Have you ever heard of Dorothea Clapp or her son, Daniel? Probably not.
Before I tell you about them, let me tell you about George Verwer, who you probably have heard of. George, now 81 years of age and still preaching around the world, is the founder of Operation Mobilisation (OM).
When the amazing story of Christian missions over the last couple of generations is written, OM and George Verwer will feature very prominently. Millions of people have heard the gospel through OM and there are hundreds, if not thousands, of missionaries all over the world today who are either serving with OM or who got their first taste of overseas mission through being part of an OM team.
OM began with a small group of young Christians in America back in 1957. They became burdened about the need to proclaim the gospel in Mexico. Selling some of their possessions, they gave up their summer holiday to drive a lorry load of Christian literature over the border and proclaim the good news of Jesus. The numbers involved grew, and in 1960 George and some others arrived in Spain, which was then a largely closed Catholic country. Each summer more and more Christian young people were ‘mobilised’ to travel with OM, often in very old trucks which frequently broke down, to various spiritually needy European countries.
George had a tremendous gift for exhorting the church to see the desperate need of unreached people without Christ and to give up their small ambitions and commit to reaching them with the gospel. By 1963 2,000 young Christians were spending part of their summer on OM teams throughout Europe, and by 1982 ‘Love Europe’ attracted over 7,000 people.
In the early days, as you would expect from inexperienced young people, mistakes may have been made. Thankfully, God does not wait until we get everything right before he blesses us. I well remember one September travelling from Carlisle with a group of young people to an OM conference in Glasgow at which George was speaking, with door-to-door visitation taking place in some very tough areas during the afternoon.
We were to be picked up at Carlisle city centre by an OM truck. The truck broke down (they often did) and at 2am we were still outside Marks and Spencer’s waiting for it to arrive. A policeman on the beat wandered across and asked us what we thought we were doing in the town centre at 2 am, whereupon one of our number immediately replied that we were waiting for the January sales and gave him a tract! We eventually arrived in Glasgow at about 6am for a weekend of evangelism and exhortation from George.
Over the years OM has matured and grown. OM ships have taken displays of Christian literature to many ports all over the world. In 1963 the work began in India and the ministry there has had a huge impact. The emphasis has always been to reach out to the neediest countries such as Turkey.
Today, George has retired as International Director (the present director comes from Singapore, which in itself is an indication of the way Christian missions is developing!), but at the age of 81 George is still travelling the world preaching, selling Christian books, raising money.
Dorothea Clapp
So who was Dorothea Clapp? She and her husband Robert and five children lived in Ramsey, New Jersey, Robert commuting daily to work in New York. The family lived just four minutes walk away from Ramsey High School, where George Verwer was one of the pupils along with all five of the Clapp children. Robert had been the Sunday School superintendent at the local church until he was asked to leave because he was too focussed on the Bible.
During the war years in the 1940s petrol was rationed, so rather than travelling to another church, they started a church in their home as there was no Bible teaching church in the area.
The church included a Sunday School, a youth work and a Bible Club for the local elementary school. Dorothea would pick up children in her car after school and drive them to the Bible Club. She had a great burden and concern for overseas missions and prayed specifically that some children from the school and Bible Club would become missionaries. Several were to do so, including all her own children! She managed to do all this while caring for her own elderly mother who suffered from manic depression.
Dorothea’s son Daniel knew George Verwer at the high school. Daniel made a point of carrying his Bible openly on top of all his school books, and this intrigued George. His sister began to attend the High School Bible Club led by Daniel Clapp and eventually George also joined. His interest had been stimulated by his friendship with Daniel.
The Clapps used to stock a stall at the local railway station with Christian literature and it was Daniel’s job to replenish the stock from time to time. George use to take and read some of the literature. When the time came for leaving school, Dorothea and Daniel sent a copy of John’s Gospel to each member of the High School Bible Club, urging the students to make time to read it during their summer break. Apparently, George made a point of doing so. Shortly afterwards, when he attended a Billy Graham meeting in New York City, his heart had been prepared and he trusted Christ as his Saviour and Lord. Almost immediately, he began to proclaim Christ to others and to mobilise others to do so. The rest is history.
I am very grateful to Daniel Clapp, with whom George Verwer put me in contact via email, for the information about his family and George’s conversion. Daniel himself would spend some years as a missionary in the Philippines.
Here is an example of ordinary Christians faithfully serving Christ with results that I have no doubt exceeded all their expectations. Nothing very spectacular – just quietly getting on with telling people about Jesus.
We just have no idea what God is going to do when we consistently live out and give out the gospel. Let’s just do it, and look forward to seeing and meeting the results one day.
