Around the Ministry
 Facebook began as a place for college students to connect. If you’re not familiar with it, www.facebook.com is a “social networking” site on the Internet that allows you to connect with people and groups to share updates, pictures, videos, and such.  Today Facebook has more than 250 million active users, more than 120 million of whom log in every day, and two-thirds of whom are outside of college. Facebook reports that its fastest growing demographic is those 35 years old or older.That helps explain why The Navigators has a “fan page” on Facebook, with some 3,500 people from across the nation and around the world logging in to listen to and chime in on the conversation that’s taking place around knowing Christ and making Him known through Navigator ministries. It’s free to sign up for Facebook. You can find us at www.facebook.com/navigators. Once there, join the conversation by tapping into “become a fan.” If you know of others with a Navigator heart, invite them to join as well. |
 God proved once again that He would provide for Dave and Bev Nickerson and their Navigator ministry at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. A huge water bill was the tipoff that they had a pipe leak, and on May 2 they received a bill from the plumber for $255.“What makes this so amazing is that we also received a check in the mail the very same day from a generous donor who knew nothing of our water leak,” Dave says. “The amount of the check—$255! “God has answered our request,” he says. “We asked Him to replace the funds, and He has done it. Even more amazing is that we received the bill and the financial gift exactly the same day!” |
 Dave Mead and his wife, Melo, now have a new assignment in the Lord's service. Military Director Dave Mead is one of six new, outstanding leaders of Navigator field ministries. A 1981 West Point graduate, Army Reserve Colonel, and seasoned Navigator, Dave returned from a tour in Kuwait in December, where he served as deputy director of the Logistics Operations Center for both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. “I’m encouraged that God has given us such a quality leader in Dave, as well as each of our new field leaders,” says U.S. Navigators Associate Director Rusty Stephens. “I anticipate God will use them mightily, and it’s a privilege to serve alongside them during these days of vital ministry.” U.S. Navigators Mission leaders also include Alex Mata & Debbie Schwartz (Spectrum), Bob Adgate (Metro), Jim Luebe (Collegiate), Joe Maschoff (b2g, Better Together), and Sam Hershey (Church Discipleship Ministry). |
 ABC News selected Fred and Milton Ochieng as their “Persons of the Week” earlier this year. Here’s why—and how Navigators are a part of the story. Fred and Milton left their home village of Lwala, Kenya, to study at Dartmouth in the early to mid 2000s. “Fred became active with The Navigators,” says Craig Parker, Collegiate northeast regional leader, “and continued to participate in Nav programs throughout his four years at Dartmouth College.” When Milton became a first-year medical student at Vanderbilt, as a class project he decided to build a clinic in Lwala in memory of his parents, who both died of AIDS. Lwala, a village of 1,500 people, has no electricity or running water, and someone dies of an infectious disease every week. Between a special offering at a Navigator regional student conference and a local donor, they raised more than $14,000! The clinic opened in Lwala in April 2007, and since then more than 35,000 patients have visited. |
  One of the key principles of the Kingdom and of the spread of the Good News of Christ is the patient scattering of the seed of the Gospel. I love way Jesus puts it in a parable (Mark 4:16–29):“This is what the Kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.” In living rooms and coffee shops, on military bases and college campuses, Navigators scatter the seed of the Good News of the Kingdom through our actions and our words. Like the man in the parable, we don’t lie awake at night wondering if the seed is going to sprout. It doesn’t hurry things up to “peer out the window.” It’s God who “makes things grow” (see 1 Corinthians 3:6,7). We long to see people embrace Jesus and cross from the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of light. However, we must also allow ourselves to get caught up in the exciting adventure of each person’s journey to faith, that period of time when roots begin to form, and the hints of new life begin to burst forth. It is worth our time to be involved in the scattering as well as the reaping. Besides, no plants will sprout unless seed is scattered and watered. |
