 george verwer (born july 3, 1938) is the founder of operation mobilisation (om), a christian missions organization. verwer has written several books on various christian themes. he is a passionate advocate of radical discipleship as the only legitimate option for people who believe in jesus. ==early life== verwer's first contact with christianity was through his neighbor, dorothea clapp, who gave him the gospel of john and also put him on her "holy ghost hit list". verwer attributes to her some of the reason that he made a commitment to christ, and for what resulted in his life. when he was a pupil at ramsey high school in ramsey, new jersey, he went to a jack wyrtzen meeting in which billy graham spoke in madison square garden, in new york city. there he was converted to become a christian, at the age of 16. within a year, about 200 of his classmates became christians. he had a growing conviction to evangelize on foreign soil. he started with distribution of the gospel of john in mexico in 1957 along with two friends, walter borchard and dale rhoton. they called this operation "send the light". this continued with others during summer holidays. afterward, verwer used the name "send the light" for a book distribution operation to india based in the united kingdom. this has since developed into send the light, the largest christian book distributor in the united kingdom. ==education== after high school, he attended maryville college and then transferred to moody bible institute, where he met his wife, drena, who was a fellow student. he was awarded an honorary degree, doctor of divinity, during commencement at biola university on may 22, 2009. ==operation mobilization== after graduation, they went to spain. once while taking bibles into the ussr, george was arrested and accused of being a spy. he was deported, and back in spain, after a time of prayer in 1961 the work of operation mobilization (om) was born. george often refers to this calling himself "god's bungler", in reference to brother andrew, "god's smuggler". in august 2003, george handed over the international leadership of the work of operation mobilization to peter maiden, who was the associate international director for 15 years. george and his wife are now involved in special projects ministries full-time. they still travel and take meetings around the 
1938_births American_Christian_missionaries American_writers British_Christian_missionaries British_writers Christian_missionaries_in_Russia Living_people Maryville_College_alumni Moody_Bible_Institute_alumni People_from_Ramsey,_New_Jersey