7 Jan
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 540 times in 2013. If it were a cable car, it would take about 9 trips to carry that many people.
7 Mar
Click on the title of the video below to go to a tremendous 11 minute video from January’s Freedom Climb. Over $300,000 has been raised for projects to benefit women and children who are endangered.
Rob
21 Feb
Nancy Byrne, a Freedom Climb participant from our sending church and also a volunteer here at OM USA (as well as an XOMer from the 1980’s), did an update to her blog and I just read her first person report on the climb itself. It was wonderful. You can find it at
http://takeeverythoughtcaptive.blogspot.com/2012/02/freedom-climb-post-climb-update.html
She also posted a “video” of still photos taken during the climb and set to music. It is on YouTube at the following address:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JHMWH1J2cE
Take a look. They both give you a real feeling for what went on. Over $300,000 has been raised to date!!! Praise the Lord.
Rob
15 Feb
Three of the women who made the Freedom Climb (www.thefreedomclimb.net) were on Fox News channel this morning.
Gretchen Carlson interviewed them. Click on this link ?playlist_id=86912 (or copy the link below and paste it into your browser to go to the four minute video of the ladies comments. There is a brief commercial before the interview begins .
18 Jan
43 of the Freedom Climb participants made it to the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro this past weekend. They are now down the mountain and learning to breathe real air again (rather than the oxygen-robbed substitute they were breathing at 19,000 feet). No one was injured but many have sore. blistered feet.
Congratulations Ladies! A job well done.
4 Jan
The first OM ship, MV Logos was purchased in 1970 and sailed until January 4, 1988. She ran agound on rocks off Tierra del 
Fuego, Chile, in atrocious weather conditions. Although the ship could not be saved, not a single crewmember was lost or even injured. The skeletal hulk of the ship is still visible and has become something of a tourist attraction over the years. Over a 17-year period, more than seven million people visited MV Logos during 250 ports of call in 102 countries.
Later that same year, the former Antonio Lazaro was purchased by OM and was destined to become MV Logos II. This was the first OM ship we sailed on. Please join us in thanking God for the ministry of the MV Logos and the other OM ships over the years.
4 Jan
OM is sponsoring a climb up Africa’s Mt. Kilimanjaro to bring attention and funding for the international trafficking in women and children. the climbers need your prayers for safety on the climb. Click on the link above or paste the address into your browser.
Thanks,
Rob
One of the most important ways you can join the Freedom Climb is by praying with us. Pray that the women and children who are enslaved will be freed. Pray for their safety. Pray that the cycles of poverty, shame, slavery, and despair that are hurting so many will be stopped. Pray that the ministries and programs in place to stop these cycles will thrive and be blessed. Pray that the funds needed for these projects and others will come in. Pray that even through all this oppression and evil, God’s love would be seen and those who do not know Him would come to faith in Him.
1 Jan
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 2,000 times in 2011. If it were a cable car, it would take about 33 trips to carry that many people.
18 Dec
We attended the OM Christmas Dinner event on December 9 and had a really nice time although there were so many OM family members there we did not know 30% of them. The office has grown over the years to handle all of the services we provide for our overseas staff of missionaries.
We will be bringing Mom Taylor home from the nursing home for Christmas breakfast with Connie’s Mama and Henry. We have done “custom made” breakfasts for our three seniors for the last eight years and why change a custom that works that well. Everyone gets exactly what that want!
We are praying that all of you reading this have the love of Christ in your hearts this Christmas and that you joyfully share this love with your family and friends.
Hugs from Rob and Connie
6 Aug
With apologies to the Dalai Lama... May I present the "Dolly Mama"
On Wednesday night, August Mama and I (Connie) went to see Dolly Parton in concert. Mama had been working on a bucket list where she lives and at the top of her list for a long time she had written “see Dolly in concert.” Well that took some doing and finally Rob was able to find tickets for a concert in Georgia. She is promoting her new CD called ‘A Better Day” and her new movie being released in January 2012 called “Joyful Noise”. The movie was partly filmed in Fayette County, right down the road from OM. We look forward to seeing the movie next year.
Well when Renee, the activities director at Benton Manor, found out about our
Connie, Mama (Lois) and Renee at Benton Manor just before we left for the concert.
getting the tickets, she started researching how to make it possible for Mama to meet Dolly and get a picture with her. Well Rob and I thought, oh boy, Mama is going to be disappointed because there is no way that is going to happen. We had already tried every which way on the web to figure out how to do it and nothing seemed to work. Renee decided to phone the concert venue and spoke with a lady in guest relations. She explained how Mama is losing her vision, has a pacemaker and defibrillator, recently had a second foot surgery and walks with a cane, etc. Renee did all she could to seal the deal!
The lady explained that she works for the venue and not with the performers and their team. So we thought it was not going to happen, but we started to pray asking the Lord for favor and knowing if God wanted it to happen, it was going to happen. I kept thinking that my Mama is the daughter of the King and He knows the desire of her heart and if He wants her to meet Dolly, well it will happen. I must admit that I was doubtful that this would ever take place.
Lois and Dolly in Connie's first shot
On Tuesday, I phoned the venue to ask where Rob could drop us off near the gate we were expected to enter to get to our seats. I am so used to calling doctor’s offices regarding the folks, that I started the conversation with “this is Connie Taylor and I…” Well the gal that was on the other end of the phone interrupted me by saying “and your mother is Lois Stephens and lives at some place that starts with a ‘B’ and her friend Renee called me and… “Obviously this was the same lady that Renee had talked to. She told me the same thing that she told Renee, that they had no inside connections to make a ‘meet and greet’ happen.
I told her I completely understand and said that Mama is God’s child and we felt it was in His hands and that that was not the reason for my call. She was so kind and told me how we could get a wheelchair and where Rob could let us off. The concert was quite pricy for our standards, so Rob volunteered to drive us there, 70 plus miles – one way – sit in the van and read and then fetch us at the curb at the end of the concert. Believe it or not the concert was outside and the temperature in the city was over 100 degrees-the hottest day in Georgia this year so far! Rob could hear some of the music as he waited in the parking lot reading! Bless his heart; he loves my Mama a whole bunch.
At the end of the call, the gal at the venue asked for my cell number and said she
Dolly performing her first set.
was going to email her supervisor again and just explain the situation, but was really sorry not to make it happen for us. I told her I totally understood and to not give it another thought because she was not able to do anything about it.
Wednesday afternoon she called me and asked, “Can you be here early?” I said, “Sure.” I thought it was because she had said she would arrange for us to use a wheel chair. But she said “I’m pretty sure that Mrs. Stephens is going to get to meet Dolly.” I said, “Praise the Lord!!!”
She told me where to have Rob drop us off at the VIP gate and said she would be there with a wheelchair. She was there, all smiles, and we all hugged each other, I just keep saying God is so good and the tears just rolled. She took us inside the VIP food area and told us that we could come back there because she put VIP arm bands on us and gave us a coupon for a free soda. We were getting the royal treatment already.
Dolly put on another great set of songs after the intermission. It was a fantastic concert.
She took us backstage and then down to the area where Dolly’s bus was parked. After a good long wait, and lots of nervousness, Dolly stepped out of her bus. She was beautiful and all smiles. Mama jumped up from the wheel chair and made it over to Dolly and both were all grins. I was so nervous trying to take pictures with my camera and sweating (the temperature was still in the high nineties and I was nervous). Then the professional photographer took Mama and Dolly’s picture. The photographer asked if I was her daughter. I said, “Yes” and she asked me to get in the next shot. It all happened in less than 90 seconds, but what a thrill it was for both of us!
The concert was wonderful with all of her favorite songs and some from her new CD. She also said that she wanted this concert and new CD to be uplifting and joyful. She did some old hymns too. She said that when she sits down to write a new song, she prays and asks the Lord for the right words! She is not all flash. There is a big heart there too. She has not forgotten her roots and her love of the Lord.
"The Trio" - Dolly, Lois and Connie - Songbirds of the new century
It was a truly a special evening, not one we will soon forget. Thanks Lord for caring for your child, my Mama, and giving her a special wish come true. Thanks for letting me share this special event with you.
May the Lord get all the glory,
Connie
21 Jul
A view of the Homer Spit Lighthouse
Next, a real port, Kodiak. Friendly people, beautiful views, unseasonably nice weather – what could be nicer?
28 Jun
Our team of builders help construct houses for the poorest flood victims.
A while back I wrote of the work done by the OM Pakistan team in serving the people of Pakistan after the torrential floods of August, 2010. The work continues and the OM News and Information (OMNI) team sent out a film team and a still camera man to document the ministry there. I just watched the film on the internet and thought it was worth including here. It is less than four minutes long. Please consider lifting this team in your prayers as they continue to serve as the hands and feet of Jesus in Pakistan. As OM celebrates 50 years of serving Muslim peoples this year I will try to bring other items of interest to you via this blog.
Cut and paste the following URL into your browser address line, turn on your speakers and sit back:
http://www.omnitube.org/pakistan-flood2011.html?keyword=pakistan
21 Jun
As we saw last month, the Mississippi River flooded thousands of acres and numerous homes and businesses were destroyed. Now the Missouri River is on a rampage and threatening Southwest Iowa. This made me reflect on the terrible floods that took place in Pakistan just last August. OM Pakistan has done much to serve as the hands and feet of Christ during and after that disaster.
In one four month span an OM team, and their hired workers, reconstructed 300 homes. In one area, nearly 100 families were living in a Christian school, though the school building had been heavily damaged by monsoon flooding. Most of the rooms had collapsed, as there was no boundary wall to hold them up. All flood victims have now returned to their own homes, but their 150 children are now studying at this Christian school. The army said that they would seize and occupy the land that the church and school were occupying, as there was no boundary wall marking the area. The church leadership wrote to OM for help and they helped to reconstruct a 1,500 foot long wall around the church and school. They also have rebuilt three of the classrooms.
Please join me in thanking God for how He has allowed OM to serve so many hurting people and impact their lives with His love. Thank you for being a part of all that we do, by your prayers and gifts to the ministry.
21 Jun
I was reading the prayer letter of Angela, a long term OMer we met on Logos II more than 14 years ago. The story about Pavel, below, was so good that I thought it deserved a wider audience, so here it is…
Pavel, serving God as an accountant at the Moldovan ministry Centre in Chisinau
Pavel grew up with his aunt and sister in Moldova. As a boy, he attended Sunday school but didn’t know God personally. His aunt struggled financially, so at age 18, Pavel did what many Moldovans do – he went abroad to earn money for his family. Pavel packed his bag and went to Moscow, where he worked for a month. But the cost of living was so high, he soon realized it wasn’t worth staying. Not wanting to return home empty-handed, Pavel decided to look for work in Greece. He only had enough money for the ferry to Turkey and a transit visa to Greece. But he went anyway, hoping that something good would happen along the way. “Now, looking back,” says Pavel, “I see that God was protecting and providing for me.” He arrived in Istanbul with no money and no knowledge of the language. But a stranger gave Pavel 30 euro for the bus journey to Greece. Arriving at the Greek border with just five euro and no visa, Pavel decided to cross it illegally. “I don’t know how I did it,” says Pavel. “But I did, even sneaking through a roomful of sleeping guards.” But that was where Pavel’s ‘luck’ ended. Just after the border, the police caught him, put him in a closed facility for illegal immigrants and demanded that he pay a fine. With no money, Pavel became a prisoner.
Finding God in confinement – “I began to experience [God’s] goodness,” says Pavel. “I promised that, should I ever get home, I would spend the rest of my life serving Him.” Throughout his journey, Pavel carried a New Testament-a remnant of Sunday school. “I don’t know why I had it with me, but during this time of confinement, God’s Word became like a person for me,” he says. “It was the only thing I could read in Romanian. I read it almost all the time and began to pray earnestly to God and to speak with Him about my situation.” After nearly three months, a group of Arabs came to the facility to be processed for immigration, and Pavel became friends with some of them. When his new friends heard how long he had been confined there, they were shocked. The group collected money for Pavel-a few euros here, a dollar or a few liras there-and eventually they had $180, enough for Pavel to pay his fine and return home. Finally!
A life serving Him – When he arrived home, Pavel didn’t know what to do about his future. “I wanted to keep my promise to serve God, but how?” he remembers. “I had expected a clear path, but everything was so complicated.” He felt he should learn a profession. A woman at his church, an accountant, recommended accounting as something that might suit Pavel too, so that’s what he did. In spring 2010, Pavel joined OM Moldova’s Challenge into Missions training program, designed to give participants greater vision for missions around the world and practical involvement in Moldova. “God changed my whole life and the way I was thinking. During the outreach, I saw many people searching for God and in need of help and love. I couldn’t stay indifferent to that,” he says. At the end of that year, OM Moldova asked Pavel to join the team as an accountant. “I had been applying for work without success, which is unusual for accountants,” says Pavel. “But now I can see God’s hand in this.” Now Pavel works as an accountant in the OM Moldova office. “Sometimes when I am tired and have been sitting in the office all day, it is easy to ask myself: ‘What am I doing here? How am I serving God through this?'” he says. “But then I look at the documents I work with every day- for day centers, food parcels, meals for the elderly-and I see the people being helped, and I remind myself that the work I do is a necessary part of this process. “Throughout my life, I have seen how God works and prepares a special path for those who choose to follow Him-so I know that He wants me here!”
Please pray for Pavel and the others on the OM Moldova team as they serve our Savior in the poorest country in Europe. May God give them energy, stamina and the desire to reach out to the hurting people of this poor country.
13 Jun
It was such a big deal to arrive in Anchorage last May on the Amsterdam since it had been some years since a major cruise line had visited this port. It even made the front page of the Anchorage Daily News!!! Extra! Extra! Film at 11!!!
We docked during the breakfast period and were off the ship and on a bus to take
Connie and Kathy
us to the downtown area by 9:45 AM. After less than an hour we called our friend, Kathy Duncan, who was just getting off work at the local Costco Warehouse. We met Kathy on Logos Hope in Kiel, Germany in 2008 and we have kept touch ever since. It was wonderful that we got to see the only person we actually knew in Alaska!
Seven Glacier was high up on Mt. Alyeska
Kathy picked us up just before 11AM and gave us a whirlwind guided tour over the next five hours or so. She kept up a running commentary as we headed Southeast to the Alyeska Resort in Girdwood. We stopped at the resort and Kathy pointed up the mountain and said that we would be lunching way up there. We took a 10-minute tram ride up the mountain and got off to go to the Seven Glaciers restaurant. From this viewpoint on the shoulder of Mt. Alyeska. Sadly they were closed for renovations but the snack bar was open and we were treated to Reindeer Sausage, honest! It was May and we were
Mt. McKinley from 260 miles away. That is one big honkin' mountain!!!
surrounded with snow everywhere we looked. People were skiing down the slopes less than 50 yards from the dining room. The air was crisp and the views were spectacular.
We headed back to Anchorage where Kathy took us to a location where you could view Mt. McKinley from 260 miles away. It was a rare clear day and we could see it soaring from the Alaskan tundra. What a sight. We treated Kathy to coffee and dessert at Starbucks before she dropped us off near where we were to catch the bus back to the dock area.
Anchorage at sunset - quite a sight!
Since this is the land of the midnight sun we were out on the deck until after 11 that night, still in daylight, since sunset was not until 11:03 PM. I was still 
shooting pictures at 11:30. This is one of the last one I took that night as a helicopter skidded by the ship. We finally went to bed after midnight. I almost wish I had slept in the next day. We visited the small port of Homer and we could see why cruise ships don’t stop there too often. It was a major bore. The ship berthed at a place called the “Homer Spit”. It was an appropriate name as I was ready to spit, it was that dull. Fortunately the only dull port on the voyage.
PS – Here is the Newspaper article about our arrival in Anchorage. I was disappointed because my name was not in the article… 🙂
by Fran Golden Posted May 25th 2010
MS Amsterdam; Holland America Line
Anchorage is Alaska’s largest city but until this week it wasn’t on routes for popular big ship Alaska cruises. The reason: You have to get around a peninsula to get there and there are easier ports for ships to get to.
But on its new 14-day Alaskan Adventurer itinerary from Seattle, Holland America Line decided to break the mold. The 1,390-passenger Amsterdam called at Anchorage proper this week and will make eight more calls this summer. The itinerary will be repeated again in 2011. The cruises also call at little-visited Kodiak and Homer.
Anchorage officials, no doubt seeing big potential for tourist dollars, were thrilled to greet the ship yesterday. The Amsterdam will bring 12,400 visitors to the city this year.
“The arrival of the Amsterdam represents a new page in the growth of the city,” said Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan. “We welcome this newest group of visitors and invite them to explore all that the city has to offer.”
Richard Meadows, executive vice president, marketing, sales and guest programs for Holland America, told AOL Travel, “It’s a fact of cruising in Alaska, that though you might fly to Anchorage to catch a ship, few ships visit the city, instead heading out to the Inside Passage from more convenient ports in the towns of Whittier and Seward.” He said the decision to visit Anchorage allows the line “to expand our scope” and offer more choice.
Passengers on the Amsterdam were able to pick from more than two-dozen shore excursions in and around Anchorage including flightseeing trips to see Denali National Park and Mt. McKinley. Others chose to explore the city. In fact, the port call was for 16 hours, allowing plenty of time to do both.
All this came as welcome news in a year when several cruise lines cut some cruises in Alaska, some even moving ships elsewhere including to Europe. The number of cruise passengers in Alaska, near 1 million in 2009, is expected to be less than 883,000 this year; lost revenue from fewer passengers equals as much as $150 million, by some estimates.
8 Jun
Of the 87,500 visitors to Logos Hope in Colombo Sri Lanka during the ship’s recent visit there, many remembered seeing Logos and Doulos as children. In 1974, Ivor Poobalan visited Logos with his mother, who purchased a Christian book at the book fair on board. Years later, after Ivor became a Christian, the book his mother purchase that day challenged him to commit his life to serving God. This year Ivor celebrates 15 years as Principal of Colombo Theological Seminary. We praise God how he is using Ivor and so many others who have been challenged and encouraged by a visit to one of OM’s ministry ships.
Sri Lanka's first lady signs the guest book prior to touring the book fair on Logos Hope
Logos Hope was opened on 19 March in Colombo by Her Excellency Madam Shiranthi Rajapakse, First Lady of Sri Lanka, who also was the guest of honor on Doulos in 2005.
Most of the Logos Hope crewmembers who experienced the Sri Lanka dry dock pose at the bottom of the dock a couple of hours before the reflooding of the dock began.
During the five-week dry dock and lay up period, 180 crewmembers served local communities in 25 land-based ministry teams. Through community service projects, children’s programs and Gospel presentations, the teams strengthened ties with locals and saw several commit their lives to God. The remaining crew and the local shipyard worked on 200 projects, including painting the hull, installing a new mooring winch and updating the emergency bilge system. At the end, over 800 shipyard workers accepted a special invitation to visit the book fair on Logos Hope.
The next port was Kochi, India. Logos Hope arrived there on May 25 and within a few days the line to get aboard the ship was stretching hundreds of people long. This is exciting!!! They get to see the love of Christ in action aboard this international vessel.
Guest of Honor Deputy Mayor Mrs Bhadra B walks through the Parade of Nations on the Visitor Experience deck during the Official Opening in Kochi, India.
25 May
The mist-covered mountains, to the left and the right, guarded the entrance of Glacier Bay
This is the fifth entry in the long-running Alaska Cruise section of the blog. We started the cruise in Seattle a year ago. There are still about 5-6 more entries that have not bubbled to the surface. Eventually they will… 🙂
Glacier Bay was our first view of the huge moving ice cubes known as glaciers. We were out on the deck by 9 AM as we cruised up this fjord rimmed by steep hills and cliffs. This was one of the few times that we have been somewhere that “ever changing” did justice to the incredible landscape.
This eagle hitched a ride on a small iceberg that floated by the port side of the Amsterdam
Glacier Bay goes 65 miles in from the coast and widens to as much a 15 miles about 30 miles inland from mouth of the bay. It contains 20 glaciers and we got to see several of them. Some of the arms of the bay were too narrow for our 1,281 passenger vessel to navigate comfortably.
The air was crisp, the sky was bright and the glacier was a brilliant shade of blue!
We spent hours standing on the deck watching the cliffs and mountains slide by as we glided further inland. A nice treat was that the steward brought out mugs of hot chocolate for those of us standing at the bow or on the railings on either side of the promenade deck.
We watched the face of this glacier for some calving (this is when huge slabs of ice crack and fall off from the face into the bay. We did not see much of this in Glacier Bay but we saw it several times at the Hubbard Glacier, less than a week later.
While not as exciting as the Hubbard glacier, which we saw six days later, it was still magnificent and we would go back and spend a day there again if we were ever given the opportunity. At dinner on the first evening of the cruise we sat with a couple who had cruised to Alaska approximately two dozen times. We were stunned. Connie asked, “Why would you go to the same places so many times over the years?” The female half of the couple said, “Ask me that two weeks from now. I’m sure you will understand by then. I think we started to get a grasp of the answer by the time we left Glacier Bay last May (hard to believe a year ago this week we were on our voyage of a lifetime. The memories are ones we he will never leave us.
Next Port – Anchorage, Alaska’s largest city.
Anchorage at Sunset
24 May
GOD PROVIDES BIBLES IN UNEXPECTED WAYS IN MOLDOVA
Ianos, responsible for OM Moldova’s Literature Department, approached Eugen, another OM worker, about ordering Bibles to distribute to children at OM Moldova’s Day Centres, elderly who receive a hot meal, and churches OM Moldova partners with. “There was one problem,” remembers Ianos. “We couldn’t order the Bibles because we didn’t have sufficient finances.” God was about to remedy that with His special provision!
Not long after, Ianos received an interesting email from a Russian publishing house. They needed help with providing documents for Moldovan customs officials that would allow them to transport Moldovan Bibles from Belarus through Moldova and on to Romania. They offered Ianos $300 or 500 Bibles for the help of the OM team. Ianos agreed saying, “We choose the Bibles, and were amazed to see how God brought the plan together!”
While unloading 10 tons of Bibles at the OM Moldova office a few weeks later, the truck driver handed Ianos a Bible and said, “While a customs officer was checking my truck at the border, a border policeman took this Bible to read. Before I left, he returned it to me. But I can’t keep it, because it is yours.” Seeing the truck driver’s sad face, Ianos encouraged him to keep the Bible, as they already had enough for their planned distribution. “His face changed immediately when I returned the Bible to him, and during the next two hours it took for us to unload the truck, the driver read in his new Bible.” God blessed so many in Moldova through this gift of 500 free Bibles to distribute. Praise His name.
TWENTY FOUR HOURS, FORTY FIVE TEENAGERS & NO SLEEP IN SIBERIA
Just a few weeks after the official opening ceremony of OM Russia’s Discipleship Centre (DC) in Novosibirsk (Siberia), 13 students organized the first-ever sleepover conference for teenagers in Novosibirsk. Having just completed training on how to work and communicate with teenagers, this was their ultimate test!
OM Russia's Discipleship Center
“I was quite nervous before the conference because I didn’t have any experience in working with teenagers or children,” said Victor, a DC student, who had spent many years in prison before becoming a Christian. “During the conference, I realized how important it is to have experience in this work – to know how to communicate with teenagers. Afterwards, I regretted not having spent more time with them. These teenagers need to hear about Jesus Christ!”
Highlights of the conference were fun games, times of worship, fellowship – especially deep conversations about life, the universe and God late into the night, and some excellent dramas which powerfully communicated truths central to Christianity. “I simply loved everything – it was a real shame when we had to leave to go home,” said Dasha, a 10 year old. For a ‘fly-on-the-wall’ experience of the conference, check out this youtube.com video. It features 24 hours compressed into less than five minutes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-SOgU2YatA Pray that God will continue to work in the lives of the teens that attended the sleepover conference and for the workers who are learning more about serving teenagers and reaching them for Christ.
23 May
This new book by Debbie Meroff focuses on OM's committment to reaching the people of Europe.
OM has been in Europe since 1961 when George Verwer headed over with hundreds of students to start evangelizing Spain. On they went to France and eventually we had work in over two dozen countries. OMers sneaked across the borders of “Iron Curtain” countries in the 70’s and 80′ smuggling Bibles, New Testaments and tracts into countries where you could not worship Jesus publicly.
Post-Christian Europe, which has sent so many thousands into missionary service, is now a major mission field itself. We are not just recruiting in those countries but reaching out to the marginalized, the non-religious, immigrants and others. One of those countries is Belgium. The story below shows God’s hand of protection on one of missionaries (particularly) and hundreds of others over the years
OM Belgium’s vehicle ministry ended suddenly on 25 March 2011. After dropping off a van load of children from a local church, the driver was on his way back to the OM Belgium training center when a car hit the rear of his van. The van rolled over the side of the highway, and although the vehicle was a total write-off, the driver suffered only whiplash. 
“We had considered ending the vehicle ministry due to a lack of personnel and finances,” reported Jan, leader of OM Belgium. “The imposed taxes placed on the rental of our vehicles made it less and less attractive for people to use our vans. On 25 March, we were reminded of God’s faithfulness and of the many thousands, if not millions, of miles he has kept us safe.”
Vehicles have traveled from Zaventem (located near the Brussels airport) throughout Europe to Sudan, Iraq, Turkey, India and the OM ships over the past 50 years. They were not simply vehicles that went places, but they were filled with young people keen to share the message of God’s love wherever they went. Praise God for the thousands who benefitted from OM Belgium’s vehicle fleet, and for His protection and faithfulness.
In 2003, we were at the Zaventem Center preparing for OM’s International General Council meetings in Holland. Connie was assisting the registration coordinator and I was a member of the transportation team. They gave me a map of Belgium and The Netherlands, a full tank of gas and said to drive to Schipol (Amsterdam’s airport) and pick up a van load of OMers then take them to the conference two hours west. I am not sure but the van appeared to be older than Connie (though not nearly as old as me)! I kept looking for the bailing wire and duct tape which had to be holding this beast together. I never did find it (and I never got lost during my week on the transport squad though I did get stopped by the Dutch police – – but that’s another story.
This year, OM celebrates 50 years of ministry in Austria. In preparation of OM Austria’s celebration on September 24, they have been sorting through piles of old photographs, letters, magazine articles etc. in an attempt to build a picture of OM’s development and influence over the years. “It all began in the summer of 1961,” reports Philipp, leader of OM Austria, “when Paul Troper (an American who later was the director of OM USA) brought the first summer team to Austria. They linked up with a Baptist church in Vienna, and within 3 months distributed thousands of pieces of Christian literature door-to-door!
One important visit was with a young flower seller called Heidi. She believed in Jesus through their witness, joined OM, married Johan, and together they led the work of OM in Austria for many years.” The following summer, Heidi and Johan van Dam made their way to Tirol, and stocked up with tracts offering a free Gospels of John and Bible correspondence course, they blitzed the many small towns and villages. The results were impressive – over 4,000 people wrote in to receive the gospels! In fact, Paul Troper must have felt a bit like Paul the apostle, when he spoke of Asia, as he wrote, “We have completed our goal of reaching Tirol with the gospel. It was hard ground but again and again we experienced Jesus as conqueror!”
Tales from the Taylors 