Around the Ministry
 Sheriff Lee Baca told the participants, “Law enforcement can enforce the law, but we cannot minister to the hearts and souls of people the way you can. Please come and partner with us and do what you do best.” “Everyone there that night saw this as God opening a door for us to minister to hurting and lost people,” Alex says. More than 60 area clergy participated. The Clergy Council’s mission is to assist the community in collaboration with the Sheriff’s Department and to provide spiritual guidance.  Alex, who with his wife, Diana, works with The Navigators’ urban Hispanic ministry, was selected as the council’s leader. One duty of the team is to ride along with deputies in their squad cars as they respond to calls. “I have prayed with people many times,” Alex says. “It is a real way to touch real people in real need with the love of Christ. I see this as a great opportunity to live out our Navigator calling in the context of a Hispanic community.” To learn more about the Matas’ ministry, go to www.urbannav.org, or write Alex at losmata@verizon.net. |
Stephen is a 15-year-old with a tough past. Not much in his life has been encouraging or kind. But the week he spent at Eagle Lake Camp this summer gave him a taste of God’s goodness and grace.  Stephen was among more than 2,000 campers who attended Eagle Lake Camp, The Navigators’ youth camp located just outside of Colorado Springs, over the summer. When he arrived at Eagle Lake, he had only been a believer for a few weeks, and the whole idea of the “Christian lifestyle” was new to him. “It was clear that Stephen had a lot in his past to deal with,” says Suz Vukovich, community relations director for Eagle Lake Camps. “There were moments of terrible anger and pain for him throughout the week. Little things, like losing in basketball, would send him through the roof.” Noticing his struggles, Stephen’s two counselors explained the dangers of anger and how Christ wants His followers to love one another. They gave him Scripture to hang on to and examples from their own lives to help him apply what they taught. “At the end of the week it was clear that Stephen was better equipped to continue walking with Christ,” says Suz. “We knew that he left encouraged when he told his counselors, ‘This was the best week of my life!’ ” Would you like to send your child to Eagle Lake in 2007? Visit www.eaglelake.org to learn more. |
 Evan Griffin is dreaming again. Every fall for the past 17 years, Evan, Navigator staff member at the University of Cincinnati, has gone to the school’s Nippert Stadium to dream big dreams. Evan asks God to someday fill the stadium with people who love Jesus. 
Throughout the year, Evan and his wife, Kim, teach their Navigator
students about discipleship, or “friendship with a vision.”
“It’s being friends with the people around us to the extent that we actually love them so much that we can’t help but dream dreams about what their lives could become if they allowed the resources of God to pour into them,” says Evan. “And then we simply walk into those dreams and help them become reality. “ Every spring, Evan shares his dream with the Navigator students. He takes them to Nippert Stadium. “What kinds of dreams are you dreaming these days for the people around you?” Evan asks.  These milestones represent The Navigators’ long commitment to sending laborers into the nations to advance the Gospel of Jesus and His Kingdom. Today, USIMG (U.S. International Missions Group) includes more than 1,100 foreign missionaries representing 52 nationalities, serving in 111 countries in 160 languages. This summer, 375 people traveled to more than 20 locations worldwide through short-term programs. While these numbers are impressive, it is not numbers that concern USIMG. “We see vibrant laborers eager to chart bold rescues in the most adventurous journey of their lives—reaching with us into a lost world!” says Rod Beidler, director of USIMG. “In a way, we see ourselves as ‘brokers’ in a world of missions, matching resource to need.” To learn more about The Navigators’ international opportunities, visit www.navmissions.org. |
 As I write this, I have just returned from a trip to Ethiopia to see the ministry among the poor that is featured on our cover story. I was both amazed and challenged. Poverty is massive in the country, yet the people are generally happy, connected to family, and joyful for what life has for them.  We visited the home of a grandmother we met in Addis Abba.Her tiny house has dirt walls, a thin roof, and only basic lighting. She pays an exorbitant amount, relative to her income, to have this small house. I sat there, knowing that with just a little money and a few phone calls we could change this woman’s life forever. But then I was struck by the reality that there are literally millions more women like her. What about them? The systemic realities that hold millions in poverty and darkness are profound, but the answer is the same: It is the Gospel of the Kingdom. The Gospel of the Lord Jesus can and will break all bondages. Our calling as Navigators is to be Jesus’ agents of liberation. Our ministry in Ethiopia is but one example of how The Navigators’ calling is bringing freedom to the oppressed.
|
| More articles from our flagship publication One-to-One Ministry Review. |
