While taking a break from doing an audio recording of Happiness several weeks ago, I had the privilege of spending a couple of hours in the studio with several friends, including these two great people in the photo: George Verwer and Karen Coleman.

Karen Coleman is a dear sister I worked with many years ago at my home church, Good Shepherd. Karen was for many years a missionary to Cameroon. One of her sons, Zac, works on the Logos Hope ship that takes the gospel and great books into the ports of countries all over the world:

23-year old Zac Coleman leaves his cabin on the Operation Mobilization ship Logos Hope in Singapore, heading toward the engine room.  He’s 6’2” so he has to duck at intervals when he passes through low doorways.  He is a watch-keeper, the job that keeps someone monitoring the ship’s many systems—engine, water, electrical, etc.— 24/7, to make sure everything is running smoothly for the 450 people aboard.  He is trained to listen for alarms that warn that something is amiss and needs to be serviced or tweaked.  Over the years, EPM has donated thousands of books to this ship ministry.

The picture above is of Zac with some visitors from the Philippines, showing some of my books that are on the ship.  (Thanks for sharing the picture, Zac!) Learn more about Logos Hope in this 5-minute video.

George Verwer is the founder of Operation Mobilization, and one of the great missionary statesmen of our time. It’s hard to overstate the extent of the influence of this man. Wherever he’s gone he’s made a difference for Jesus. At age 77 George still travels the world sharing the Gospel, calling churches to greater outreach and discipleship, and also speaking up for the cause of unborn children. George frequently gives away my books and many others to the people he speaks to. The face of world missions today would look very different if God had not raised up George. Here’s a tribute I wrote about him some years ago.

Many may recognize the coat with the countries of the world that George usually wears when speaking.

So yes, George literally gave me the coat off his back.

I love George and Karen and people like them, with big hearts for God and for a world that needs to hear and respond to the good news of great joy in Jesus.