Founder

George Verwer, the founder of Operation Mobilisation (OM), decided to go to Mexico in 1957. ‘In The States every person has a Bible’, he said, ‘But over the border in Mexico over 70 percent of the people don’t have one portion of the Scriptures.’ In 1958 he went back with three Bible School students. He met Baldemar Aguilar, a young Mexican, who agreed to work with them. This was the first step that eventually led to the development of OM as an international organisation. It started with a bookshop and radio broadcasts in Mexico. By the end of 1958, 28 people were involved in ministries with OM. In January 1960, George Verwer married Drena and lived for several months in Mexico before moving to Spain, from where OM started growing further on (Randall, 2008).

Ships

In the 1980s, the missions ships with which OM had started to sail the world, made a huge impact on the growth of the organisation in Latin America. The ‘Doulos’ and ‘Logos’ visited ports across the whole continent in 1980, 1982 and 1987. The growth of missionary involvement in Latin America was drastically influenced by the shipwreck of the Logos in the south of Chile in 1988. After this event, the mission awareness in Latin America grew. More and more people started representing OM in their own countries, often after returning from the ships. These representations eventually grew to fields.

OM Latin America:

The birth of the OM Latin America field was a fact in 1985. In that year, Frank Dietz, director of the ship Doulos from 1979 till 1984, became the first field leader for OM Latin America. He stayed in this position until 1995. His job was taken over by Duane Grasman, who became the first Area Coordinator. He led the area of OM Latin America until Humberto Aragão took over in 2003. In 2010 Roberto Façanha was chosen to be the current Area Coordinator for OM Latin America.

12 countries

Today, OM is actively working in 12 countries in Latin America: Mexico, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil. Most ministries in this continent have been set up by Latinos who have returned to their countries after spending time on the OM ships. The ministries on the fields are as different as the countries in Latin America. While for example Chile organises an Intensive Training for young people interested in missions, Costa Rica runs an HIV-programme and Ecuador works in an orphanage.

Structure

The OM offices in the different countries have been working mostly independently from each other for a long time. However, over the past few years, OM has created a new structure for Latin America in which fields and regions collaborate more. OM Latin America is now divided into four strategic regions: Central America, Andean Region, South Cone and Brazil.