George Verwer

George Verwer was born on July 3, 1938, in New Jersey to George Verwer Sr. and Eleanor Caddell Verwer who were Dutch immigrants. He was raised in Wyckoff, New Jersey, where his father worked as an electrician. Verwer's family attended a Reformed Church of America congregation. His father rarely attended church, and Verwer is said to have attended in order to socialize.

As a youth, Verwer had a reputation for mischief, notably setting a fire in a Bergen County forest, and getting caught by the police breaking into a neighbor's home.

Conversion

As a result of his incidents of youthful mischief, a Christian acquaintance, Dorothea Clapp, gave Verwer the Gospel of John and is reported to have prayed that the young Verwer would convert to Christianity; Verwer would later say that Clapp put him on her "Holy Ghost hit list". Verwer attributed to her some of the reasons that he made a commitment to Christ, and for what later resulted in his life.

In 1955, Verwer was 16 years old and attending Ramsey High School in Wyckoff; he went to a Jack Wyrtzen meeting in which Billy Graham spoke, in Madison Square Garden in New York City, an event that drew the attention of reporters, including Alistair Cooke. There, at the age of 16, he had a conversion experience, and became a Christian. Reporting from an organisation that he later founded, the claim is made that within a year, about 200 of his classmates had become Christians.

After high school, he attended Maryville College; in 1957 he transferred to Moody Bible Institute (MBI), where he also met his future wife, Drena Knecht, a fellow student.

After the MSG event, Verwer is reported to have had a growing conviction to evangelize on foreign soil. He began with distribution of the Gospel of John in Mexico in 1957, along with two friends, Walter Borchard and Dale Rhoton, calling the operation "Send the Light". He continued with other trips to Mexico during the summer holidays.

Verwer used the name "Send the Light" for a book distribution operation to India based in the United Kingdom, which would develop into the Send the Light Christian book distributor in the United Kingdom. In 2007, STL merged with the International Bible Society; in 2009 the new company changed its named to Biblica.

Operation Mobilisation

After graduation, George and Drena went to Spain. In 1964, while taking Bibles into the USSR, George was arrested and accused of being a spy, and was deported.

By 1961, he had returned to Spain, where he conceived of the work that became OM.

Operation Mobilization was officially launched in the middle of 1962.

In August 2003, Verwer handed over the international leadership of the work of OM to Peter Maiden, but remained associate international director for 15 further years. In particular, Verwer and his wife remained involved in Special Projects Ministries which involved full-time work.

In 2023, there were 6,500 OM staff and volunteers around the world. OM worked in 120 countries.

Verwer married Drena Knecht and they had three children.

George often referred to himself as "God's Bungler", an allusion to Brother Andrew being called "God's Smuggler".

Verwer died on April 14, 2023, at the age of 84.