Around the Ministry
 After
World War II, when hundreds of ex-service Navigators enrolled in
college, Navigator founder Dawson Trotman asked them not to start
Navigator works on campus. He encouraged them to win and disciple their
fellow students, and then plug them in to existing campus ministries. Yet the unique discipling ministry of The Navigators could not be held back. In 1949, Billy Graham, then president of Northwestern School in Minneapolis, requested someone teach Navigator basics at the school. Don Rosenberger, who worked with students in the area, took on the task. 
The unofficial campus work continued, and in 1953 LeRoy Eims helped
start a Campus Crusade ministry at the University of Pittsburgh. Then,
in 1958, he and his wife, Virginia, moved to Lincoln, Nebraska, to open
an official Navigator student ministry at the University of Nebraska. Today, The Navigators’ Collegiate Mission involves 600 staff members on almost 190 campuses. EDGE Corps, a collegiate internship program, added 75 new co-workers in 2007. Safe to say, it’s official. For more, visit www.navigators.org/collegiate. |
 “I’d
like to talk to you more about your faith in God,” a young man said to
Jean Prensner after a life-issues meeting at a local church. Jean
invited “Dustin” to join her and her husband, Doug, for dinner
sometime. In the months that followed, Dustin joined them often for dinner at their Colorado Springs home. “We polished off one round of grilled chicken wings after another while we talked about work, God, marriage, and relationships,” Doug says. One night Dustin told Doug, “I’d like for you to mentor me in life issues and in my pursuit of God.” Some time later Dustin placed his trust in Christ. Today, five years after their initial meeting, Dustin talks freely about his faith with his family and co-workers. Last year he married a woman he had met at an early morning prayer group. “We got a note from his new bride, thanking us for helping Dustin become the kind of man he is today,” Doug says. “That speaks of the transformation of the Lord in him from the inside out.” |
 Navigators Marc and Yumiko Leis have lived in 11 homes in their 14-year marriage. But now, Lord willing, they’re going to stay put for a while. The Leises, who serve with The Navigators in Japan, built a house that will double as a youth ministry center. They’ve dubbed their new facility “Oasis House and Hotto Station Youth Center.” 
“Oasis House” describes the second and third floor living area of their
house. “We desire our home be an oasis for those who visit, that they
might be able to drink of the Water of Life,” Marc says. “Hotto suru” means to “take a break and be renewed before you have to pick your burden back up.” This is the name for the first floor youth center, designed to draw in junior and senior high school students to “take a break” from the struggles of adolescence. “The Hotto Station has been a miracle of God’s faithfulness,” Marc says. The Leises are holding a series of housewarming parties to introduce the center to the community before the new school year starts. In June, a team of middle school students from the United States will help Marc and Yumiko jumpstart a new junior high ministry. The youth group also hopes to visit local schools, stay with Japanese families, and hold parties to draw youth into the Hotto Station. Marc says, “Japanese school administrators are not known for being open toward any event they don’t organize. Please pray with us for favor in their eyes.” For more, visit www.marcandyumikoleis.org. |
  I
was once traveling in Ethiopia and my mentor said to me, “Alan, you
need to develop eyes to see.” I was having difficulty seeing the
presence of God at work among the poor and His beauty amid all the
poverty.It was the apostle John who said that he and his fellow Christ followers “saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). Isn’t it amazing that so many people saw Jesus in the flesh and yet failed to see His glory and beauty? We all need eyes to see. This issue of One-to-One helps us see beauty. Gary Bradley’s story is one we all need to hear. God’s beauty and glory are all around us, even in the most desperate of circumstances, but we need artists of all stripes to help us see. We in the body of Christ can reduce the Gospel to a small set of propositions at times. There is nothing wrong with propositions as such, but we must also see the Gospel in all of its fullness and beauty. That’s what John is getting at in John 1:14. God is incredibly beautiful when He is seen. That’s what we are called to see—the incredible beauty of God in creation, in life, the cross, the resurrection, and the beauty of God’s Kingdom. Gary and Via Affirmativa are helping many see more clearly—myself included. Let’s pray that God will give us more and more people to help us see more and more of His beauty, and in so doing glorify Him! |
 The
Air Force landed at Glen Eyrie Conference Center in Colorado Springs
earlier this year for the first Air Force Branch Conference for The
Navigators Military Mission.  Eighty people from 23 bases
attended. Conference director Larry Matthews says, “We praise God for
the tremendous time of encouragement and relationship building.” Larry
and his wife, Julie, work at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. The conference gave the Air Force personnel and their spouses a bigger picture of the Navigator ministry and helped them connect with other Air Force men and women who share a passion to know Christ. Larry says, “We are looking ahead to how the Lord will use this weekend in the lives of the men and women who attended.” For more on The Navigators Military Mission, visit www.navigators.org/military. |
