Around the Ministry
 NavPress, The Navigators’ publishing ministry, has enlarged on the “Press” part of their name by developing a significant Internet presence.  It started with a website (www.navpress.com) that features all their products and includes hefty archives of both Discipleship Journal and Pray! magazines.Then NavPress linked into the social media phenomenon. They’re on Facebook, Twitter, and Executive Publisher Mike Miller has a blog called The Road Ahead (http://michaeldmiller.wordpress.com). Earlier this year NavPress launched a Blogger Review Program. Bloggers receive a free book if they agree to write a review. Go to BloggerReviewProgram for all the details. Plus, they’ve initiated online studies called 2 Timothy 2:2 Groups. Go to 2Timothy2Groups to learn more. Clearly, today’s NavPress is about much more than what comes off a printing press. |
 “There is something quite exciting happening in the University of Cincinnati Navigators,” says Charly and Christina Sommers. “This summer, 16 Navigator students are gong on mission trips all over the world. This is significantly more than the five who went last summer.”In addition to two U.S. locations (Detroit and Colorado Springs), the UC students are headed to Burkina Faso, Ghana, Namibia, and Poland. Each year, an average of 400 young adults complete short-term assignments with The Navigators, most coming out of Navigator campus ministries. “We’ve seen students return from mission trips spiritually challenged and energized with a new perspective on the world and what God wants for them,” Charly says. |
Last summer, 13-year-old Semaj was a “troubled teen.” His own mother described him as “an angry, disobedient child, wandering through life without hope.” He was expelled from elementary school for fighting. He took four medications for learning disabilities and was barely passing his classes. But today, Semaj is seen as a leader among his peers. Halfway through his eighth grade year he had a B average. He plans to graduate high school and hopes to attend college in Georgia. Plus, he’s no longer on any medications. What made the difference? A Navigator ministry called Shoulder To Shoulder (STS). Led by Navigator Bill Coibion, STS is a community sponsored, faith-based program in the Sacramento area that mentors and tutors at-risk, fatherless young men from the seventh grade through high school. Two years ago, STS began working with boys from Martin Luther King Jr. Junior High School. A group of 35 boys and 28 men (an average of seven men per day) meet four days a week after school for tutoring and mentoring. They also enjoy special, off-campus activities, and even go camping and fishing. Because 60 percent of the young men in this neighborhood never graduate from high school, STS emphasizes math and reading skills. In one five-month period the young men increased their grade point averages 29 percent! But make no mistake—the program isn’t all about schoolwork. Semaj was recently baptized in Bill’s swimming pool in front of 60 friends and family members. STS changes young men’s lives for eternity. |
  Emily, a student at Arizona State University, told her Navigator leader, Sarah Short, “Faith is like being a little kid at the edge of a pool. You know that when you jump in, someone will catch you, but you still have to jump.” This “jump” came after two years of meeting with Sarah and attending Navigator meetings. “She has wrestled with questions about the Bible and faith,” Sarah says. “When I asked her what had kept her from ‘jumping in,’ she explained it was fear of the unknown and unanswered questions.” Then one day, during a trip to the beach at Oceanside, California, with Sarah and some other Navigator friends, Emily told God she didn’t need all the answers. “This showed me how much God has been working on her fears and her heart,” Sarah says. “He has been pursuing her and waiting for her to respond. There is no greater joy than knowing this dear woman has given her heart and life over to Christ, the lover of her soul.” |
  Tragedy is often God’s path to transformation. Illness, job loss, the death of someone we love—such occurrences force us to reevaluate where we are in life and often set us on a new course. The apostle Paul even went so far as saying “We continue to shout our praise even when we’re hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us (Romans 5:3 MSG). It’s been my experience—and perhaps yours—that God has a way of working through bad times to accomplish something amazing in our lives. This was certainly true in the life of Jeremy Tillman, the army captain featured in this issue. The life-threatening injuries he suffered in Iraq forced him to reconsider everything about life. When he returned to his family at Fort Bragg, a community of loving Christians embraced him through the Navigator ministry. Not only were Navigator staff involved. It was everyday people involved in Navigator ministry who had a huge affect on his life. Jeremy first attended a Navigator meeting at the invitation of a neighbor. That’s a simple act any of us can do—just invite friends to join us in our normal activities and let them see the difference Christ makes in us. What happened at Fort Bragg is repeated through Navigator friends and partners all across the country as God compels everyday people to get involved in others’ lives and show the Gospel in action. |
