Around the Ministry
 “When a young Ranger named Mike came into our Bible study using a walker to inch his way through the door, we knew something terrible had happened to him,” says Chuck Wood, on staff with The Navigators at Fort Benning, Georgia. It would have been easy to assume Mike was injured in battle. But in fact, his world changed when the driver of a 70-ton tank lost control and ran over his vehicle. “While pinned in the wreckage, Mike recalls being calm, but telling God that he was not ready to die,” says Chuck. “His relationship with the Lord was not right.” So after a long hospital stay, Mike came to the Ranger Bible study. The leader, Navigator Chris Bean, heard his story and immediately took Mike under his wing. One evening, while Chris was dropping him off at the barracks, Mike asked, “Why are you doing this? Why are you helping me?” The response was immediate: “Because Jesus loves me and commands me to love others.” In a few weeks, Mike embraced Jesus Christ as his personal Savior. He is now one of the key laborers at Fort Benning. He recently led a Bible study with 20 young men, both officers and enlisted. Chuck says, “We affectionately call this young disciple of Jesus ‘Tank Mike.’ ”  For more on The Navigators’ Military ministry, visit www.navmilitary.org. |  For several years, Navigators Jim and Deb Entsminger have been teaching students to spend extended time in prayer. It’s a practice they started when they were college students involved in a Navigator ministry at the University of Florida. They call it XTAWG—eXtended Time Alone With God.  “We provide bagels and cream cheese for students as they arrive,” Deb explains. “Then they go off at 9:00 and spend about three hours on their own.” “The time can be used for prayer, Bible reading, journaling, or being quiet before God,” Jim adds. “We want them to slow down and spend time with their relational God.” They provide first-timers with lists and other tools to get them started. At noon, the students regroup to share what they learned. “It’s a huge sacrifice for college students, who are usually out late the night before,” Deb says. “We’ve even had non-Christians come. When that happens, we go with them for the first part. Jim has shared the Gospel with guys through this.” Jim and Deb say some students have a hard time concentrating on spiritual things for three hours. “One student found his mind wandering,” Deb recalls, “so for the last hour I paired up with him and we walked around campus praising God through the alphabet.“ Like the Entsmingers before them, some students are making this a life-long habit. “A recent USF graduate told me she now spends a half day with the Lord every Saturday morning,” adds Deb. Would you like to follow their example? Check out How to Spend an Extended Time in Prayer on our website. |
 Gary Glenney, on Metro staff in Seattle, meets with Christian doctors, businessmen, and others to help them become “insiders” who will influence their circle of friends with the truth of Christ. One group meets in a coffee shop every Saturday. “One morning we started talking about evolution,” he says. “A man sitting nearby came over and asked if he could join the conversation.” The man, an atheist and naturalist, enjoyed Gary’s group so much that he has joined them nearly every week for the past six months. “He said most of the Christians he has met try to convert him, and if he doesn’t convert, they don’t want to talk anymore. He likes the fact that we listen to him. 
“Some members of our group are concerned that he doesn’t seem any
closer to God than he was six months ago. But we’re reading the Bible
with him, praying with him. His conversion is God’s work.” |  by Alan Andrews, U.S. Navigator President Think about Eagle Lake Camps. What comes to mind—the excitement of youth camp, hiking or playing in the lake, the overall outdoor adventure experience? Yes, all this is true of Eagle Lake!  What’s more is that Eagle Lake is an important aspect of the vision God has given us. Every year thousands of young people and dozens of short-term staff come to our camp nestled in the Colorado mountains. There they get immersed in the story and reality of Jesus and hope of His Kingdom. Through the years countless young people have responded to the Good News there, starting them on a course more exciting than any zipline. People tell me all the time that they met Jesus at Eagle Lake, had a child who did, or committed their lives to Him there. Eagle Lake is rooted in relationships. Kids have fun at camps all over the country, but at Eagle Lake they come into contact with people who love them with the love of Jesus. Eagle Lake is also the first time many kids understand the importance of life-to-life ministry. For the staff who help run Eagle Lake, it is often their first time being an active part of what The Navigators is doing in the world. They catch the vision of reaching the nations, and then many either come on staff with us or go back to their settings and become lifetime laborers doing whatever the Lord calls them to do. Eagle Lake is a place where vision is planted and young people see the excitement of the Gospel. It’s a place where they discover with delight that following Jesus is an exciting journey! |
| Read more articles from our flagship publication One-to-One Ministry Review. |
