Around the Ministry
 Many believers pray for years for the salvation of friends and loved ones. This was the case for Navigators Dennis and Bonnie Clark in Prairie Grove, Arkansas, and God gave them the desire of their hearts. “We first met Lee when he was the real estate agent who sold us our house when we moved to Arkansas in 1992,” Dennis says. “We struck up a friendship with Lee and his wife and have enjoyed that friendship for 14 years.” Through the years Lee and his
wife experienced marital troubles and moved a couple of times, and
Dennis and Bonnie have been with them through thick and thin.
“Lee has been an atheist/agnostic and has had no interest in God,” Dennis says. 
Just a few months ago Dennis e-mailed Lee and received a startling
reply: “Now don’t get me wrong, you know my thoughts on religion, but
if you don’t mind, send me some Scriptures to read from time to time. I
figure it can’t hurt.”“I was glad to do that,” says Dennis, “and we kept some regular correspondence going by e-mail. "Then, at age 49, he bought his first Bible. I went to Mississippi to spend a weekend with him. We had great talks about God and the Bible. “I asked him if he did decide to surrender to God, if he would know what to do. He started to respond by saying, ‘I would get on my knees—’ I stopped him and told him that if he did that, God would know exactly what he wanted. "He later e-mailed me and said he had been ‘on my knees.’ “ Since then Dennis has visited Lee three times. “It’s so awesome to see the changes in his attitudes and behavior,” he says. Would you like to donate to the Clark's ministry, or learn more about the Metro Ministries? |
 Joel Helms serves on the campus of Clemson University in South Carolina, where he says he’s seeing the power of the Word of God. Joel is reading through the Gospel of John with three students who aren’t familiar with the Bible.  They meet in one of the dorms, reading a chapter of John and talking about what they read. “All three have no church or religious background but really enjoy talking about Jesus,” Joel says. “Will is one of the guys I meet with. He told me, ‘As a child, I didn’t learn much about the Bible and its teachings. My family stopped going to church years ago. The time I’ve spent reading and discussing the Scriptures has been an enjoyable experience for the questions and points raised, as well as the safety of an open dialogue.’ “Once, riding in the car, I asked him if he believed Jesus was Lord. He thought a minute and asked if he could have more time. I think Will is close to finding the Savior,” Joel says. “And so is Andy. He came to our Nav Night and shared in front of everyone that he’s never read the Bible but says that ‘it’s neat to read about Jesus and realize that all this is true.’ “  Navigator staff members lead
ministries on 95 college campuses across the country. Yet that’s not
nearly enough. So Navigator campus ministries are increased by the work
of non-staff laborers through an effort called NavFusion. Today, there
are 20 NavFusion campuses and another 56 developing ministries.
NavFusion Director Mike Kozlarek says, “It’s like a spiritual reaction. Certain elements — students and campus leaders — are combined by the Holy Spirit to create a critical mass for a powerful reaction. One reaction feeds off another and suddenly the reactions are multiplying and self-sustaining. “NavFusion is a group of doctors, business men and women, firemen, homemakers, professors, and students who lead ministries all over the country,” says Mike. “NavFusion workers don’t have as high a profile as many staff-led campuses, but the grads are coming out with Navigator DNA.” |
  Andy Puleo has no trouble identifying
his spiritual gift. It’s evangelism. Andy directs The Navigators’ New
York Metro Mission, and when he and his wife, Donna, relocated to
Freeport, New York, last year, he says God opened “many amazing doors”
to reach the lost.“Every Wednesday, I plug in with the food distribution program of Word of Life Church,” Andy says. “People are both physically and spiritually hungry. They crave to be listened to and often request prayer. As a pastor figure, I am well received and rather quickly trusted.  “During one of my first times at the program I met Willard. He was standing on a corner nearby. I went over to him and started a conversation. I asked if I could show him the tract ‘Steps to Peace with God.’ He agreed, listened closely, asked a few questions, and then wanted to receive Christ. We meet weekly at a diner close to my home and study the Scriptures. “While at the diner, a waitress, ‘Dee,’ noticed Willard and me together. We talked with her and discovered that she was sensitive and positive toward God. I frequent the diner with different people and saw her during many of those times. I brought Donna to see her and they began to meet with two other women in a Bible study. She made a comment once that when we came into her life everything changed. “It seems like every week at the food distribution brings a new adventure. Once I found myself in a conversation with five Mexican men. I shared the Gospel and amazingly all five wanted to receive Christ. Another time three football players were lingering nearby. Soon all three received Christ. “My eyes have been opened to the issues faced by many of these folks—like poverty, immigration status, language, unemployment, mental imbalance, family dysfunction, physical infirmities, drugs, gang involvement, and crime. My heart compels me to do something to introduce Christ into the situation.” |
 David Stickel has a passion for art as well as the Gospel (see “Inside Story”). His story brings to mind two keys to advancing the Gospel in our day. The first key is the importance of beauty. You may have heard that today a lot of young people do not connect with truth claims, and that for them truth is not absolute. I have found that for a lot of people the reason this is true of them is because they do not see the beauty in what is true.  Truth
is essential. And it’s the truth of Jesus’ life, death, resurrection,
and message that is at the center of all that we do. But in this
generation beauty is increasingly a way to connect those all-important
truths with the hearts of many people, both young and old. The second key that David’s story brings to mind is the need for the Good News to be lived out—incarnated—where people live and work. The people David interacts with through his passion meet a man in whom Christ has set up home and the truth of the Gospel is being made known. God has placed passions, talents, and interests in all of us that naturally connect us every day with people who do not yet know Jesus. We have the opportunity to simply love people and show them the truth of Jesus in our lives by sharing whatever it is that brings us together. When it comes to sharing the Good News in our day, Jesus has not left Himself without His witnesses in the lives of every American believer. Followers of Jesus are next door to everyone. All of us can show the beauty of the Gospel to our neighbors. |
| Read more articles from our flagship publication One-to-One Ministry Review. |
