Operation Mobilization

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Operation Mobilization has over 5,400 workers from 92 nations working in over 112 countries. OM seeks to help plant and strengthen churches, especially in areas of the world where Christ is least known.

1 Core Values
2 Ministry
3 Statement of Faith
4 History
5 Ministry Countries
6 External Links

[edit] Core Values

Knowing and glorifying God
Living in submission to God's Word
Being people of grace & integrity
Serving sacrificially
Loving & valuing people
Evangelising the world
Reflecting the diversity of the body of Christ
Global intercession
Esteeming the church

[edit] Ministry

OM ministries include two ships, literature, creative arts, friendship evangelism, Bible studies, video and cassette tape distribution, correspondence courses, relief and development work, TeenStreet and more. Wherever possible, Operation Mobilisation works in partnership with the local church, encouraging and supporting local believers. Where there is no church, OM teams focus on planting churches.

[edit] Statement of Faith

that the Scriptures, both the Old and New Testaments in their original texts, are fully inspired by the Holy Spirit, without error, and are the final authority for the Church.
that there is one God, eternally existent in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
in the absolute deity and full humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ. We believe in His virgin birth, His sinless life, the authenticity of His miracles, His vicarious and atoning death, His bodily resurrection and His present mediatorial work in heaven.
in the personality and deity of the Holy Spirit. We believe He gives life, He sanctifies, He empowers and comforts all believers.
that man was originally created sinless. Tempted by Satan, man fell and thereby brought the whole race under the condemnation of eternal separation from God.
that man is saved through repentance and faith in the finished work of Christ. Justification is through grace alone.
that the Church is the body of Jesus Christ composed of all true believers. The present work of the Church is the worship of God, the perfecting of the saints and the evangelisation of the world.
in the personal and bodily return of the Lord Jesus Christ to consummate our salvation and establish His glorious Kingdom.

[edit] History

Operation Mobilization (also spelled Operation Mobilisation) traces its roots to the prayers of an American housewife. In the 1950s, Dorothea Clapp began to pray faithfully for the students in her local High School. She asked God to touch the world through the lives of those young people. Mrs. Clapp gave a Gospel of John to one of the students, George Verwer, who later gave his life to the Lord at a Billy Graham meeting.

At college, George and two friends met regularly to pray. They became burdened by the spiritual needs of Mexico. In 1957 the three friends sold some of their own possessions to raise money and gave up their summer holiday to distribute Gospels and other Christian literature in Mexico. The friends returned the following summer and the next.

In 1958 a second time George Verwer together with Dick Davis, Wes Fitting, Henry Digby went back to Mexico and actually started a ministry — opening a Christian bookshop in Saltilloand then Monterrey. Baldemar Aguilar became their first full time worker of the movement. A Bible correspondence course was launched as well as a radio broadcast. Officially the movement was registered in New Jersey under the name Send the Light. Send the Light is still the literature arm of Operation Mobilization.

When they graduated in 1960, George and his friends traveled to Europe. They began work in Spain, sharing the Gospel and distributing literature. But the task of reaching the whole of Europe seemed overwhelming.

George and his small team realized God's plan was to mobilize His church to reach the nations. As they began to share their vision, hundreds of Christians responded and Operation Mobilization was born.

By 1963, 2,000 Christians had joined summer outreach teams in Europe. At the same time, the first year teams moved into the Indian sub-continent and the Muslim world. Their commitment was to reach those who had never heard the Gospel.