Memories of George Verwer – Jack Rendel

I recall how I ended up on my first outreach mission in Mexico. As a young college student, I was approached by an African American man, Virgil Amos, who asked if I would want to come with him and a group of friends to Mexico at Christmas time, to be a witness and pass out literature. Having little idea who this man was, I politely declined the offer but did reluctantly agree to come to the prayer meeting Virgil was hosting for the same group. After sitting and listening for a while, I began to join the prayer, and after a month or so of these prayer meetings, decided that I would go to Mexico. I also ended up on Virgil’s large team in Spain in 1965. Looking back, I didn’t quite appreciate just how unusual this situation was at the time. Having grown up in Africa, I wasn’t quite as aware of the extent of the racial issues going on in the USA around this time, or that Virgil had struggled to find a mission organisation that would take him before he met George Verwer.