Doulos - Hull — George Verwer

Let's just pray again. Father, we would just continue once again to pray for Charith that you would touch her body and continue the healing process. And we think also of others across OM who are not well.

Think of Willie Seacrest in Belgium that's so ill and whose possibilities for life are just not too great at this point. And we just remember also our brother Dave Thomas and his wife and their little son John David.

We just pray that you would work in that situation and strengthen. We see again and again your providence working. And we want to learn what this is all about. We believe this is one of the lessons you have for us on this ship.

In Jesus name. Amen. We do have the second half of our free literature display because I don't have any great vision to carry this stuff back to Bromley. And I just ask if you have a moment after the meeting to just go to this range of chairs we've set up so that we didn't have to touch the literature table and just take some of these items.

Some of you especially I think should pray and read about Christian Literature Crusade. We've had a number of OM people go into CLC. They're close friends of ours. And it may be a mission that some of you will want to consider when your time comes to move on from OM.

And this is their magazine. I have been subscribing to Flood Tide or getting it one way or the other. And then their British, their American equivalent. I guess for 21 years and it has been a magazine that has been a real blessing to me.

It's all about a ministry of literature. So you can get a sample of that. Another ministry that's much on my heart is the ministry of Tom Skinner. I believe he's really one of God's men and he's been through hard times.

His wife has left him. But he's still plodding on and this is the introductory paper to their ministry called The News in Black and White. One of the weakest aspects of our work in North America has been our inability to recruit black people.

That's not totally our fault because in general the black churches do not believe in world missions outside the United States. To them missions means their own ghetto. Well, the ghettos are rapidly going and we'd long to see more blacks moving out.

I talked to Tom Skinner about this about 10 years ago very briefly and he wasn't too interested because his burden was so much the USA. It's an amazing man, an amazing movement. And I believe there are some blacks from the states moving out but I believe really the time has come.

I spoke at a black bible school in Philadelphia a couple years ago. The response was enormous. I thought they were going to carry me out of the room. I always have been able in some ways to relate with warm-blooded people rather than some of the colder types, though I've learned that the colder ones have hearts as well, but the enthusiasm so quickly wears off.

The churches aren't interested. There's often not the financial backing and I don't know if we ever got anyone from that bible school. And as I go back to California, I'll be meeting with Virgil Amos, one of the American blacks who was with us for many years.

Just finished further education. Hoping some blacks are going to get to my leaders conference there and to some of the meetings. And I really ask you to pray. Some people might say, well, why do you refer, you know, black or white?

But you know in the states, unless you go after them and communicate that you want them and that they're welcome, they will not come. And I think this is where some of us have made a mistake. We've tended to think, well, everybody's the same.

Of course we want them. We've had blacks in the work from the very earliest days. My closest friends have pioneered the work in England. But somehow unless you go out of the way to let some minority groups know they are wanted, they are welcomed on an equal basis, you know, they just will not come.

And we only have I don't know if we have any, maybe two or three blacks from the USA. West Indian people, sometimes they are more easy to recruit. And we praise the Lord here in England, things are somewhat different.

But I'd ask you to make that a matter of prayer and pray for the ministry of Tom Skinner. And try to listen to some of his tapes if you have the opportunity. And then we did pass around to you this little paper about Festival of Light and this World Mission Center leaflet where I will be visiting next week or the week after that.

Let's turn in our Bibles and those this is being recorded in case you want to send this tape to anybody. We'll be sending this tape out to all OM leaders throughout the whole world because these people need to know what in the world is happening with this ship.

Communication is one of the biggest problems we face in OM. All the time people are complaining actually that they don't know what is going on. And it's a big thing to keep the communications going when decisions are made, for example, to change the future program of the ship.

This is not something that just involves us. It involves every OM office. It involves everybody in a sense praying for this work. And we need prayer that we can get this communication out. 2nd Timothy chapter 2.

Enduring Hardship as Soldiers of Christ

Very familiar words, but I thought it was a good place to start our thinking. 2nd Timothy chapter 2 verse 3. Therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that woreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.

I think on the ship it's important to emphasize that we are in a warfare. We are soldiers of Jesus Christ. This is in a real way a battleship. This is not a retreat center. This is not a Bible, floating Bible conference.

This is not a therapy center for those who are emotionally disturbed. Though some of you after a few weeks here may begin to feel emotionally disturbed. But it is a battleship for God. Now, I know George Miley goes through it and I go through it tormenting over what it's going to cost to keep this project going.

We're ordering, and it's being loaded on today, three or four hundred tons of fuel once again. When this bill hits us, it's just beyond anything I've ever had to cope with in OM before. Such a large amount of money when all the other things in OM also continue to go on.

Stewardship, Money, and the Cost of Mission

And this of course causes us if we're thinking people, especially living within the context of OM where oftentimes we've had to battle for the next five pounds. Much less what we're talking about with this fuel.

We of course have to search our hearts and say is it all worth it? Are we being good stewards? And it's more difficult for me than perhaps some because I know the financial situation that other missions are in.

Even coming up in my van and one of the reasons I have this van is to get more work done. Using the back of it as an office and as I was coming up and reading and praying through papers I came across two more mission societies that are in terrific financial trouble.

And you know they're talking about 10 ,000 pounds, 15 ,000, 20 ,000, 30 ,000 pounds. Quite a few groups have especially in Europe and especially in Britain had to pull back because they just don't have the money.

One of the greatest things we need to learn in life is to be realistic about money and Christians can often be naive about money and the place of money in society. And so it causes one to do a lot of heart searching.

Are we good stewards when we put 400 tons of incredibly expensive energy fuel into the tanks of this ship? And then of course burn it all up traveling from one place to the next to do what we're doing.

Especially in a day when people are being highly criticized because of energy consummation. And I think we as Americans need to understand and not be overly defensive that we are being highly criticized as a nation because of energy consumption.

You have to face that. British people are very critical. They don't always say it to your face and some are not but generally are critical of the way Americans use energy and fuel. There may be jealousy sometimes involved.

And they have to pull up to the petrol pump and pay one pound 20 for a gallon and we're still buying it over there for 40 pence. And they know it. And they know the cars we drive and the homes and all the rest.

Of course, it's understandable. I never worry about that as an American when people say something negative. You know, I'm a citizen of heaven and I know that these things are incredibly complex. Others of course are very critical of the Arabs because they are of course making money just beyond all telling.

It's just unbelievable. Unbelievable. You know in one sense we're separate from all that. Yet we want to be conscious of that. And even throughout the OM world we're encouraging people to drive those vehicles less.

To learn to walk a little more. Bicycles are being used more within OM. We're having to alter many aspects of our strategy on the basis of the energy crisis which may get worse. So at least on this ship we have got to think about these things if we're going to be realistic.

Spiritual Warfare and the Mission of Evangelism

And the reason I am convinced one of the many reasons that this is justified and good stewardship is because this is one of God's greatest battleships. And we are in a war. Do you think when they go to war, these nations, they are going to be concerned about energy consumption?

Mrs. Thatcher in this country has just brought cutbacks in five or six areas and increased expenditure much to the upset of the labor people for war materials and armaments. Some of you know the crisis of a few days ago when a tape, a computer tape went off in the United States by mistake and airplanes were in the air ready to attack incoming missiles from they don't say where.

This has so upset the labor party here in Britain. They are roaring at Mrs. Thatcher. They are roaring at Carter and of course they are roaring because they are no longer in power and want to be back in power.

But it's interesting the world we live in. But believe me if the USA thinks that there are some missiles on the way they are not going to call a round table to discuss the amount of fuel that the rockets will need in order to get over the Atlantic and intercept the missiles.

At a time of war everything changes. We are in a spiritual warfare. We have been called by God to evangelize the world. To do this we have to move people to the battlefronts. Some of us would like to go back to the beaches like me, the beaches of New Jersey where God found us in the first place.

I went to the beach every summer for 10 years. The only financial thing I got involved in was stealing bottles which I sold to collect the deposits. Of course I was quite young. It was only a small time business.

Can I ever tell you how I did that? I was only about nine. And I knew that all these bottles around the beach were worth two cents. And that adds up. And yet some people would give you their bottles. You just go along.

Can I have your bottles? Other people I found I didn't want to give those bottles because they also wanted the two cents. So I was just young and people thought I was just a little boy playing around.

I got my towel. I used to just sort of play around and drop my towel on top of the bottles. People never saw it. They were, you know, either necking or sunning themselves. And then I'd just come back and oh my towel, excuse me, as I took the towel, of course, took all the bottles with it.

And that was quite a little going business there on the beach. Anyway, some of us, this was before my conversion, just, you know, to keep the record straight. Now I always ask people. But as we see the message of the Word of God, we know that we are called to evangelize the world.

We also know that half the people in the world have never heard. We also know that a majority of Christians, a majority of Christians do not have the vision and the burden of world evangelism. In other words, here's where we are.

And it's very important to know where we are. We haven't even got the troops convinced they should go to war, much less be able to go to war and actually do something. To me, we are 2 ,000 years behind in some places because God's people have not even accepted the command of the Lord Jesus to go.

They don't even have the vision to go, much less actually go. Therefore, at times it is necessary to back up to find out where we are. Now, this has been true in history. During war, and this was true in a number of wars, one of the biggest expenses was to actually communicate to the people of that nation that there was actually any danger at all.

Because until the people realize there's a danger, they cannot get the nation on a wartime footing. And therefore, an enormous amount of effort and money and time has to be spent just to get the people on a wartime footing.

If you study the history of the United States, you know that the early history of the States, it was very, very hard to get any Americans to think about any kind of war overseas. Mexico, that was different.

They'll fight the Mexicans. They want that land. Perhaps you should give some of it back. But, believe me, it cost millions and millions and hundreds of millions to eventually convince American people that there was some danger going on in Europe way back when.

We had a very similar task. The church is not convinced that we are in a warfare. And they are living as if it's peace, peace, peace. Now, of course, a minority had this vision and some had it more than us.

Hallelujah! We want to get those people to share with us. We want to listen to their tapes in the library and we want to read their books, and we are. But the masses of people who call themselves Christians do not have this vision that we must get onto a war footing.

And then we must actually go to war. Tozer is very strong on this, saying the whole world is a disaster area. Think of the money that has been given to Cambodia in Britain in the past 15 days because of one half-hour television program.

Cambodia has been going on for months. And there have been newspaper articles and some of the better papers. And people reading it with a little bit of sense would do something, but they don't. The media picks up this because of the strike.

This program didn't go on right away. And this program on Cambodia has literally shaken Britain to a tiny degree. And hundreds of thousands of pounds have been rolling out to Cambodia. In researching Cambodia, I have found out that the great need in Cambodia is not money.

They have more money now than they know what to do with. Now, not necessarily Christian groups, because Christian groups can't get money from the secular sources. So the Christian groups, of course, for their special programs, they always need money.

Leadership, Integrity, and Practical Relief Work

But the total picture, the problem is not money. The problem is transportation. The number one problem in Cambodia right now and in Thailand and that whole situation, transportation to move the goods.

The second problem, which is the easiest one to resolve, is ships to transport the goods. No problem much with that, as long as they have money because there are plenty of ships around. The bigger problem is men and women of integrity who can carry out the enormous complicated organizational side of this work.

And those of you who are working with your hands in practical work, you may not understand how hard it is at times for us to also find people who are willing to battle with administration and organization.

And I can tell you, even within OM, an interesting percentage of leaders have requested me to keep them out of administration and organization. They don't want it. They don't want the headaches, the hassles, the 16-hour days, organizing people, being misunderstood, and all that goes with being in leadership organization.

And if you think the secular people can find the men to run relief operations, men of integrity who will kill for one-fifth of the money, then you don't understand much about the world in which we live in.

The greatest need in the world today is leadership. In the political world, it's leadership. In the business world, it's leadership. The Arab countries, they need leadership more than they need money.

And one of the jobs that God has given to us, one of the burdens we have is to train men for leadership. When I was in Sweden some months ago, I met a young man who's now assistant to the ambassador. He was the assistant to the ambassador of Sweden in one of Africa's small explosive countries.

He's now one of the Swedish representatives to the United Nations in New York. He got his vision for the world and his training in operation mobilization in 1963. He told me in his own words that his training in OM and India, he was one of the first Swedes, was the first Swede to go to India with OM, prepared him and enabled him to survive a most difficult assignment with his nation as assistant to the ambassador in an African country.

He's now in New York City. And by the way, he is willing to do anything in the United Nations on our behalf at any time. Of course, he's only one among many. I believe as we launch out across the world and God gives us contact with people in high places, I have the faith to believe that some of these people are going to be changed.

Some will be changed to some degree, perhaps not to the point of conversion. We have an important ministry to play in this world, even apart from seeing people converted, which of course in our minds is, you know, 100 times more important.

But I say some of these things because sometimes people criticize and they say, why, especially Lagos was criticized on this side, big long letters about it. Why aren't you taking the ship directly in the relief work right now?

God has given us a higher calling. It's a calling that doesn't appeal to us sometimes humanly speaking, but it is based on the word of God and our calling is to see men morally changed, to see moral revolution.

And I will tell you, one man at the top in India changed by the power of God will do more for India than four ships in direct relief work, which in many cases they don't want you to do anyway. And I praise God for the opportunities we have to bring people of education education and position to the ship.

I don't believe it's being respecter of persons. I believe you're confused if you think that. It's esteeming people better than ourself. It's respecting people for their work's sake. It's being all things to all men to win some.

I cannot approach a general, a prime minister, a company executive the same way I would approach a hippie or a man living in the lower section of New York or the East End. I love them both and I've spent most of my time, of course, with the poor side.

But I believe we've got to learn to reach all levels of people. One of the most criticized events on this ship was in London a year ago. It was arranged partly by the Billy Graham people and it was arranged to put on sort of a banquet for the top Christian leaders in this country.

The Banquet's Unexpected Impact

These people in general do not think the way we think especially about diet. Now more are moving in our direction because there's a heavy emphasis on the simple lifestyle. That was a very difficult time on the ship because they overbooked and there were more people coming than there were places and the pressure and the discussion that went through that.

And of course I think after that the pendulum swung about 100 degrees in the opposite direction about this kind of event. But I want to go on record to tell you that that was probably one of the greatest events in the history of OM in Great Britain.

There is no question about it. I am constantly getting feedback and actual testimonies from people who were touched directly and indirectly through that event because people came to the ship Christian leaders who knew about us for over 15 years and never had a single contact with OM in 15 years.

A couple of weeks ago I had meetings in the north very good meetings very unique open door with some very humanly speaking important people. That all came to be because a man came all the way 300 miles from the north of England to go to that event.

A man who has more influence than 200 other people up there. And he has just opened this door and that door and the other door. Another leading and you may have heard this story, but some of you are new a leading vicar of one of the main churches in Cambridge that has had a ministry of discouraging people from joining OM for over 15 years.

That can cost. We go in with all of our efforts and we preach and we do this and we do that and one man of influence can undo all that we have done in 10 minutes. That man came to that event to that banquet.

He was so turned on he was so impressed. He so appreciated the meal. He went back to Cambridge and he wrote me a letter. Not only did he apologize for for his negative attitude He asked if when he finishes being vicar at this big church whether there's a possibility that he could join operation mobilization.

Perception and the Limits of Criticism

You see oftentimes when we criticize or when we make an evaluation, we don't understand the total picture. It's just like when someone makes a criticism. Oh a training movement. Where is the training in this?

I come to this ship. I was hoping to join IT and I get shoveled into this room and a guy gives me 10 minutes and says galley, pantry, engine, deck, lifeboat, you know, whatever. I know it doesn't quite happen like that.

Some of you feel that way. You know, where's the training? Somebody says, well, you got the library. Look at the cassettes and the books. Yeah, the library the end of the day. I'm gasping, you know for life.

I'm trying to find my bed. I'm in the wrong cabin shaking from overwork. How am I going to go to the library and study? Where's the training program? Well, first of all, any of you have heard me speak about the ship anywhere in the world.

I have always said It is a work oriented community. Don't go there if you don't want a long hard work. You know, I haven't been going around painting some rosy picture about life on the doulas. Oh join the doulas, sail the world.

Meet your future wife. That is not the presentation I've been giving. Meet your future wife, you know, you take one look at a chick and the leader's got you by the arm. Brother, what are you doing here?

Let's have some fellowship. But you see there's man's training program. And if you want a stereotype training program, there are 1 ,000 bible colleges. There are 1 ,000 bible colleges now, most of them in North America.

There are more structured training programs where you can sit on your tailbone and read than the world can ever use. And some of you after this time will go to college or cemetery, seminary or somewhere else.

Learning Through Exposure and Work

But we have emphasized that this is practical training and that training I believe is a fantastic reality. It involves exposure. When you're exposed to different people you learn. I learned from the people I was with last night.

And I've been in school for 25 years since I was born again. I was with a lady last night who shared how she got over enthused about the things of the spirit and went to a very special camp where they overemphasized certain things and she just went more and more and more and boom!

Popped and had a total nervous breakdown. And when she withdrew from that and got back into balance and accepted herself and they said she was schizophrenic, she's hardly had any trouble since. Another little bit of ammunition for my message on spiritual balance.

Every person you meet, every church you go to, every situation God puts you in is a new training and learning experience. Every new person we put up here to share, whether they're great communicators or poor communicators, it's another opportunity to learn.

A person with perception, do you have that? You know what that is? A person with perception is continually learning, learning and being trained. And when we're doing that on the job, in the work, it's a tremendous thing.

Of course, the reading we can do on the ship, the cassettes, all that, the videos that someday we hope to have, the films that we have, the endless opportunities we have on this ship to learn the people that are right here and what we can learn from them.

Doing Unwanted Tasks as Spiritual Training

And perhaps a lesson even more important than that in life is learning to do things we don't like to do. You know, that's what life is all about, especially for women. Men have a little more freedom in this culture to do what they would like.

But when little Junior comes along and little Sally comes along, or whoever you decide to name your children, and in OM they give some very rare names, you, dear women, are going to have your life cut right out for you for 20 years.

And even when you're a grandma, just try to lapse forward. Can you lapse forward? Jump forward. Forty years. Some of you, nice smile, you know, no wrinkles on your face. I was looking in the mirror this morning.

What's happening? Just jump ahead 40 years. You'll be a grandma. Your daughter will be coming to you with all of her moans and complaints, maybe to talk to you about possible divorce. Life is filled with doing things you don't want to do.

So if you have a year on the ship in a job that you don't particularly like, you're not overly infatuated with the washing machine so that as you walk into the, that's down below, as you walk in to the wash-up room and you see the big machine, you get sort of a nice vibration.

We're not expecting the engineers to sort of float down into the engine room and grab hold of the main engine. Oh, we're together once again, my friend. We need to come out of the clouds and get down to where life is.

It's constantly doing things we don't like to do, but praise God. He is gracious. There are also things we do like to do. And when we're doing at times things we don't like to do and then the opportunity comes to do something else, we appreciate it more.

We appreciate the times off the ship. I never appreciated the woods in Britain much until I had to live in Bombay. And after I lived in Bombay and lived in India and then lived on the ship, I became a woods neurotic.

I just run to the woods wherever they are. And when I get in the woods, I freeze. And I believe, and I've run out of time. I didn't get to the main message. But I believe that this is such a valuable training program and this is linked with God's providence of putting us here in Britain for the next couple of months.

God's Providence and the Mission in Britain

Some people have said to me, they were never convinced we ought to go to Latin America. Anyway, someone said that to me this morning, even a leader. Interesting. I was never leaping in my shoes about it, but I certainly didn't have any any grace or strength or vision to resist it.

And I believe we are going to Latin America in God's timing. But this weekend has confirmed to me that this is the hour for Great Britain for this ship. We have seen tremendous things. I know Bob's very low profile.

He plays real cool, I tell you. This weekend is unbelievable. Probably one of the greatest single events in a 16-year history of this work. If you could have been with me in the church I was in last night, one of the most significant large churches in this country, where we have never had an open door.

And last night, God just brought us in there and united hearts. Before I left, my arms were wrapped around the vicar or the curate. I think he's a curate, a long-haired curate. Looks like somebody, you know, I wouldn't say this.

He may listen to this tape. God bless you, brother. On Saturday, we had over two and a half thousand people here in meetings. It's the first time that I really got back into things in a long time and was able to have eight or nine meetings in one day.

Difficult to do this on shore. People just got up moving at this pace. And many people, many people in the youth conference alone, over a hundred stood to their feet to recommit their lives and ask God to fill them with the Holy Ghost and send them wherever he wants them to go.

We had two or three hundred at the student conference going simultaneously with all the rest of this. And then the meetings on shore. The book exhibition sales went over four thousand pounds sterling in one day.

I've written on my notes. I haven't got to very much. Britain is ripe for this ship right now. We've laid a foundation for 15, 16 years for this ministry. People know something about us, but not much.

The word about the ship has been all over Britain, but not that much. Britain is ripe for this ministry and the ministry of the ship in Britain is more in line with the OM vision by far than going back to South America.

Why? Because we are going to recruit for the Muslim world without question. There are at least 200 people right now as a result of this weekend praying about the Muslim world. That's true. Only a tiny percentage will probably ever get there, but you've got to start somewhere.

And the opportunity we've had to present the Muslim world. There's a stack of cards of new prayer partners. It must be that high and many more will write in. We cannot measure what has happened here this weekend.

This is the hour for Britain. This country is ripe. There are enough people in the church, enough hungry people to make a visit more than worthwhile. We're going into a decade of evangelism in Britain.

The whole nation is talking about this. The tendency in this decade of evangelism is very introspective. It's very much Britain, Britain, Britain. And I believe God wants to use the ship to bring that emphasis just in the balance.

That's all. I really believe that. And I think we've seen it this weekend. We have a message. Others also have it. We have a message and a vision and a burden without apology that this nation needs at this time.

Others have it and we will work with them. But we have got a cannon with this ship bigger than most. Let's load it and I will tell you we can load the cannon. But without you we cannot fire. And I know it is hard to live on this ship.

I know you can get incredibly lonely. I know when there's a weekend like this the leaders, though I spend a lot of time counseling people between all the meetings and into the night. But I know that people sometimes tend to get neglected.

I know that when things are moving forward problems take place. Beloved, please learn this lesson wherever God is doing something there is friction. I know it was hard to have a second city for the students on Sunday, but I personally believe that that meal you gave to the students in love will mean as much in the long run as my sermon.

And so without the pantry, without the galley, and without the sweat and the tears to put the whole thing together, it just doesn't work. Because we're preaching that which we do not practice. A brother who offered the lady a chair and many of you who went around this weekend and I thought it was very well organized.

I was thrilled with the way you handled crowd control and I was in Swansea Booth School in London. And you've learned so much. And the little things you do to help an old lady even find a loo and that can be a major crisis.

And one thing I praise God for about my little caravan out there is we've got our own loo and she just rolls right down the highway with us. But I tell you I had an embarrassing moment just the other day when I was just getting up and the window was open in the back and the door suddenly flung open and here I was.

Praise God no one was there. Little things count. Well, I better shut up. Getting out of control. Let's pray. Father we thank you that you've called us not to a playground but a battleground. You've called us not to a holy huddle but a spiritual revolution.

Prayer for Vision, Providence, and Faithful Service

And we have seen your providence through the lack of fuel and the financial crisis in which we find ourselves. You have led us to remain in this country where the door is not only open but off the hinges.

And we believe this is going to result in recruits for India and the Muslim world next summer. It's going to result in thousands of new prayer partners. It's going to result in a spiritual movement that is going to affect the ends of the earth.

Oh God give us a vision so that whatever we do we can do it heartily as unto you. Lord you know the spiritual needs of individuals and we do not want to neglect that. Help them to take the initiative to seek us out.

As we have seen beautiful victories in that area as well even this weekend. And in the lives of ex-OMers who have come to us who also need our love and encouragement. And there's more ex-OMers Lord in this country than any nation in the world apart from India.

Oh God we're seeing the picture clearer and we thank you for your providential guidance and we're trusting you that this fuel will be paid for. And we believe it's more than worth it because every other mission society in the world of any degree is going to feel the blessing and eventually get the manpower that we can recruit and challenge in these coming days.

And so Lord this is your work and we want to keep giving it back to you. And we want to be those who are willing to go the extra mile in spiritual battle because we know it's just that. It's a warfare and we have to by your grace though.

It's sometimes hard to live and behave like soldiers. We pray this now in Jesus name. Amen. God bless you, and if you go extra quick to your place unless you're going to get some literature you help make up for my five minute overtime.