Operation World (OW), dubbed the “definitive volume of prayer information in regards to the world”, celebrated its sixtieth anniversary in 2024. The global editions of the prayer manual which can be released every few years have turn out to be a well-recognized resource to tell Christians the right way to pray for the nations.
What could also be lesser known, nonetheless, is that the primary edition within the yr 1964 by Patrick Johnstone, a missionary for WEC International, comprised a mere 32 pages and included hand-drawn maps. It was printed in South Africa through the days of apartheid by utilizing an old hand-cranked Gestetner machine, based on a recent OW news update (Dec. 16). A bigger print run occurred in Germany the next yr, 1965.
“It is remarkable to think that this humble but ambitious work grew into all that Operation World is today,” said Jason Mandryk, also from WEC International, and writer, team co-director and researcher for OW.
“Even more astounding is that this work was accomplished under an apartheid government that was doing all it could do to maintain black African Christians and white believers (each foreign missionaries and South Africans) from worshipping, praying, and ministering together.
“Postal sanctions against South Africa meant that a young Patrick Johnstone was unable to correspond directly with contacts who could provide him with data and prayer points. He needed to depend on couriers – friends or co-labourers who were travelling to and from Africa – to hold correspondence by hand.
“His research office was a pair of boxes he toted around at the back of the van that his evangelism team used to go from gathering to gathering. A far cry from the world of instantaneous search results, AI, and digital media that we discover ourselves in today.”
OW’s ministry has expanded to incorporate 4 kid’s editions, and extra titles resembling “The Church is Bigger Than You Think” and “The Future of the Global Church.” There have also been digital formats, including a free mobile app. Altogether the OW resources have been translated into 20 languages with three million total units.
Mandryk explained within the news update the varied ways during which the OW resources have helped Christians with their faith.
“Believers, churches, prayer movements, mission organizations, and theological institutions have been impacted all all over the world,” said Mandryk. “Many leaders in mission and ministry from the Majority World and beyond attribute the birth of their global vision to encounters with Operation World.”
Mandryk and his colleagues have been taking a look at the history since 1964 and thought of the changes in each world mission priorities and the broader global landscape itself, during those intervening years.
He noted that Hans von Staden, director of the Dorothea Mission, which printed the 1964 volume, in the unique preface said “nearly half mankind is now out of reach of normal Christian work”.
“From 1964 to 2024, that proportion went from roughly 50% to around 28% – cutting down the world’s unevangelized population by such an amount is testament to a lot faithful endeavour and travailing prayer,” commented Mandryk.
“Yet absolutely the numbers of those beyond the bizarre reach of the excellent news have increased to an alarming degree,” he added.
Half of the population “untouched by the gospel” correlated to 1.67 billion people in 1964, Mandryk calculated, but in 2024, 28 percent of the world represents 2.28 billion people, a rise of 37 percent.
“Despite all that has gone into global mission previously 60 years, taking the excellent news to every body is that much further away,” lamented Mandryk. “The unevangelized population is increasing faster than we’re reaching them – a rise of greater than 50,000 people each day.”
The missionary challenge within the Sixties, “lower than a lifetime ago”, was very different to now, the OW team co-leader added. He noted global events in that period resembling the Cold War and the best threat to global missionary work being atheistic Communism.
“Christianity was still a majority-Western religion; the voices of Christian leaders from Africa, Asia, and Latin America were only starting to be heard.”
In those days, Western missionaries primarily resourced sources for OW, which stands in stark contrast to today where “now-thriving missionary movements” are present in the Majority World, and comprise most sending missionaries.
Mandryk also noted that OW played a key role on this wider transition “from harvest field to reap force.”
“On a note of particular importance, the convergence of the mission, research, and prayer movements had not yet reached its true advent,” he added. “There were some foreshadowing moments, resembling William Carey’s Enquiry in 1792 and the World Mission Atlas in 1925. But a lot of the standard suspects of international mission as we all know them today are conspicuously absent from this list.”
These “usual suspects” include Youth With A Mission, founded by the late Loren Cunningham, which didn’t turn out to be an entity until 1966. Operation Mobilization was also in its earliest days, founded in 1963 by the late George Verwer.
“The Lausanne Movement didn’t exist until 10 years later,” Mandryk continued. “Incidentally, this was the identical yr that Operation World began covering every country on the planet with its first global edition.
“The ‘World Christian Encyclopedia’ was not published until 1982. The ’30 Days of Prayer for the Muslim World’ initiative began in 1993. The ‘Joshua Project’ and ‘Praying Through the Window’ emerged a few years later, riding the momentum of the AD2000 Movement.
“’24-7 Prayer’ hit the scene in 1999. It was not until after 9/11 that the IPC (International Prayer Council) got here into being.”
On a positive note, Mandryk noted that there are more mission initiatives today “than we will keep track of”, and all “fuelled by intercession, more prayer movements driven by research, and more research efforts to mobilize mission.”
“But those first five editions of the complete Operation World (1974, 1978, 1980, 1986, and 1993) provided a singular impetus within the advancement of this convergence,” he added.
“The everlasting impact of our gathered prayers won’t ever be known this side of the New Heaven and New Earth,” Mandryk said.
“In the identical way, and consequently of Patrick’s [Johnstone] vision and faithfulness, the effect of Operation World upon the past, present, and future can’t be measured. But until Jesus returns to completely reclaim and restore the Earth, we’ll proceed to do what He has called us to do – research that inspires prayer, and prayer that changes the nations.”
