USA (MNN) — After setbacks, sleepless nights and years of sheer hard work, the 7th edition of "Operation World" was officially unveiled at Lausanne. It's affectionately called "The Prayer Encyclopedia" for the global church.
Published by Biblica, the author of "Operation World" is Jason Mandryk. "The whole purpose of 'Operation World' is to inform Christians about the rest of the word, to mobilize them for prayer and for ministry in the neediest places on earth."
It's the first update in 9 years. Mandryk says this is the first full version completed from start to finish in the electronic age. He also says, "It's also been a much more collaborative and dialogue-oriented process through which we have come to our conclusions about the state of Christianity in all the countries and ways in which Christians can pray."
This new volume is five years in the making and is being made available in paperback and digital formats.
In an interview with "Christian Today," Mandryk said, "We pray that through this book the unevangelized will be evangelized, the suffering will find relief, and the church will be mobilized in fulfilling the great commission."
Since the world is more connected electronically than ever before, Mandryk says, "As we get increasingly connected to the global church, we're going to have to more frequently be revising our information."
One thing is clear, says Mandryk: "We see the church growing more rapidly than ever before. We see people groups being reached more rapidly than ever before. And we see the challenges that the churches are facing becoming globalized more and more."
To help launch "Operation World," Mandryk says, "We're doing a live global prayer event on the 9th of November, and we're running that twice that day. You can see that at the Web site itself, and we're going to have other guests as part of that event. "
You can participate in the prayer effort by going to OperationWorld.org and sign up.
