How the prayer of a Christian mum led George Verwer to faith, and the birth of Operation Mobilisation

As Christians celebrate the life of George Verwer there will no doubt be calls to recall the way in which this trailblazer for the gospel found faith in Jesus.

The story is told of how in the 1940s, Dorothea Clapp from New Jersey, USA, began to pray for the students at her neighbouring high school, Ramsey High. For over 15 years, she prayed faithfully and asked God to change the world through these young people.

Her own son, Danny attended the school and became friends with a lad called George. Dorothea liked to pray for students by name when she could and so ‘George Verwer’ was added to her prayer list. Accounts of her role will often fast forward to, ‘and George came to faith’ but there is much more to the story.