little 70-year-old was alone up in her
53:04 bedroom. They ran upstairs, expected she'd be hiding under the bed. The little girl's looking out the window.
53:11 Another flash of lightning. They said, "Are you okay?" The little girl smiled. She said, "I'm fine. I believe God is
53:18 taking my picture."
53:24 God is taking your picture. So, you better behave or repent and keep running
53:31 the race. Amen.
53:42 We want to thank Dr. George Weber and um what an amazing testimony, isn't it, of
53:48 God's grace and work in our lives. But I think what is more inspiring than than just all the stories I I I I can't wait
53:55 to get to that age where I have all these kind of stories to share and people will laugh at how me and my wife
54:01 have all these things. But I think one of the greatest privilege and hearing
54:06 all these kind of things the stories is how he has served God faithfully all these years.
54:12 Uh sorry trying to multitask at the same time and here we are. I think this
54:19 reminds us that all of us are called all of us have a mission uh that God and
54:25 it's God's mission to seek and save the lost. And I hope our stories will be as fascinating too as we come along this
54:32 journey. And I hope you've met God today. I I I I felt God's presence right from the beginning through the entire uh
54:39 stories that I am hearing. And I I I I don't know. I just want to respond by singing. That's my default because I
54:45 told you I feel like life is a musical, isn't it? You know, I just want to break out in song. So will you break out in
54:51 song with me to sing this song and say, "Holy, there is no one like you. There's
54:56 none beside you. And I want to be sent out to show the world that you are real
55:02 and that your love is so real. Can we stand?
55:20 Oh Lord, thank you for your love.
55:26 Thank you for saving a wretch like me. I want to give my life for your glory.
55:35 Oh, there's none like you. I want to worship you. You are my king.
55:43 You are my king. I sing it
