OM's 50th Anniversary

This post is a little late but we have been busy. A week ago we helped Operation Mobilization celebrate 50 years as a ministry. It is amazing how much they have done. It all started with one man convincing 2 of his friends to go with him and go to Mexico and evangelize with literature. 2 years later on the third trip they were taking over 1 million pieces of literature and partnered with some local people to open a christian bookstore in mexico. On this third trip the founder was only 21 yrs old. Their vision to take the whole world for Jesus seemed radical 50 years ago and yet they are in countries all over the world now, making a difference in the lives of the local people. Literature Distribution is also a major component of the organization. You can see this evident with the amount of space on their fleet of mission sea ships that are dedicated to the bookstores. It was amazing to hear the stories and see how it laid the foundation for the ministry we see today as OM.

One of the biggest surprises was we found someone we knew after the service, not someone from our local church but someone we met in Carbondale. Steve Lillis is a professional pool player who uses his skills to share the gospel message through trick shots. He came and shared a couple of times while we were working with Chi Alpha. I videotaped his shows for his personal records. He shared with me that the second year which also included Mike Massey as a special guest is one of his most requested recordings and most well done. Steve is looking to partner with OM to travel around the world using his unique skills to share the gospel, and also disciple others to duplicate his shows. In other parts of the world in Europe and Asia pool is very popular.


One of the things we have enjoyed watching and hearing about the work OM does is that there is no global formula. They support niche ministries and creative ministries that can change lives. Another example is Heart Sound International that works to make worship music in native musical styles.

Although at least for now we will be moving on and joining a different missions organization it is very exciting to see what God is doing through others. After all OM could not be successful at distributing bibles around the world if Wycliffe didn't do the leg work of translation.