George Verwer was the founder and director of the global missionary organisation, Operation Mobilisation, which I served in from 1982-3 in one of the OM bookshops, as well as a month in the summer of 1982 in northern France. It is hard to believe he died just at the weekend. I hadn’t seen him since my time at OM but his influence on my life has been significant and his death touches me personally.

I can still remember those international prayer meetings in the cold, draughty book warehouse in Bromley. They were hard going, as we would be praying for various countries, but, I guess for security reasons, the evangelists in these countries were never mentioned by name. It is always easier to pray if you know the names and details of those you are praying for. I guess that’s just human nature. So, although myself and my flat mates often left the meeting after only an hour – it would go on until about 11pm or even midnight! – I now find myself able to enjoy praying for people and nations in a way I never could have imagined I would. I am sure that I owe George an enormous debt for this.

But perhaps greater than my love of prayer, is my love of literature and writing. I always wanted to write and although I will never be famous as a result, or even known by more than just a few, through his book – Literature Evangelism – George instilled in me the passion to believe that words really can change lives.