Cd Gv125 Gv's 50th Birthday

At this point I wanted to just share a little bit, very briefly, because most of you have heard this story. Just what happened March 4th, 1955. I was 16 years old, and I don't find it easy to keep sharing my testimony.

I've spoken about 20,000 times since that night, and many, many times. Often on request, I share my testimony, and I can assure you I don't glory for my testimony, or that it was a Billy Graham meeting, or anything that I ever did before I was saved, but I just glory in Jesus' mercy and grace to save me and keep me going. And Drina converted to Christ the same year.

But I do want to, and this is being recorded and videoed, I do want to pay tribute to Billy and Ruth Graham. They never let me down as spiritual parents. I've only met Billy twice, just very briefly, in Urbana.

Once here in London, he didn't even know who I was. He just came into his office and graciously said hello to some of us who were just sitting there. And it's amazing that Billy Graham will be going back to New York City this June, if his health permits, and I just thank God.

He's not perfect. You've read books about him and read his own books. I've listened to his biography on cassette.

I can tell you even the woods where I was walking when I listened to that in Grand Rapids. And I think he's a really humble, honest man who's acknowledged his mistakes and his complexities with Nixon, which is very real to me because two years later was the famous crusade. I was not saved in the famous New York City crusade that caused such a controversy in America.

But two years before that, by 57, we were hiring coaches and taking them in. That's when my father, who'd stood up in one of my own meetings, wanted to make sure he was working as a steward or an usher, and I think he made another decision at the Billy Graham meeting. Some of us take several times to make sure we're over the hill.

And I was in the preparation meetings with some of the people of prayer in 57, and the man who closed in prayer at Yankee Stadium just before Dale and I went to Mexico was Richard Nixon. So that bit of history is a little bit real to some of us. But my grandfather was from the Netherlands.

He and my dad came over to New York area. Grandfather was an atheist. My other grandfather was Irish, Scottish, and English blood.

I think that's probably toxic. His father and mother were married. My daughter, who's into genealogies, were married and poured it down in about 1875 and then immediately went to Glasgow and then went to America.

And I'm sorry to say that grandfather, who I only met a few times in my life, he was an alcoholic. The last time I saw him, he was dying of alcoholism. And I think that's one of the reasons that even before I became a believer and drinking was a big thing in my culture, I never did get into that.

When I got saved, you wouldn't want to hear my messages against drinking. Like so many things in my life, I became a little extreme and thought it was sort of the devil's brew. And I so thank God for Europe and especially Spain that just helped me to become more real and more human and realize what were the important issues and what were issues that may have significance but they're not what Christianity is all about.

Some of you know the story goes back to Mrs. Clatt, this woman near my high school, never met her. She had this passion to see missionaries go out from Ramsey High School. She put my name on her Holy Ghost hit list and prayed for me for a couple of years.

Her son, Danny, sent me this Gospel of John. It was actually she who sent it but Danny signed the letter. He was working in the Jack Wardston famous Word of Life camp.

And with that letter came this Gospel of John that I started to read and prepared me for that Billy Graham meeting on March 4th in Madison Square Garden which was an anniversary meeting for Jack Wardston, a converted band leader who founded these Word of Life camps. I was just in one just recently in Kenya, an amazing ministry. I sat as far away as I could.

Somebody said, Billy Graham's a hypnotist. The people I was associated with were not into that kind of, that was called hot religion. And so I actually brought my binoculars.

I brought this gal who was my age and in my culture. You didn't always tell girls that you were absolutely madly in love with them if they were your same age because all the ones your age were dating guys two years older. So this was sort of a platonic thing.

And her name was Nancy. She died of cancer in her 30s. But I brought her to this meeting because a friend asked me to go and a business person gave me a free seat on a bus.

And I want to pay tribute with all my heart to the business people who behind the scenes make things happen. In the church we often look at theologians and pastors and missionaries and bishops and characters like Billy Graham or characters like even myself. But it's often the lay people that are making it happen.

And it's lay people more than any other single group. It's the whole body really, but it's lay people who made it happen in our movement. And it's this business person, Mr. Gallenkamp, who later joined the board, gave me the seat on this bus.

I went into this huge Madison Square Garden, sat as far away as I could with my binoculars, and heard the gospel. I had become a churchgoer. There were so many nice-looking girls in the church, and it was so much fun.

It was a very liberal church. It was like a local town social club. But I never heard that Jesus Christ died for me or that he expected me to do it today, especially repent.

It's not really my big thing at 16. Billy Graham, I think he still says it the same way, doesn't he? You're walking in one direction, you stop, and you go in God's direction. How many people here came to Christ or were greatly blessed through the ministry of Dr. Billy Graham? Would you raise your hand? That is absolutely incredible.

That's about 10% or 15% of the people in the room. If you have a chance to write him a letter before he takes off to heaven, even if he doesn't see it and he may see it, it would be a blessing. Because Billy and Ruth had some real heartbreaks in the past years, I can assure you, with their family and other things and illness.

And as people get older, they can always use those letters and notes of encouragement. So that night I walked forward. Initially I didn't go.

I prayed for this girl next to me. I was president of the youth fellowship. I was the assistant to the pastor by then.

I was about to be given a God and country award in the Boy Scouts. Do I really need to repent? And so I prayed for her, and as I prayed, it just happened. I knew this was for me, and I went forward in this huge place.

I was weeping by then, and I believed with all my heart, and I think really made a commitment to world evangelism almost at the same time. Only when I get to heaven will I understand fully how this all works. But I can say this with absolute integrity, every single day, every single day since that moment, Jesus Christ has been a reality in my life.

Not in the absence of doubts and struggles and tears and stupidity, but in the midst of all that. And I look back and give thanks for so many people in my town who when they heard about my conversion, they put me on their prayer list, some I was already on. Mrs. Claps, especially.

And as I look back, I feel incredibly indebted. And tonight, and this is one of the reasons I've kept the program in my hands, tonight really is not about me, it's about Jesus, it's about the Holy Spirit, and it's about you. And it was my, and forgive me if I tricked you to get you here, to thank you, to thank you with all my heart for your faithfulness and your prayers.

Some of you don't know me that well and therefore you don't know how many struggles and how many difficulties and heartbreaks my wife and I have been through in our life, and I'm sure many of you can relate to that. And as I look around, most of you, I pray for you personally, and I know you've been through challenging and stretching and sometimes heartbreaking experiences. So thank you for your prayers, thank you for being here tonight.

We were overwhelmed with emails from all over the world and phone calls apologizing or giving their blessing and explaining why they couldn't be here when I saw the snow this morning. Knowing the English adjustment to snow, I thought, you know, there may only be a few of us here tonight, so thank you for going the extra mile and we want to continue to pray for you. God sent me back to my high school that that lady was praying for for 15 years and we saw a Holy Ghost and break.

Just from the moment I got back to the high school, people just started coming to Christ. Prayer groups were started. In those days, you were allowed to do things in school time.

I got permission to give out Gospels of John. A thousand Gospels of John went out in that high school only to people who promised to read them. And then we had this bigger meeting.

After I went off to college, I came back and that college is where I met Dale Roton, who was probably one of the greatest influences in my life. He was a sophomore, I was a freshman. I was warned about him.

This was a very anti-evangelical place, a bastion of the great liberal theology and ecumenicalism. Anybody who came in there, believed in the Bible, they were pounced on. They banged on my door.

Jesus saves! Green stamps! That's what people used to say. Stamps. I was told Dale Roton, he's a total fanatic, he's baptizing people in the showers.

And so I immediately wanted to meet him. He didn't actually baptize me, but it was several years later and it was not in the flower, in the showers, contrary to what the rumor is. But that was the place, Maryville College.

We only stayed there a year or two. And I went back to Christmas break and 600 students, this is not an exaggeration, came to that meeting in the high school auditorium, including my father. I just shared a simple gospel and when I gave the invitation, 125 of my fellow students stood up and believed on Jesus and a movement was born, which only became known in Europe years later as Operation Mobilization.

One woman, one high school, one Gospel of John, the prayers of God's people. One of the reasons I'm willing to tell that story even again is because that is not copyright. And you can tell that story wherever you want, you don't even need to mention the names if you don't want.

Because that's how God works. Mrs. Clout never became famous in this world, but the treasure in heaven that must have faced her when she eventually went there. I finally visited her in a nursing home and she was a little bold in her witnessing and would go door to door in a nursing home more or less telling folks, you know, you don't have much time, it's heaven now.

I think they wanted to move her out to a different nursing home, but she hung in there over in Nursing Home Paradise in Pennsylvania. So that's my testimony in a nutshell. We then went to Mexico, Dale, I, and one other person, Walter Borcher.

We saw that God could use ordinary people even in a foreign culture. And that became one of the birthplaces of short-term missions. And we're not going to give you much more history, but I would like now those who got involved with us in those early days when we were really, humanly speaking, we were next to nothing, back in the 60s, I'd like anybody who got involved in the 60s with OM to please stand up at this time.

I want to pray for you, I want to honor you. There may only be a few. You went in 62, 63, maybe you came here in 65.

Okay, please come forward. I wasn't sure how many. Please come forward.

Please, please, this is your birthday present to me. Quickly. This is the 60s people.

I think I know every one of them and pray for every one of them. Thank you. This mic, can we turn this on? Thank you so much.

Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Just push that back.

We want you to just give your name and tell where you went when you first came on. You can't give us your OM history. Some of you have been in ten different fields over I don't know how many years.

We're going to start with a name named Doug Evans. It would be worth having a meeting tonight if the only person that came was my friend Doug Evans. We haven't seen each other, raise your hand, for 45 years.

And he met me at Moody. And in those days, we were very strict. You'd pay your money in or you don't go.

And it really seemed impossible because he was from New Zealand. And the money came and you went to Guadalajara with Dale and I in the Christmas of 1959. So I'm going to go over to Doug.

And of course, I want to give him your name. Excuse me. And just, well, it was Mexico, what year? It was 59 or 60, I think.

Yeah, it was 60, I think. So good to see you. Give you another hug, Doug.

Thanks for coming back after all these years. When we went to Guadalajara, the locals stoned us. They threw bricks and sent a telephone.

But it was like angels came out of nowhere and rescued us all. And they distributed all the Gospels for us. So wherever we went, they came forward, the children, and said, Jesus is coming! He's coming now! So, it's so good to see you.

We're going to start over here and just hand the mic one after the other. Thank you. Peter Conlon, some of us were stoned when we joined our end.

We were a typical era then. Yes, 1967, full time. But, Rosie, when was it? 65, summer campaign.

Peter's going to come back. He doesn't know that, but... Roger Penny, 66 is when I joined. Owen, Spain, and it was a great joy and I've been the same since.

Peter Thompson, 65, and I, and Darren Penny. Hello, Thompson. I was, I think it was 62, and then, there were 300 of us in France, was it? 63.

63, and then 64, when there were 3,000 of us. And then, later on, I came over to and helped the conference. So, that's where it began.

Jennifer Weir, 1962, 63, Italy. Lou Stone, 62, start, not the finished sheet one. John Brown, 63, 64, summer crusades in Italy and New York, and then, 66 in his own, and then, I was in Cary Baptist Church in Preston, Lancashire.

George came and blew our youth group apart. That summer, I was in, in Lavalais, for two weeks, eventually stayed for years and years, went to about 50 countries. Mike Walsh, my, yeah, my Walsh.

Kirsten Morris, 65, Spain, and still, don't start. I know what's, out of the way. Jane Meaney, was with the conference in Switzerland and then we came back, I don't even need to say this place.

We'd be in prayer fellowship with them, was there at the prayer meetings when we were praying for the first boat, and ever since, and my husband went around telling them, when you did the march, you all put your own sleeping bags. Gayle Enderstein, 1966, June 6th, 1916, Flint, which means Prussia. With us for many, many years.

OK. Gene Davy, Mexico, 1958. David, France, 1963.

Jerry, quickly, how did you meet this young lady? Tell us a little bit of history there, Jerry. I blame my brother. He was on your team the year before.

Later they told me how marvellous it was. Whilst I was living in the States at the time, I came back for the summer, maybe between that. Got orientated towards India, that didn't work out.

I was asked to stay here. Gene was Georgia's secretary. I did, as it will happen.

How long were you originally planning to come for a year, right? Well, originally it was three months. And how long did you stay? Forty-one years. Forty-one years! My name is Emmy Eaton.

I was in GLS when George Walton did a short panel with Rick Thompson. And he introduced me. In the 60s.

63. Right. And then it was our privilege to restock our oil.

Because nobody knew oil in India. And so they had the letterhead printed under the umbrella of GLS. Gospel Literature Service.

So that's how, in the election, I had the privilege of printing the first plaques for oil in Bombay and helping them. And I still continue to pray for him. Total surprise to see you here.

God bless you. Okay, quickly around the other side. Keith Locke.

I was in Italy in 63, 64, 65. And then 65 to 67 in India. Mike Wadley.

My first summer crusade was 1965. And then I went to India in 1967. Kirsten Wakely.

France, 1967. And so on. Still with us.

Dave Brown. 1968, summer crusade in Italy and a few other places after that. Dave Brown has been faithfully running the Wesley Owen Bookshop from its very beginning.

How many years... Well, it goes back to 40 years ago, but Wesley Owen goes back to... 92. 92. God bless you.

If you haven't visited Wesley Owen in Bromley lately, you need to go there. Anybody can hear it goes there. I'm sure Dave can work it out to give you a free book and send you... I had a long talk with Keith Danby on the phone this morning.

He's very supportive. Howard Norrish. 63 in France.

Norrin Norrish, 65. Last Muslims in Paris and then in Downton. 64 at a weekend conference.

I'm Jenny May here. 64 at a weekend conference in Malton. And then summer, 65, I think 67, 68, and then full-time 69 in Turkey.

Thank you. So glad you came. André.

André Bretagne. I start with George where the Ayatollah was. Jonathan Wachowski was my leader.

After I go everywhere, with the Muslims, everywhere. Thank you. And I've got a copy of my book in French just for you.

I don't want to give it up for a long time. Okay. I'm going to ask P.J. Thomas, one of the captains of our ship ministry, to come and just give thanks for what he did in the 60s.

You were with us at that time, but you were in Singapore when we first went to buy the ship, which was 1970. I think you were involved with the Marine Department in Singapore. Thank you for those days and then ended up captain of our ship.

P.J. Thomas, come. You can use this mic. And just give thanks for what he did in the 60s.

You don't have to thank the Lord for everybody by name, just in general. Remember, gee, what's happening? It's important. Father God, we just want to thank you for your faithfulness for over these years.

Even as we come to foil, we just want to thank you for each person standing here. Thank you for being with them in the good times and the bad times. And thank you, Father, for what we see today and the encouragement he has given to women that have gone with them in different teams and different meetings.

We just give you all the praise and all the glory for our God. Because when we are weak, the Lord is strong. You, whom we see now, you have proved yourself over and over again, Father, that you are a faithful God.

Thank you for your faithfulness, Father. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Thank you. I'd like Peter Mayden and Mike Wilkes to remain behind and everyone else can have a seat. Thank you for being here.

One of the greatest blessings in the ministry of Ohio is so many people from the 60's, that's a long time ago, are still with us, supporting the ministry financially, praying. They are now sending their sons and daughters. Some of us will soon be sending our grandchildren.

That is so exciting. We have the first person to ever do a lineup for the ship ministry. Mike Wilkes, do you remember? Yeah.

The port of London. You were sort of on your own, weren't you? I was, yeah. Philip Morris was involved, wasn't he? Yes, he was.

He came to give lecture. There was a guy who came on the logos and he said, you know, I'm giving this project one year. Yeah.

And... Real optimistic guy. Yeah. And it's just amazing that the ship ministry has continued all these years.

We now have that new ship, Logos Hope. And we want to be in much prayer for that. And then we have Peter Conlon.

Come and stand on the other side of me. And Peter is the longest serving lineup person in the ship ministry. Still in lineup, overseeing lineup, going to the impossible situations, China, India, even nations like we haven't heard of.

Peter, what has kept you... So many come on for a couple of years and go. And we acknowledge that as part of the original vision. You've come, you've met Berdina, and you've stayed... How many years is it now? It's moving towards 40, isn't it? It's moving towards 40.

You don't even look 40. That's so amazing. Peter is also known as the best emcee of meetings like this.

Well, that's true. You just... Humility is very hard to take. You see, I'm usually on the other end of the line.

He can put me on the spot and my wife. So this is my chance. But really, what has caused you to stick in this thing 40 years? And with that, how did you actually get involved in the first place? I think what has caused me to stick is really right here in this room.

It's the relationships that God has given us. And one relationship is a little bit of history, and that is PJ Thomas sitting right there who just prayed. Because one of George's great gifts is not only the faith that God has given him, but it's his ability to send people into faith-stretching situations that get you out of your depth.

Have you ever been in that situation? George sent me in 1970 to Singapore to... not to line up, to register the log-offs. I knew nothing about ships. And I flew to Singapore thinking, what in the world am I doing? And I found the Singapore Marine Department and I knocked on the door and opened the door and it was a young, handsome, Indian naval officer.

He looked up, he said, can I help you? That was PJ Thomas. Hallelujah! Praise the Lord for PJ Thomas! And God gave PJ the vision and the idea of how he could get the ship registered. So that's the relationship we've had for all these years.

And that really is what took me in Operation Mobile. If you want to know why I joined, it's because as a weak, struggling Christian with so many doubts and fears, so many disappointments, as a young Christian disappointed in myself, I spoke with George and he just sensed, I don't know, you actually said to me, I don't want to join ON, I want to join me. So I've never filled out an application form, as far as I know, to join Operation Mobilization, but I actually joined you as your gofer.

You're staying an extra year, aren't you? The only one that needed two years. Actually, my introduction to George was at Bible School, listening to Philip's reel tapes, before cassette tapes. And when the batteries were down or the power surge, you sounded like a chipmunk.

You know, the speed wasn't quite right but there was something about that, so radical, that just gripped me and that's really why I got involved. If I had my act more together, I would have asked Peter to bring his guitar and sing, because that's what we did when we were together. And I'll never forget, I don't know how this happened, he still doesn't know how it happened, word got out that he was a great musician.

And Wheaton College had a full Peter Conlon concert. Anyway, they never recovered. Revival came later.

Praise the Lord. People, that's our business. It's God, worshiping God, knowing God, and then it's people.

Not just evangelizing, but serving, helping, doing whatever we can. And that's why we wanted to dedicate tonight to the tsunami. Around the same time that I made the decision about this little event, which initially was like a whim.

We haven't had so many meetings here lately. Things have changed. The axis and the coordination of OM is not from here anymore, it's from Carlisle.

It was previously Carlisle and here. And yet a lot of people are still connected with OM in southeast London, serving Christ in all different ways. And we're in the process of a decision that will, Lord willing, make Mike Wakely the leader of the Southeast OM fellowship with all these different people praying together and serving together, though often under different leaders, different fields.

And then Kenny Gannon, B. Lee, will lead, especially those who are right connected with this building. This decision is in process right now. We need your prayers because we sense God's great purpose for what He has given us here as OM owns this property and has given the church a huge, huge, what is it, 999-year lease as they're such a vital part.

And we were able to sell off the back part of this garden. This was a nine-year prayer. And 10% of that money, a very large sum of money, was given to over 100 mission agencies across the world.

And then a lot to Turning Point, that work among Muslims here in London. And at this point, I would like Randy Lawlor to just, if you can, just come forward for a moment. I saw Randy.

Maybe he's had to go. There he is. Just come.

In a nutshell, Randy, tell us your vision for London because what Randy and his team and all the team members, could you stand, Turning Point team? Please stand. Thank you for coming. Incredibly busy people.

Unbelievable. Just in a nutshell, Randy, how can we pray? What's the vision? And tell them about this new training base. They're all going to want to visit you soon.

Great. Well, it's a pleasure to be here. Our vision continues now.

We've been actually, we've got 25 years in London to reach Muslims, train for Muslims. And we've, in the last few years, really got into church planting. Very exciting.

We actually have MBB fellowships now going in London. We talk about getting MBBs together and seeing God work. And this is something that's actually happening in London now.

Very exciting. The last five years, we felt we needed a center to actually train more people. Last year, we trained over 300 people.

Came from about 25 different countries up in North London. And the training center has been a great blessing to bring more things together. We've had more conferences.

We've had the Algeria Day there. We've had the Joint 6-4 meetings there. We have special meetings to try to deconstruct Islam.

These scholars around the world that are meeting there. You can pray for us because we're still about one period left to finish that training. Excuse me.

Finish that training center. And of course, our joy is just to train more and more people from all over the world to understand Islam and how to reach out and love to Islam and to hopefully go out to all the other parts of the world. It's a pleasure that we actually have people serving all over in the Muslim world.

People that have gone through Turning Point and actually training and serving both in O.M. and in other missions. I never try to count all the numbers of those that have gone through. But God has blessed us a lot with a remarkable number of people.

Probably in the last days the most exciting is our fellowship with a whole lot of other groups. And when I think about the ministry wouldn't exist without the fellowship that's going on with a lot of British churches, American churches, other missions now using us to send their people for training instead of duplicating what's going on. So it's very exciting to actually be able to partnership together in the Muslim ministry right here in North London.

Thank you. Thank you too. Do meet Randy.

We hope people will not run off after the meeting but meet different ones that you've maybe seen in the distance. And I really believe this with all my heart. For us as British people this is our adopted country to send missionaries all over the world to reach Muslims and Hindus at considerable expense with a fair amount of attrition.

People going out first term never going back. We're still committed to that you can be sure. But to do that and not send people across the street not mobilize our churches to reach these people right in our midst surely this is this is almost schizophrenic.

And we've got to see more breakthroughs in reaching cross culturally in our nation here. And these people at Turning Point they really are on the cutting edge. And we need to pray for them.

I was just at another one of their prayer meetings there recently. It's just great to be there. Try to visit them.

Encourage others. And I have this prayer burden because they don't get that many British people committed to this. They come from Korea.

They come from all over to see more British people committed to working among Muslims. There are other groups doing this. We praise the Lord for that.

But it's a huge huge challenge. I want those now who somehow got involved with us in the 70s we're not going to ask you to come forward. But those whether you went on or just started to pray.

Prayer is just as important as going. So if you started praying for a land about the time you got the first ship that was 70 it sailed in 71 from London. Doreen and I we had a family who were on it.

So we remember well all around Africa. And it's just so exciting to think back 34 years and more of the ship ministry which is about one fourth of O.M.'s total ministry. But if you got involved in the 70s I wonder if you could just stand up.

I might just choose to introduce a few of you. The Armstrong. You got involved in the 60s.

And Matilda when did you come? 72. 72. They're two of the most faithful couples.

And they're doing a video tonight. Thank you. Come along to the prayer meeting.

Thank you David and Matilda. And Philip Rice here is one of my sort of subgroup for special projects that I'm accountable to. But originally did EBE bookkeeping.

And Andy Baldwin here was the leader of the work in Turkey for years and years. And came back and works for Turks with the Turks with Turning Point. And Alan.

PJ Thomas. Come on up here. Let's have these two people come up here.

Griffiths. Come on. And who else came? Give your name.

Mike Grimshaw behind you. Trevor. Good to see you.

The lady way in the back. Come on. Francie.

Way in the back. Yeah. Sorry.

Did I say Griffiths? I thought it was your name. My name. You made a much bigger impact on me than him.

Just to let you know. Roger. I'm going to be at Roger's wedding.

Wait. What's the date on that, Roger? Can anybody go to the wedding or invite Omar? Wallers. And Steve.

And who else? The 70s. There weren't so many in the 70s. Let's just pray.

Lord, I thank you for those that got involved in the 70s. Including some of those who stayed out from the 60s. Thank you for raising up the ship ministry.

Sending it out. All the people around the world. Millions and millions of people that eventually were to go up and be ministered to through the ships.

Perhaps 30 million or more. Another 100 million reached on shore or some other way through just a visit. What can we say? We give you the praise.

We give you the glory. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Francis, when did you first come? 73. And did you go right into the ship? I did. I heard about the ship at Wheaton College at Wheaton Graduate School.

You came in 72 and the ship was just moving out and we were so excited and I said, I have to go to that ship. And that was just my dream to get on that ship. Wow.

Well, Dave, I remember you. We were in the intensive training kind of thing. That was a pretty hard program.

I remember you. I remember you. I remember you.

I remember I remember you. I remember you. I remember I remember you.

I remember you. I remember you. I remember you.

I remember you. I remember you. I remember you.

I remember you. I remember I remember you. I remember I remember you.

I remember that's God's prize to you for not killing your own kids. Thank you so much. We are with AWM, Arab World Ministries.

Oh yeah, give them a commercial. Yes, but what I'm saying is we're also one of the many who have left the room to go on with others. And we are now 20 years plus, 23, 24 years with AWM.

So it's exciting. It's exciting to see both of you pressing on. David Lundy, the head of Arab World Ministries, just had our tour meeting right here in the building.

And gave a great message, written a number of books. So he was at AWM, I guess, 27 years. Now how many of you met ON somehow in the 80s? You're a little late comers.

You're young, stand up. Okay, just give us your name. We'll start over here.

Shout it out real loud. You don't have it much like I do. Come over from Atlanta to be with us.

Thank you. Gary Barnes. Gary.

We had supper together, good to see you. Neil. Down from the black country, he's been here ever since.

In the back. Good to see you, Stephen. Stephen always comes to our Christmas party.

It's sort of a typical ON thing. We drink mainly Coca-Cola or water, I guess. And Stephen always shows up a little late and he has a nice bottle of wine.

He just goes from table to table offering wine. And I just felt, always felt that was a testimony to the grace awakening that took place. Keep coming and keep bringing.

You'll need more wine next time. Right there in front. David.

He's such a thankful brother. Ralph also, we see you so often. God bless you.

You take pictures all the time. Tim Wilson. Ricky Wilson.

Part of the EBE board that brought into being the new ship. A lot of people don't know this, but the board was more proactive about getting a new ship than actually the people who were in the ship ministry. So, thank you for that.

We hosted the line-up team. Don Ford, yeah. Hosted the line-up team coming to Peru the first time in the late 70s.

And then got involved in the 80s. This is another man that's a model for me because we don't believe in retirement. It would have been worth having this meeting just for me to say that.

We're not even retiring in any shape, way or form. We've changed our ministry. And you can change your ministry as many times as you want.

You can slow down as you get older. But you cannot, as a kingdom person, retire. If you have any trouble with that, we'll be happy to meet with you personally.

Don was with the Pocket Testament League. He's on our board of directors. Really, that's where the buck stops in Ireland.

And now you're working with... I've been working with World Relief. World Relief. And you've been out in all these different countries.

Yosef was one of the greatest shakers and movers on our team. Shaking and moving Algeria for the Lord. And John Byrne joined us already at the so-called retired years.

And has been going like a Holy Ghost can and ever since. Sitting in the back. We once walked the beach of Aberdeen together.

I'll never forget it. And Perry, Dionne, Ricard. So good to see you again.

They were leaders with you through the mission and Mercy Ships. And now... What's happening now? Dionne is the international media coordinator for Mercy Ships. And I'm back in business as a management consultant.

But I want to say one thing. I got my missions call. Listening to a cassette tape from you.

While I was driving... I used to run Keith Green concerts in the States. I organized them. And on the way to one of them, I was listening to one of George Verwer's tapes.

From Jocowi, Global Conference on World Evangelization. And on the way to that concert, when I was running it, the Lord said... You got a missions call. Don't forget it.

I said, thank you, Lord. There we go. Let's pray for Mercy Ships.

I just had the privilege of an hour and a half with Ann Glod. She told me. Yeah, I'm sure she will.

And we want to pray that ship out of Newcastle. By August, perhaps. Or later or sooner.

But it's going to happen. Six operating theaters. A medical ministry.

We've been linked from the very, very end of the game. We're all on the same team. Did anybody stand and I didn't introduce you? Or did you give your name? Mary.

Mary Brinkley. You already know your name now. We're faithful.

Still working with us. God bless you. Thank you.

I think it's time to sing something else. What do you think? People need to get on their feet. We wanted to sing a real memory lane song.

I was just on the phone with Ray Lynch. How many have ever met Ray Lynch? Yeah. Ray Lynch has visited every nation in the world.

I never thought we'd get him to return to America. That he's in a brethren old folks home in California is beyond comprehension. The place will never be the same.

And Ray Lynch's biography has been published. Getting a copy is not easy but it's out there. He's been not only in every country in the world.

He has preached the gospel in a high percentage of those countries. He's seen more people profess faith in his open air ministry than any one person in the history of our movement. Just the Ray Lynch story in itself is just outstanding.

He eventually found his home really on the Duluth. After Israel and Malta. The Duluth until I think they encouraged him to look for other pastors.

And he went back to Israel and back to Malta. And Ray came and he would always lead us in this song. I think we only know the chorus.

We got the whole thing now. The Lion of Judah. So this is memory time folks.

Not Ray Lynch personally. The Lord Jesus. The Lion of Judah.

Let's sing this with all of our hearts. Who died on the tree To open the fountain For sinners like me His blood is a fountain And for every soul And the juice of promise Forever it flows The Lion of Judah Shall break every chain And give us the victory Again and again For the Lion of Judah Shall break every chain And give us the victory Again and again And I was willing With all things to follow He gave me thy bounty His love in my heart So I will follow him And I will be glad For Jesus' glory And Jesus' blood The Lion of Judah Shall break every chain And give us the victory Again and again The Lion of Judah Shall break every chain And give us the victory Again and again Thank you.

Billy Graves said life at its best Is filled with sadness And many of us in recent years And before that Had had a lot of sadness And on December 26th On holiday with my daughter Our daughter Had seven more in Portugal The news of the tsunami And all the pictures came flooding through Our television And I was immediately on the phone With Sri Lanka, with Gary Dean Who for 25 years was part of this team And now lives in Sri Lanka We started getting involved And it's still happening It's still happening Gary and I, Barnes and I Were fellowshipping He's been involved in the Thailand tsunami And was mentioning containers Are still filled with bodies frozen That they've not identified They're going to give a great message about it But I'd ask of you in the name of the Lord Don't harden your

heart To what has happened there Keep praying Keep grieving A new writer came into my life About a year ago I'm not famous for reading Catholic authors But Henry Nguyen came into my life And helped me understand Because I'm a person that goes through a lot of grief And relate to people quickly And then sort of feel their suffering To a tiny degree And he was a huge help to me Pointing out that grief and grieving Can be part of our worship That worship doesn't have to all be just joy And praise and celebration All of that of course is important But there's a time to grieve With those who grieve Do you remember when Candisa Rice Was interviewed by the Senate And when they got talking about the tsunami She immediately started talking about The opportunity this was For the United States to

help And immediately someone interrupted her And said something along the line of Wouldn't it have been better to Express first of all grief And I agreed And I'm not being anti-Candisa Rice But I think as Christians We often in our desire to be positive And optimistic And see how God is working Through tough situations We come up with these upbeat statements When really first of all There needs to be realistic grief What if you were standing in front of People who had just lost their children Someone who expressed their upbeat thing To how God would work through this I looked them in the eye And I said but what if It was your grandchildren Who were just sucked out into the sea They just stopped cold We were with our grandchildren Two of them We have five The other three are in the states

We were with our grandchildren When this happened And that's what came upon me What if this were our And we were by the sea What if it were our children So let's in our Christian walk As we're older And even when we're younger Learn to weep with those that weep Learn to grieve with those that grieve And I want to express to all here tonight That we are very sorry For people that came on OM And were not helped They were hurt By our insensitivity By my own extremism By legalism Which was in our movement Especially in the 60s Love and grace was always Fortunately was always fighting its way in To get center stage And I think the end of the day Through brokenness and repentance And the message of Calvary Road Grace did get center stage But I think often before that happened People were

sometimes hurt I think of letters I've had From people who laid home Laid back in a church on the floor All day long Sick When their teen was out Distributing literature and evangelizing And they felt forgotten And maybe didn't even get Proper food I hope that didn't happen too many times 130,000 people Have been on OM I meet them everywhere I go Even on airplanes and trains And most of them Are going on forgotten Most of them are positive About their experience with us And of course we acknowledge That for some people Their experience with us was huge Like your husband Ray May Who came to Christ Through OM team going to India But other people Their time with us Was a small thing in their life The president of A Christian college in California Simpson College Until I sat down with him

over lunch I never realized This college president Had been on OM In Spain I believe It was not a huge thing in his life Just a summer In the midst of all the things That happened to us But he said It was a life changing experience It's like a match We used to sing that song I think we've dropped it It only takes a match To get a fire going Somehow Mrs.

Clap And the prayer partners And friends of OM The literature, the books, the meetings Were a match to get a lot of people going I wanted to pay tribute And I might get a little emotional But those of you who know me Know how that is But I wanted to pay tribute To Sunil Paul Thomas Some of us were last together here We've been here since then But some of us The last time we saw each other Was at the funeral of Sunil A 17 year old lad The son of Chaco and Rada Thomas And he died on March 7th, 2003 If you'd like a copy of that A little celebration leaflet Or other info about Sunil I'd be happy to supply that to you And someone referred to the impact Of a cassette I wanted to pay tribute To Alec and Sheila Brackett Faithful to this movement For some 42 or 43 years I came, Green and I, from Spain in 1962 In March or February You can figure that out And Alec Brackett Has been churning out tapes Ever since then There were elderly people Going through a significant challenge Right now up near Manchester So they're not able to be with us I wanted to pay tribute To the founder of this particular church Which at the time was a movement A movement that was misunderstood in its day And sometimes criticized But God used And in God's timing He merged what was happening here In this fellowship With Operation Mobilization And then with Buck Singh of India And that man is Theodore Austin Sparks And that's a book that was written By Angus Gunn as a tribute To Austin Sparks The man who founded this particular ministry And I have the privilege Of not only meeting him But having him as a guest speaker To the OM Conference Right here in this very auditorium Way back in the mid-60s He lived just down Almost where Green and I Parked our car this evening There's so many other people That I wanted to just Bring a word of tribute A word of thanks Some of you are here Some are gone on to be with the Lord All those board members The original board members Most of them gone Alex was one of them Mr.

Dally is still alive I think the others have gone I've been to most of their funerals Men and women who just embraced us When we were just beginning We had no registered organization here We had a little tiny Registered organization in New Jersey Run by my mother And I was preaching in Manchester And some business people Mr.

Alexander among them Came and said Well you need to You know British people Would like to get you organized Especially if you're an American And they said basically You need to get your act together young man And I've always had this gifting When people make suggestions Well why don't you do that for us And so they incorporated Send the light And Operation Mobilization We're not going to get into a lot of history But I pay tribute To the prayer partners The intercessors The financial supporters The giving to OM The story of the release of finance To OM from Britain alone Is a phenomenon And it's still increasing Almost every year Though we know that in Britain today OM is not the latest thing on the block We're not that stupid We're considered old hat All they have to do Is look at the

founder But somehow young people Are attracted to OM Almost as much as ever And Teen Street Something we never had Back in the early days Where young people Between 13 and 17 Can get involved Teen Street attracts 3000 teenagers And staff over to Germany Every summer Brothers and sisters Though we may not be talked about As much as we used to be And a lot of it of course then was criticism That would often Give us recruits better Than being commended Because there were a lot of rebels Around the UK in the 60's Who wanted to join something That was going against the tide It however did not exactly win friends In the church hierarchy In that day And we will get into that story But OM is alive and well There's great unity They just had this leaders meeting in India Peter just shared on the

phone It went really well And we have so much to thank God for Three and a half thousand people now In over 100 nations And yet never losing that emphasis That we want OM To give people a start Give them some training Give them experience And let them go back to their church Let them go back to another mission agency So somehow we've been able to keep that As a cardinal core practice And yet at the same time God's given us enough people We always need more To keep our ministries going Before you leave this evening We want you to visit the book table again We want you especially To pick up one of these Videos From what took place When I stepped out of the leadership In the summer of 2003 We have a lot of extras These are a gift If you can anyway use them We know videos are phasing out

We're doing this on DVD It's not quite ready If you want DVD you see Dave He'll get that to you But if you can handle a video We have a machine that does both Though I can't figure out how to work The DVD section of the machine We would really like you I did for a while and then it lapsed So we'd like you to take One of those videos As a gift Especially if you could show it to others We'd like you to take a cassette That's a message I gave on a Father's Day We'd like you to take this DVD On the new ship On AIDS And on the 10 most impossible Difficult meeting nations in the world One of my most widely Circulated messages In this new century And gives an example Of some of the changes That have taken place Some of the other books on that table And you're going to be thanking Jesus That you

came here to get these books Is true grit Debbie Meroff Who's based right on this team She's been out in the tsunami thing in Sri Lanka Before that she was on a special assignment Connected with HIV and AIDS in Africa That is I believe one of the greatest Christian books That OM has ever got involved with True grit Some of you already got a copy of that This is another one we'd like to give you free This is the book presented to me As a A tribute To my 46 years of leadership in OM There's a picture of my other global jacket And There's a picture of Dreen and I In here but the book isn't Mainly about us it's about Jesus It's about missions We've just done an Indian edition We happen to bring a few of the Indian edition Into England since they cost 80% cheaper than the British Edition And

you're going to just love this book How many of you already have this book Global Passion?

About half of you So the other half Another significant book that's just come out By Joseph D'Souza The leader of the work in India and also the Associate International Leader of the Movement Is Dalit Freedom And I'm just so excited About this book And What can I say This is This represents a quarter of a billion people 250,000 million People The Dalits, the untouchables of India And this is something that we are Very involved in We're seeing many come to Christ The OM teams have seen over 1,000 churches birth In India in the past couple of years Many of those connected with this Movement among the Dalits So that's available AIDS and you The latest most phenomenal partnership in my life Really is with Patrick Dixon And the whole challenge of HIV and AIDS He shared at an OM conference And

almost blew the roof off We were just together in Uganda We want you to read this book We're trying to put this into Dozens of languages It's uphill Because we don't have the funds We're going to take an offering this evening a little later The money will go Some perhaps to the tsunami As there are needs Funds is not the greatest need in connection with tsunami It's organization, it's people It's money already given Getting through to where it's supposed to go It's the battle against corruption And it's prayer Peter and I talked about this on the phone today So part of this offering May go to the tsunami As we see specific opportunities Sri Lanka for example They're wanting hymn books and bibles To replace hymn books and bibles destroyed in the tsunami That's the kind of thing in special

projects We really go for But from the offering tonight The challenge In connection with the prevention of HIV and AIDS Through dynamic communication And teaching tools Will be the priority We hope you'll pick up that book And there are lots of other books there After the first, second or third book If you want then you can leave a donation But the priority Is to help us get the books out Because the cost of postage And we're sending out free books all the time And we want to continue to do that Dave and Pam White Of our book depot in Diehl Because the snow could not be here That sounds strange in England It couldn't come from Diehl because of the snow Really the biggest problem in the British Isles But at least it is right now We also want to give all of you The latest annual report So

this is going to be Distributed as people leave This is hot off the press Some of you probably Don't automatically get this And it's done of course by OMUK Coordinated by Gary Salone This one I think is the international report So this comes out from Peter Maiden up there in Carlisle And we hope if you're ever up that way You'll stop in and see The international office You can visit STL at the same time Down the road It's so exciting I'd like those of you who got involved In the 90s, we're running a little out of time now But we want you at least to stand The 90s All of you are much younger Kyle Young is normally in the States But had business in London And so Bless us with your being here One of my former helpers Got married now Ever since he got married he's had this like permanent Grin

on his face It's good to see you We're not going to introduce all of you And then those of you who got involved later Just in the year 2000 and beyond Would you just stand up I want to just pray for you Others remain standing 90s and 2000 people Lord I just pray your blessing upon those Who are standing We have a lot on our hearts tonight And are sensitive to the time But we believe this is a special occasion And we ask your blessing Upon everyone who's come here tonight As they take these books And videos and cassettes and literature As we fellowship after the meeting We ask for a mighty blessing upon us In Jesus name Amen Thank you very very much I wanted to mention also The name of William Gwee I was never a property person I was in this building On the other end of the building When

this Chinese friend came from Singapore And he heard that We no longer might be able to continue To use this building There was even a period of time Where it looked like maybe the church Wouldn't be able to stay here As there were thoughts of development And Mr.

Gwee Later on the phone I don't remember all the details Said I think you should buy that building He was a property person He had been somewhat generous with our ministry And then when he saw My office I wasn't here very much So I didn't feel I needed much of an office And I had just a little I guess it was sort of a Like a closet That I operated out of That was the final Thing When Mr. Gwee who honors me In his oriental culture He had a lot more honor for me Than the Anglo-Saxons So I'm thinking of moving to Asia But he just couldn't imagine The leader of an organization That he greatly respected Operating in this little office So he thought the best solution Was to just buy The entire property Of course he didn't have enough money For the whole property But he had about half And the next ten years we raised the second half Paying it off over a period of time And so this property belongs to Witness and Testimony Trust Who have really Entitled it to Operation Mobilization So I want to give thanks To this man who Came to commitment in Christ later in his life May and William Gwee He would so love to be with us They're not of great health At this point in their lives And I wanted to pay tribute to another saint Who's gone to be with the Lord One of the most unusual men I've ever fellowshiped with His name Was Robert Van Kampen There's a picture of him He's very controversial in America As he's taken on Tim LaHaye And the Left Behind series With a pretty Big passion And Bob gave one of the other large gifts To make this happen He was very different from me In his way of thinking I never thought I'd become his friend I never thought he would give funds To our organization But we became friends as he was getting More and more ill with An incurable heart disease He went to college with Dale Roton They never knew each other Became one of the wealthiest Christians In the whole of the United States And went to heaven at 62 years of age And an amazing man And his widow Is a great friend And if you'd like a picture of Bob Some of you who know me Know I have trouble throwing things away And I've had a lot of these around For many years So if you'd like a picture of my friend in heaven Bob Van Kampen Who loved us so much And gave a considerable gift To this property You can come and pick that up And I think it will be a blessing to you Some of you have read his book The Sign Or one of his other books So that's exciting The other thing I have here on the table I wanted to give away Was to those of you who came Log Us One I've been saving these posters for 20 years We're in the midst Of a considerable Breakout in our house As far as my wife is concerned It's going backward Because stuff is coming in Faster than we can move it out But if you would take one of these posters Tonight I would be deeply in debt to you We're going to put them up here On the piano I'm sure all of you Some of you will even frame that Mike Wiltshire, where are you?

I think we should honor you Mike has been with the Financial Times And I haven't moved on to a bigger company But you can take that And Mike thank you For standing with us and being with us Tonight Hallelujah Let's just stand and sing another song As we do this In the offering that we're going to take Tonight We want to think beyond putting A pound in a collection plate I don't even know if we have a collection plate In this church But my man Michael who's in charge of these things Will find something Even if it's my hat But we are going to take a collection Or an offering But hang on here Michael, don't go away We would like people To think in terms of what Norm Lewis Another man we want to pay tribute to Called the faith promise And we would like you On this little piece of paper Which only I will see If God puts it on your heart You can put a few pounds in the offering Of course if you have a check You can put a check in the offering And a note, we'd like to get that gift aid money back That's partly what this is about But if You would make a faith promise To the battle against HIV and AIDS And the tsunami If the door opens for something specific We would like you to make a pledge So while we're singing We're going to pass out this paper And if you'd like to make A faith promise commitment It's to Operation Mobilization OM Just write your name And address on that piece of paper Or even just your name And the amount that you would like to give Over the next year In this battle Against HIV and AIDS Which is always together With the proclamation of the gospel And the message of Jesus Christ We will never depart from that So as we sing This next song Great is thy faithfulness Thinking of God's faithfulness These 50 years For some of you more than 50 years We'd like to pass out these pieces of paper And then we'll use that box to collect it If I don't want to I can do that later We can do that later The offering we're going to do at the end The paper is so you have it in front of you While I'm sharing my final thoughts Great is thy faithfulness O God my Father There is no shadow Turning with thee Now day is gone I know that you take him on As long as we have O'er and o'er to be Great is thy faithfulness Great is thy faithfulness Morning by morning Your mercies I see All I have needed Thy hand hath provided Great is thy faithfulness Lord unto me Summer and winter And springtime and harvest Sun, moon, and stars In their courses upon Joy, good, love, anger Great is thy faithfulness Great is thy faithfulness Mercy and love Great is thy faithfulness Great is thy faithfulness Morning by morning Your mercies I see All I have needed Thy hand hath provided Great is thy faithfulness Lord unto me The message that I'm about to share burns on my heart more than almost any other message I've ever preached.

I just preached it to those 2,000 students at the University of Illinois. I've shared it on radio. I've shared it on television.

But there are many of my friends that I've never had the opportunity to share this message. Not that in some ways I think it's more important than messages I've been sharing all through the years. The message of salvation, the message of victory in Christ, the challenge for world evangelism, the reality of people being lost.

But because this is what's happening in my life and what's happening in our movement and I was not the first one to become more challenged and more sensitive about what I'm going to share with you in these closing moments together. I want you to turn to the Gospel of Luke. I wanted to choose a Bible that had emotion connected with it.

And so I chose the Spanish-English Bible that I've been preaching out of for decades in Spanish and in English. And I just thank God. I thank God with all my heart that he sent me to Mexico at 19 years of age.

And I just hope wherever you go you challenge people to get into a poorer, more developing country. A month ago I walked in a slum in Kenya that so reminded me of the first slums I went into in Mexico that changed my life and gave me the passion for the poor. And I'm so sorry that so many people because of the way they are they never get to walk through these slums.

They never get to see how so many are living. We even go and have our holidays in these countries and we do everything we can to avoid the poor except an occasional tip in the restaurant where we may have a meal. And so I just pray with all my heart that you continue to stand with us in sending people on an OM, we call it today Global Challenge.

That's a summer or a short-term trip. And then Global Action. Global Action and our wonderful office at the Quintet with Gary Sloan and all their websites can supply you with all the information you could ever imagine.

But our scripture reading tonight is from the Gospel of Luke, chapter 10. Yes, it's the story of the Good Samaritan. Up till two years ago I never hardly preached on that passage.

The Bible is so big. Some of us get locked into certain things and we miss other things. I'm so thankful for God's mercy toward me as I was so slow at times to capture some things.

In the Gospel of Luke we have the story of the Good Samaritan but we need to start at verse 25. For the sake of the majority I'll read in English rather than Spanish. And unfortunately I've got the wrong Bible.

This is all Spanish. Somebody has to loan me a Bible because I'm not going to read that in Spanish. I realize now that the one with both languages is only the New Testament.

That's the Bible I preach from when I just started preaching in Spanish. Thank you. Starting at verse 25.

Powerful. On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. Teacher, he asked, what must I do to inherit eternal life? What is written in the law, he replied.

How do you read it? He answered, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself. You've answered correctly, Jesus replied. Do this and you will live.

But he wanted to justify himself so he asked Jesus, and who is my neighbor? In reply Jesus said a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, they beat him and went away leaving him half dead. A priest happened to go down the same road and when he saw the man he passed by on the other side.

So too a Levite when he came to the place and saw him passed by on the other side. Hard to believe, isn't it? These two very religious people passing by a man in need. But a Samaritan, we know the Samaritans were enemies of the Jews, as he traveled came where the man was and when he saw him he took pity on him.

He went to him, bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, rode him to the inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper.

Look after him, he said. And when I return, I'll reimburse you for any extra expenses you may have. Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers? The expert in the law replied, the one who had mercy on him.

Jesus told him, go and do likewise. Go and do likewise. If we only didn't have that last sentence.

We could pass this off, as many people in the church have done, as a nice story. We especially used to, in the old days, put it on a flannel graph. Now, of course, it's PowerPoint.

The good Samaritan, the man by the side of the road. It's a great story. If only it had not put in that sentence, go and do likewise.

This, of course, is what we call a small picture. This is one person, two priests, and one Samaritan and an innkeeper. No doubt, this has been done in drama a number of times.

I want you in the remaining time together, and we hope you'll stay and have fellowship, but we know some are under time constraint. But I want you to just be with me for a few moments in what I call the big picture. I want us to look out across the world.

This big globe, which is new, seems to be like a lot of God's people. It's developed some serious leaks, so I won't hold it up here at this present point. But as we look across this world, and you can see it also on my global jacket, I want us to just have the big picture.

I know that when we're listening to a message, it's not always easy. Some of us have been listening a long time, and we're on information overload. But I believe this is incredibly important, what I'm about to share, and that there's something relevant in this for you.

I don't believe we're here by coincidence. So many people emailed us and said they couldn't come. Some people even phoned us from long distances and explained why they couldn't come.

You're here, and you've been a blessing to us just being here. And there are many tears in my eyes as I met some of you and thought of your lives and thought of what you've been through. About 80% of you I pray for fairly regularly, so this is family for my wife and I. And I don't have this opportunity much to share with you that which I often share when I'm out with total strangers.

I've had 60 meetings already this year from January 1st, and each meeting, the passion is there. Each meeting, it's a real experience. You're battling for people's minds, you're battling for people's hearts.

You're battling for the sake of the Muslim world, for the sake of the Dalits, for the sake of the church. And we love the church, and we love the local church. And Owen's commitment to the local church I don't think can be questioned if you look at our track record.

And yet, of course, we're aware of our weaknesses and our failures. So let us look at the big picture, and I want you to look at seven peoples, seven peoples that are lying at the side of the road right now around the world. How we see this in our newspapers, we're aware of these things, what I'm going to share is probably not new to some of you, but I'm praying the Holy Spirit will bring this passage of Scripture into what's happening globally right now, and that you and I will respond.

Firstly in prayer. We can do so much more through prayer. Many people that I interview don't go to any prayer meetings hardly at all.

Yet we see Acts 12 and many other passages, prayer meetings, not just personal prayer, prayer meetings are something that God uses. So we can respond through prayer, we can respond through giving, we can respond through sharing with others, think of Alec and Sheila Brackett, ordinary people, actually in almost an exclusive brethren assembly, where they never even hear about OM, much less the vision and the message. And yet God in His providence brought us, brought Him to us to do electrical work, turned Him and His wife upside down, guarded them when they lost their child in front of that little assembly in a car accident, and has kept Him recording these tapes without charge for 40 years, blessing hundreds of thousands through cassette ministry, not just my ministry, many other ministries, from Stephen Olford, Alan Redpath, to we can't name them all, Jonathan McCroskey, how we would love to have him with us tonight.

Who are these seven peoples? The first are the globally poor. The globally poor. 30% of the people in the world are in extreme poverty.

I ask of you, do not harden your heart, do not think this is not part of the great commission, that slum I just walked through, I don't have time to add on much to the sort of bare bones of this message, so I'm just going to give you sort of the skeleton. But if you could walk with me through that slum and see what I saw four weeks ago, you would understand how I feel constrained to speak on behalf of the poor. There is so much more we can do.

Only 10% of the Christians in Britain are involved in a dynamic way with the globally poor. And maybe 15%. In terms of money, in terms of going, in terms of spreading the vision, and sharing the message with others.

The second person laying on the side of the road is the person with HIV and AIDS. I guess through the grapevine and other methods you've heard that this is sort of my number one passion now, next to winning men and women to Christ. Nothing comes near that.

As Luis Palau once said, and he and I are co-chairmen of the Committee in America to Help Find Funds for Lagos Hope in the United States. He's soon going to sponsor a dinner in Portland, Oregon and invite his major donors to come and hear about Lagos Hope. Is that Christianity? I believe it is.

Not seen very often in the huge battle to find finance in God's ministry. Kay Warren, Rick Warren's wife, gave us a purpose-driven lifebook, almost a global phenomenon as she battles cancer. I spent an hour with her last year.

Her passion is the challenge of HIV and AIDS. Patrick Dixon, sitting with me at lunch on the other side of this building when we had an event to present this challenge to pastors. And at lunch I just shared with him, as I have so much struggle and so much discouragement in all of this, as I shared with him and said, I feel what I'm doing is just a token.

And Patrick looked me in the eye and he said, that's exactly what we need. I want to say that Patrick Dixon has been the greatest single source of affirmation next to my own wife and perhaps my PA and a few other people that I've had in my life the past couple of years. When I was with him in Uganda, he just looked me in the eye.

He knows my eyes tend to water when I talk sometimes. He just looked me in the eye and he said, pay attention now. And he just affirmed what I'm doing, which is so little.

What I'm doing in connection with HIV and AIDS. And if I can do a little bit, then you can do a little bit. I am also over-committed just like you.

I also have a deep commitment to long-term relationships, including people who are dying, including people who are mentally ill, including relatives and loved ones. We have grandchildren, we have children. We're all in this sort of the same ethos of finding we're over-committed.

Not enough time. We still can do something. Even if it's one sentence in the middle of a conversation.

We do get 24 hours a day. Most of them are asleep. Seven at least away.

In my case, that's a whole alternative life because I've got these dreams every night. I've got all these dreams, most of them travel-related for some reason. And quite scary.

Yes, 40 million people are infected around the world. Millions and millions more will be affected. We need to respond.

Reading about it, studying about it, sharing it with our fellowship, becoming proactive. The third group laying by the side of the road are the children at risk. Praise God for Patrick McDonald.

If you ever think that I'm hyper, just fellowship with this Danish-English combination tornado who lives up in Oxford and founded the Viva Network, which has brought together those working among children at risk and gave one of the most impassioned speeches at the Great Lausanne event there in Thailand just a few months ago. He's discovered the church is the biggest, most active body working among children at risk. We're talking about AIDS orphans.

We're talking about street children. We're talking about 25,000 children sold into pedophilia in Sri Lanka. We're talking about children who are suffering from war, fighting in armies, working in factories.

This is a huge area involving tens of millions. We cannot, even as human beings, much less Christians, turn our back on this. And one of the things that happened to all of them in the late 60s and the early 70s, partly through what God was doing in my own life, is He made us more aware of our humanness.

And that's good. I was frightened by it. I was intimidated by it.

I got back into roller coasters, back into films. I wanted to get back into dancing, but my wife wasn't so keen. And I rediscovered culture through the influence of Dr. Schaeffer and realized that we're not just called to prayer and world evangelism.

We're called to live life in its fullness. And that's one of the reasons I've been motivated every single day since my conversion. It's not just prayer and witnessing and spiritual warfare.

It's Grand Canyon. It's roller skates. It's sex with a wonderful wife.

It's playing with the grandchildren. It's smelling the roses. It's seeing another great film.

It's just somehow blooming where I am with all my struggles and doubts and wondering how God ever even could use me in the first place. And so I want to respond in a bigger way in this time of my life. Some of you know I was 10 seconds from death on a railway track in Sri Lanka talking to my PA Vera and getting carried away as they sometimes do on the phone.

The train was headed straight for me and only in God's mercy I decided to step off the track I think to focus on the phone and make sure I didn't trip. I never heard a train. As I stepped off the track, the train went by me.

I found out later many have died on the Sri Lankan railway tracks. One man looking at the train one way and waving the train hit him coming the other way and he went straight to heaven. That was shared with me over lunch the next day.

Somehow God's not done with George Verwer. And I pray that I might be a blessing to the children at risk and encouragement to anybody, anywhere who's working among me sending them money, sending them books encouraging them because the battle is fierce in this area. The battle is fierce.

The fourth person lying by the side of the road is the abused woman. And I want to apologize to every woman here that I was insensitive to women as a young Christian. I was working on it but so slow.

I had some baggage that was given to me I believe by certain kinds of Christians and churches that was not my background. Unfortunately I had a wonderful mother and a wonderful sister and I've always actually had a higher view of women than men. But I didn't know how that worked out in a movement like OM and all the different voices coming at me.

We had women dynamic speakers in the earliest days and yet we had people who didn't believe in that. But that's not what I'm mainly on about tonight. What I'm on about tonight is so many women, so many women are suffering from abuse.

In the United States they just came out last week that one out of every three women in America suffers some kind of sexual abuse. Often within her own step family. It's unbelievable.

What can we say of female circumcision in many parts of Africa? What can we say of men who are spreading HIV to women because they don't tell them that they have it? And in certain cultures, in certain parts of the world what is being done with women in other areas including sexual slavery is just unbelievable. I beg of you to read with a passion Debbie Miroff's book, True Grit which is all about women and their need. The fifth person laying by the side of the road this may surprise you but it's the person that doesn't have a glass of water.

That seems really pretty tame, doesn't it? 30% of the world we're told doesn't have access to pure water. Praise God the church is finally responding to this in the last few years. Mission agencies that are saying we can't just give the water of life.

If they're dead, throw in pure water. Before we get there, how do we give them the water of life? And so now, God's people are beginning to become active concerning this huge crisis. In O.M., the greatest single change in our movement it's taken 15 years and we're still not there is to move from just primarily winning people to Christ training, discipleship, leadership training, church planting renewal, all that kind of ministry to also be more concerned about people's physical needs human rights and social action.

We're probably going to lose a few of our old timers through this change. Some would think George Verro has lost it all together. Where is the old track passing? Loudmouth wins souls now, George Verro.

Let me tell you, he is still here but it's a modified version. Because I kept reading and because I realized that there were certain things that I couldn't see that were in this book and I'm in debt to the Anglican Church and I'm in debt to Tony Campalo and Lausanne and Joseph D'Souza and Peter Maiden and many others who were very patient with me including many of you in my pilgrimage. Now that I'm here, you have to realize when I get to a place, I tend to be a little extreme.

And so I'm trying to find the balance between those values we still have from the old days and from God's word and these new challenges including the sixth challenge and that is concerning the issue of abortion. The abortion victims by the side of the road unborn babies. The greatest single mistake I've made in my life is the failure to speak out as part of God's pro-life movement.

I got confused by certain things. It's amazing because Dr. Schaeffer, my close friend this was the biggest thing in the end of his life. I thought he actually had gone extreme.

Frankie scared me even more and I thought I can't handle this. But brothers and sisters, with all my heart I believe it is wrong. If I say in most cases, some people will criticize me, I've already had that.

But even if we have liberal people and they want to bring up certain cases where the mother may die, the rape involved those cases actually represent a small bit for the sake of time, I'll leave that out tonight. Let's just talk about anything that happens after the first few weeks. We've seen the photographs in the bodies.

This is wrong. I'm willing to leave Operation Mobilization if necessary to speak on this issue. It will not be my main issue and even tonight it is only one out of seven.

And I will send you free of charge up to 500 copies of Randy Alcorn's book on pro-life written for non-Christians and I want to honor the pro-life movement. They made mistakes extremists, one or two murders dragged it into the mud and we grieve over that but I believe, we know thousands and tens of thousands of children now adults are only alive because of those people that even the church wrote off as fanatics, including some of us in Operation Mobilization. And so I see them, also the mothers who later have great psychological and other problems I see the babies and the mothers lying by the side of the road.

Who is my seventh person? Those of you who haven't been around lately you will not guess. It's Mr. Planet. The very planet, the very globe we're living in, in a sense is laying by the side of the road.

You mean to tell me George Burwer has become environmentally proactive? Yes! Hallelujah! And when I picked up another Christian book on the subject this morning I thought, what? I don't have to read this and feel so guilty. We should be concerned about God's creation. We don't have to become extreme.

We're not going to esteem animals as somehow higher than human beings but we can be concerned about the environment. Even for those of us who still have evangelism as our priority in the old-fashioned definition, it would be worth becoming environmentally proactive just so we can speak to all the people in the world who are environmentally concerned and if you don't have any concern at all, they write you off. And I believe from some of our pulpits today, we have men and women and I was probably one of them who are not sensitive enough to what other people believe and I would love to say more about Muslims and Hindus and Dalits and feminists and homosexuals and all kinds of other people because I believe that unless the church somehow learns to enter into their world and Viv Thomas connected with this fellowship here has written on this subject I'd be happy to send you his book Paper Boys and his other books unless we become more sensitive about what non-Christians feel and what they believe and learn how to enter into the world while at the same time abiding in Christ we will continue to lose ground especially in Europe in the church of Jesus Christ.

There are seven people laying by the side of the road if I gave an adopted version of this message to non-Christians and humanists, many of them would respond and they've already just responded and given the biggest amount of money almost in the history of the world to the tsunami crisis. Some groups are having to talk on the phone to try to return some of the money. If people who are humanists who believe in no other life than this one can be so responsive and so compassionate then you and I even though we're over committed and we have our churches we have our existing vision and we feel at least I do, mega limitation we can all do something.

We must not be like the priest and the assistant who somehow, I'm sure they had their reasons right? Very busy in the temple over committed. They had their own congregation. Who was this fellow? He didn't belong to their group.

You and I must not keep throwing up the defenses. We must seek the Lord even in a day of prayer. What would you have me do in the light of this global, unusual, global challenge? Let us pray.

Our God and Father I just thank you. I thank you Lord for the privilege of sharing this burden that you put on my heart. I believe that somehow I've done what you wanted me to do.

I was nervous about even launching this event. Spiritual birthday party, what if I have that money? What if I'm some kind of egocentric Christian leader who wants to celebrate a spiritual birthday party? Probably need counseling. But Lord you gave me the courage.

And so often Lord I've been a coward but you gave me the courage and and others just to launch this with just that one letter, one little invitation. Other people we would have liked to have invited if we had more time we weren't even able to get an invitation to them. So I just thank you for each person who's come here.

And Lord as we sing and as we make a commitment to this great task through prayer and finance we ask that your will, your will be done in Jesus' name. Amen. As we sing this closing hymn together that doesn't mean you have to go.

We'd like you to take out that piece of paper, make some kind of commitment or if you want to put a check or cash into the offering a plate, a box that we pass around of course you feel free to do that. George? Yes? Excuse me, I'm sorry. I know Peter would probably do this if he were here.

I'm going to take the liberty since I'm not an O.M.er. The Bible says to honor your fathers and your mothers. And I would say it for myself that George and Doreena have been very much father and mother to me in my Christian service and I think before we have him I'd like to honor him if we could. Can we just applaud for them and thank them.

I'd like us to sing All Heavens Declare and then at the very end I'd like to sing He is Lord. We'll sing All Heavens Declare remaining seated as they pass this offering plate around and give you a few moments even right now if you want to write out a faith promise not necessarily what you're able to give but what you believe God would enable you to give to this great challenge. Though the priority is HIV and AIDS and the tsunami, I believe as God supplies it will affect every one of these seven people by the side of the road.

We believe that this offering like the loaves and the fishes God will multiply, God will multiply for His glory throughout the nations of the world. Special projects, ministries which I'm the director of we have open doors and projects in 100 countries. We have requests from all over the world sometimes only we ask Him for 100 pounds.

We want to be able to say yes to those requests. So remaining seated All Heavens Declare then we're going to stand and sing after that and I'll leave you. He is Lord.

The song I sung the most in my meetings during the invitation time at the end. First All Heavens Declare. All Heavens Declare.

I am the risen Lord. All Heavens Declare. I am the rising of the Lord.

I am the living and I was born. I am the living and I was born. I am the living and I was born.

I am the living and I was born. I am the living and I was born. I am the living and I was born.

Let's stand and sing He is Lord. In my own discommunication we actually had the offering during the other day. My burden was to have the offering at the end but I need to communicate that clearly.

There may be some that after this message you want to make a commitment so you can fill out that piece of paper we don't want to rush you and you can hand that in at the book table. So let's sing now He is risen from the dead and He is Lord. And He shall come every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

He is Lord. He is Lord. He is risen from the dead and He is Lord.

And He shall come every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Amen. Many, many hundreds, perhaps thousands of churches in Great Britain have been a blessing some of them small, some of them big to Operation Mobilization and we are incredibly grateful.

We have a number of those churches represented here tonight. One of the churches way back from the very beginning in the 60's Christ Church in Bromley has been such a huge blessing to so many of our people. We have Christ Church Beckett also represented here which has been such a huge blessing.

I am going to ask Michael Lawson, we haven't seen much of you Michael since you moved on to more challenging task in the Anglican Church and I would like you to just close and give the benediction at this time. Please do come up here because we would like to just have you pray with me and pray up here together. Let's all be in silent prayer just giving thanks to God.

Praise the Lord. Just to remind us of some words from Olympians chapter 1 and reminding us of the difficult world in which we do mission for Jesus Christ but reminding us of the faithfulness of God who built it for us. I thank my God every time I remember you.

In all my prayers for all of you I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. Being confident of this that he who began a good work in you will carry on to completion until that great day of Jesus Christ. Father we thank you so much for your wonderful grace.

Your grace has been revealed through Abraham and the great promise that in him all the nations of the earth will find their blessing. That one greater even than Abraham stood before people and said the I am God is among you. We thank you O Lord that as father you sent your son to a dying forest.

We thank you that Lord Jesus you sent your Holy Spirit into our hearts that we may be witnesses for you to the very ends of the earth. But we thank you for this great movement in our day which is so vigorous for the gospel and O.M. and George and all the people around the world who have contributed to this ministry. Father we thank you for this evening where we've roamed wide in our thoughts and our understanding and our vision.

We thank you for what we see of the needs. We know Lord you can fulfill that need and though we are very small and very incapable earthen vessels in our own humanity we are confident of this that he who began a good work in us will carry it on to completion until the great day of Jesus Christ. In his name we give you blessing and praise and thanksgiving.

In Jesus name. Amen. Thank you.

Amen.