Around the Ministry



“It is not the money or the health care plan that keeps me in the Marine Corps,” writes Dustin, a sergeant stationed in Iraq. “God has given me a mission and a heart for the lost.” *

Dustin was deeply influenced by Navigators while stationed in Washington, D.C., and Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, including Doc, Mike and Pam Darnell, Jon and Cherie Martin, and Jason and Kimberly Peters.

In Iraq, Dustin leads a Bible study and has had opportunity to share the Bridge illustration with several fellow Marines. He has been in Iraq for nearly a year.

Despite temperatures of 130 degrees and the long separation from his family, Dustin says, “No other occupation that I may have in this life will bring me as much joy as I have had serving with these men.”

Click here to find The Bridge to Life.
* The views expressed are those of the speaker and do not necessarily represent the view of the Department of Defense.

Eugene Tenniehill is proof that telling God’s story behind bars changes lives. After his second-degree murder conviction in 1960, he went to Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola. Now at 73, Eugene just gained his release—and he is free indeed.

During his years at the prison, Eugene turned his life over to Christ and became a preacher. “I’ve prayed with him many times,” says Paul Krueger, head of The Navigators’ prison ministry. Paul and others on the ministry team have spent weeks living on the prison grounds at Angola testing discipleship materials.

Eugene plans to join the ministry of a church in New York, influencing young men away from crime and toward Christ.
Stories like Eugene’s underscore the importance of prison ministry. For certain, the Holy Spirit changed Eugene’s life when he heard and responded to the message of salvation in prison.

For more on the Navigators prison ministry - Prison Discipleship


“Highly skilled migrant worker.”

This description, as it appeared on his visa, followed Steve Rugg to Europe earlier this year as he and his wife, Carol, spent six months working alongside The Navigators of The Netherlands.

Steve has worked in The Navigators’ collegiate office at the Colorado Springs headquarters for nine years. Recently, he and Carol began sensing the Holy Spirit’s nudging to spend time overseas. “As we considered different places we could help, Holland seemed to be a good fit,” Steve says.

The student work in Holland has seen rapid growth. They have grown from 500 to 2,000 students in only five years. One area of special interest was that of fundraising. ”The Dutch tend to be direct,” Steve says, “but talking about money is difficult.”
Steve helped them understand the biblical basis for giving and how to approach the subject with potential donors.

Meanwhile, Carol coached several staff women in how to think about discipleship. She encouraged them not to be overwhelmed by their responsibilities or the large number of new believers needing discipleship, but to focus on two or three people who can then invest in others.

Steve is now back at work in Colorado Springs. In case you’re wondering, yes, they brought home wooden shoes.

Winter break is no vacation for members of the EDGE Corps team. They shift into high gear hosting EDGE Corps Previews at Glen Eyrie Castle, The Navigators’ home in Colorado Springs.

EDGE—which stands for Evangelism, Discipleship, Growth, and Experience—sends recent college graduates back to campus to work alongside collegiate staff across the country. Most “EDGErs” commit two years to this ministry.

The Previews allow interested juniors and seniors to check out EDGE Corps and catch the vision of The Navigators.

Roger Hamilton, associate director of EDGE Corps, says, “We want them to clearly see how big God is and how He desires to use them in reaching the nations, wherever He leads them.”

There will be three, three-day Previews in December and January. The Previews have grown from 30 students in 2003 to 230 at last year’s events, and they have spurred similar growth in the number of EDGE Corps staff members. The number of EDGErs grew from 38 in 2004 to 75 in 2007.

Roger adds, “What a blessing it is to see students getting time with God to seek His will in the same place where Navigator pioneers Dawson Trotman and Lorne Sanny sought God’s will for future generations of Navigators—like them!”

Nearly 80 percent of the U. S. population lives in or near major urban areas. That means we must live and minister next door to the people of these cities.
This hit home not long after I became the  U.S. director a decade ago. We have come to realize that this means more than relocating to places like Chicago, Boston, or San Antonio. It means ministering in a very different world.

In cities today you will meet people from every ethnicity in the world. People work and commute long hours. That challenged us to look at ethnicity in a whole new light—not just because America was the melting pot that we are all so proud of, but because the Gospel of Jesus and His Kingdom demanded it.

It also made us look again at the challenges of poverty in America. The Navigators had a history of going to all sorts of people, but we were far from experts at ministering among ethnically diverse, poverty stricken people.

So we learned from people like John Perkins in Mississippi about the challenges of ethnicity, poverty, and advancing the Gospel among African Americans. And we’ve learned from people like Kit Danley in Phoenix about those same challenges among America’s growing Hispanic population. And Navigators are putting feet to faith.

The challenges are great, but we are growing in our calling, learning what it means to live next door to everyone, and seeing great fruit.