Andrew Day’s bags are packed. It’s a routine the 2008 Bible Institute alumnus has down pat — he’s been traveling nonstop for the past year. With everything ready for his big trip tomorrow, he adjusts his hat and sits down to catch up through Skype. Sitting in his temporary bedroom in London, it’s the last time he’ll have a reliable Internet connection for the next several months.
He’s leaving tomorrow for Africa, where he’ll work to share the Word of God in the northwestern countries of Senegal, Mali, Niger, and Chad. It’s the concluding trip of a year spent traveling around the world spreading the Word with the esteemed George Verwer, founder of the Christian missions organization Operation Mobilization.
Andrew realized he wanted to be a missionary at the age of 5, the same year he trusted Christ as His Savior. More than a decade later, as he sat down to write an admissions essay on what his plans were after graduation, his answer was easy: missions. Young Andrew wrote that he’d love to spend a year learning from a veteran missionary.
Two years later, God dropped that very opportunity in his lap. A Word of Life Bible Institute graduate and student at Moody Bible Institute, Andrew sat awestruck listening to Verwer as he spoke at Moody’s annual Missions Conference. The missionary seemed to Andrew to be “the most transparent, real guy I’d ever seen.” He was just the kind of man Andrew had always wanted as a mentor.
Andrew’s intuition that Verwer was a powerful presence in missions was correct. Verwer started the work of Operation Mobilisation (OM) with a goal of inspiring young people around the world to live and share the Gospel of Jesus. The organization today has more than 6,100 people working in more than 110 countries. Each year, Verwer selects one recent graduate to travel country-to-country with him, visiting different OM sites. It’s an assistant role known affectionately as a “gofer.” It’s a competitive position — and one Andrew knew he had to have.
“I feel that in order to be successful in ministry — to lead well — you must follow well. I saw this “gofer” role as the perfect opportunity to do that, so I could be a servant for George. Then, hopefully, that would shape me into the leader that I want to be,” Andrew says.
The recent graduate felt like he’d been lifted from a crowd when he was selected for the position. Now, after a year spent as Verwer’s gofer, the Bible Institute alumnus says the night at the Missions Conference when he first heard Verwer speak feels like ages ago. The past 12 months have been spent reaching others for Christ, in the furthest corners of the world — from England, Ireland, and Africa to India and Thailand — alongside a mentor Andrew calls “incredibly wise.” Drawing a familiar analogy, he says traveling with Verwer is like “walking in the dust of the rabbi.”
“There’s definitely no ‘normal schedule’ as a George ‘gofer,’” Andrew says. A typical day could include anything from spreading the Word of God with a small village in India to church planting in North Africa.
Although each trip has brought new perspective to Andrew’s journey with God, he points to his time in India as the most transformative.
“George is like the Billy Graham of India, I like to say,” Andrew says, laughing. “It was really challenging to see the need in India. It’s a paradoxical place because God is working there, and you can see that in the fact that [Christianity] is growing. But there’s still a great need — especially among Muslim groups.”
Andrew emphasizes that Christians need to have love for Muslim people. These are people for whom Christ died, and it’s the responsibility of Christians to spread that good news.
Through it all, Andrew says he is so thankful for the solid biblical training he received at the Bible Institute, including lessons that prepared him well for some of the world’s darkest places.
The passion for evangelism he developed at the Bible Institute became especially important. He says in his first year, in Florida (he spent one year at each U.S. campus), the focus was mainly on evangelism. He smiles as he remembers the days he and his friends would take out what they called the “evange-van” and witness.
Last year, with so much time spent on buses, airplanes, and trains traveling from city to city, Andrew put to use what he’d practiced in Florida.
“I try to share Christ with every person I sit beside,” he says.
He remembers the first chance he got to share his testimony on the journey, with a young German woman named Tina. She said she knew the Lord as her Savior but admitted she’d strayed from the Word. Andrew shared one of Verwer’s books with her, and she promised it would keep her company during her three-hour layover.
Aside from giving him the opportunity to witness, the gofer program has compounded Andrew’s biblical training.
“I’ve definitely gained a bigger perspective of what the Lord is doing around the world. I’ve learned about humility, repentance — just so much,” he says. “It’s incredible to see God’s work firsthand.”
Andrew says he’s often thought back to Joe Jordan’s discipleship class as he works with Verwer around the world.
He says, “That’s my heart — church planting, and training future Christian leaders.”
Andrew’s journey to Africa will be the start of his new role as a “gofer” graduate. His time with Verwer was so impactful that he’s decided to extend it for another year. During this time he’ll work with different missions organizations to take the Word to new populations, research where help is needed, raise money for special projects, and more.
Although Verwer won’t be physically present to guide Andrew through his time in Africa, the former “gofer” knows Verwer is still there to disciple him.
“We’ll be lifelong friends,” he says. “George is more than just a mentor — he’s a close friend for eternity.”
Andrew is right — Verwer still keeps in touch with all of his former “gofers,” a number that now reaches more than 60 people. After a year spent spreading the Word in such extreme situations, a powerful bond is formed between Verwer and his “gofers.” For Andrew, it’s a bond so strong that he would like to do more traveling with his mentor sometime again.
“George loves trains,” he says. “I’d love to visit him and go on a train trip somewhere together — I think that’d be pretty neat.”
Andrew doesn’t know what he’ll do after he completes his year as a “gofer” graduate, but he figures he’ll find out in Africa. Until then, he’s set on doing his part to spread the Word.
“We talk of the second coming,” he says, pausing, “but half of the world has never heard of the first.”
