Operation World (OW), dubbed the "definitive volume of prayer information about the world", celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2024. The global editions of the prayer manual that are released every few years have become a familiar resource to inform Christians how to pray for the nations.
What may be lesser known, however, is that the first edition in the year 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 during the days of apartheid by using an old hand-cranked Gestetner machine, according to a recent OW news update (Dec. 16). A larger print run occurred in Germany the following year, 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 author, team co-director and researcher for OW.
"Even more astounding is that this work was completed under an apartheid government that was doing all it could do to keep black African Christians and white believers (both 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 rely on couriers – friends or co-labourers who were travelling to and from Africa – to carry correspondence by hand.
"His research office was a pair of boxes he toted around in 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 find ourselves in today."
OW's ministry has expanded to include four children's editions, and additional titles such as "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 in the news update the various ways in which the OW resources have helped Christians with their faith.
"Believers, churches, prayer movements, mission organizations, and theological institutions have been impacted all around 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 looking at the history since 1964 and considered the changes in both world mission priorities and the wider 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 original 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 so much faithful endeavour and travailing prayer," commented Mandryk.
"Yet the absolute numbers of those beyond the ordinary reach of the good 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, an increase of 37 percent.
"Despite all that has gone into global mission in the past 60 years, taking the good news to every person is that much further away," lamented Mandryk. "The unevangelized population is increasing faster than we are reaching them – an increase of more than 50,000 people every single day."
The missionary challenge in the 1960s, "less than a lifetime ago", was very different to now, the OW team co-leader added. He noted global events in that period such as the Cold War and the greatest 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 beginning 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 found in the Majority World, and comprise most sending missionaries.
Mandryk also noted that OW played a key role in this wider transition "from harvest field to harvest 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, such as William Carey's Enquiry in 1792 and the World Mission Atlas in 1925. But many of the usual suspects of international mission as we know them today are conspicuously absent from this list."
These "usual suspects" include Youth With A Mission, founded by the late Loren Cunningham, which did not become an entity until 1966. Operation Mobilization was also in its earliest days, founded in 1963 by the late George Verwer.
"The Lausanne Movement did not exist until 10 years later," Mandryk continued. "Incidentally, this was the same year that Operation World started covering every country in the world 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 couple of 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) came into being."
On a positive note, Mandryk noted that there are more mission initiatives today "than we can 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 full Operation World (1974, 1978, 1980, 1986, and 1993) provided a unique impetus in the advancement of this convergence," he added.
"The eternal impact of our accumulated prayers will never be known this side of the New Heaven and New Earth," Mandryk said.
"In the same way, and as a result of Patrick's [Johnstone] vision and faithfulness, the effect of Operation World upon the past, present, and future cannot be measured. But until Jesus returns to fully reclaim and restore the Earth, we will continue to do what He has called us to do – research that inspires prayer, and prayer that changes the nations."
