In 1940 he was ordained a Baptist minister and soon thereafter he became involved with the Los Angeles branch of the WWII-era Youth for Christ (YFC) movement.
[2] During several visits in the late 1940s until the conclusion of the Chinese Civil War in 1950, Robert Pierce worked with the Youth for Christ, in a series of evangelical rallies held in China and witnessed the wartime destruction of hospitals, schools, and churches.
[3][4] On one trip, he met Tena Hoelkeboer, a missionary teacher, who presented him with a battered and abandoned child.
[5] He was deeply aroused by the wartime poverty and human suffering that he witnessed in both China and Korea and in 1950 he founded World Vision International, at least partly due to his associations with local pastors such as Korean Presbyterian minister Kyung-Chik Han.
Like other leading figures of World Vision, e.g. Richard Halverson,[8] Senator Frank Carlson,[9] or later Winston Weaver[10] he was also involved in The Fellowship and the associated prayer breakfast movement founded by Vereide for which he worked during the 1950s as a field representative.