Mike O’Rear, whom many will know as the CEO of Global Mapping International, passed away suddenly after a sudden heart attack.
Mike was a blessing to everyone who knew him. He was a blessing to me. He was one of the early ones who encouraged me to pursue the intersection between technology and missions. The mapping software that GMI helped bring to the missions world has been used the world over. Because of how Mike shaped GMI, it has been used to bring numerous e-books and resources to the missions world–including the electronic versions of Operation World, among other things. Yet Mike imparted to me a very practical quality that helped shape and sharpen my focus on realities.
Just a few days ago, I was emailing back and forth about fliers for Patrick Johnstone’s upcoming book tour. They arrived in my office the day before he passed. I look at them, and at the emails he sent, and think about Mike, and feel saddened. Mike will be greatly missed.
Yet at the same time, we will not miss him forever.
We do not weep as those who mourn with no hope of ever seeing Mike again. One day we will see each other, and talk about old times, and look forward to new ones. Mike–like David Mays, and David Barrett, and Ralph Winter, and so many others–is not dead. He is very much alive, more alive than ever before–just in a new place. A place where we cannot, for the moment, see him, but a place which one day we will share.
I feel like the missions world is in a huge change–so many of my friends and mentors and encouragers have graduated on. May we hold up and pass on and build on the legacy they have left us.
