To advance the Gospel of Jesus and his kingdom into the nations through spiritual generations of labourers living and discipling among the lost
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National director Glen Morris addresses the conference of leaders and staff
| Good spirit at national Navigator get-together | |
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Story and photos by Sandy Fairservice Sixty staff and leaders of the Navigator work throughout New Zealand met in Auckland over the weekend of 23-25 July and were refreshed by fellowship, teaching from the Bible and the restatement of the Navigator mission. There was a good spirit among the people, with many old hands and younger leaders mixing and comparing notes. Two messages In his first message, "The Kingdom Worker Called", National director Glen Morris outlined the call of Moses, and drew some lessons. An exiled alien prince, become farmer, Moses was accosted by God out of the burning bush. (Moses could have withdrawn, but didn't.) From Exodus 2:22-4:17 he drew the conclusion that God uses people to fulfil his big purposes."To reach all, God specifically calls you and me," Glen said. "God takes the intitiative with us. We just need to be open and alert." In his second message, "The Kingdom Worker Sustained",Glen said that like Paul we need a travel companion, Jesus, an awareness of the road ahead, and a view of the final destination. From all of Second Corinthians Four, he showed how Paul faced dangers many times, but overcame them. "We do certain things, and make certain commitments for Jesus' sake. We need a short piece of the story between who God is and what we do." He pointed out the circularity of the Paul's two questions, "Who are you, Lord? What do you want me to do?" So we must fix our eyes on Jesus, our travelling companion. It was back to the basics, Glen said. Four workshops Four worshops were available twice: "Bringing Pressing Issues To The Bible", by Lynton Brocklehurst; "Life On Life Mentoring" by Simon Cayzer and Faye Keating; "Pathways To Exploring Faith With People In A Relational World" by Peter and Lorraine White; and "Relational Mapping" by Logan Keating--navigating with resources through our relationships with people. Board chair thanks Board members attended this conference, and recently re-elected Chairman Colin Eason thanked everyone for the part they were playing in a "well-run organisation which has stayed true to its goals and is a pleasure for the board to oversee." He made a joking definition of staff and non staff: "Staff are paid to be good; non-staff are good for nothing." Bryan and Erin Thigpen New staff Bryan Thigpen told how God had led him and his family from the camping ministry at Glen Eyrie, The Navigators' headquarters in Colorado Springs, to New Zealand. A delay in obtaining visas meant that they missed the disatrous Februrary 22 earthquake. The Thigpens now live just a few blocks from their ministry at Canterbury University. Pendulum is swinging back—Director Closing the gathering was a time of reflection, group discussion and Glen's summing up. He contrasted the structured style of the Navigator ministry in New Zealand in the seventies and eighties with what had developed most recently. But the pendulum was swinging back from the unstructured post-modern style and towards more structure, "toward the essential mission of The Navigators, towards the big promises of God and our calling to do our part to make disciples. "We need to commit to the Gospel as central, the glasses through which we see everything else. We must keep on speaking with people who are yet to believe, the spirit of making disciples. God knows our weaknesses and limitations, but calls us still to make disciples."  Ian (centre) and Josh (right) from California were visiting New Zealand for a few weeks. Here they chat with board member Bill Pawley. New Zealand Government travel advisories http://www.safetravel.govt.nz/index.php
Thigpen family settling into student ministry and life in Christchurch The American Navigator couple, Bryan and Erin Thigpen, who have been engaged to lead the Canterbury university ministry are settling in. The Thigpens' contribution will be to the student work in Christchurch, helping grow an outreach and discipling team on the campus of the University of Canterbury. This team will be further equipped to lay foundations for another generation of workers on campus, winning the lost and building the saved. They are communicating well to the student generation with great
energy, as their video and photos show. Below: the Thigpen Family
Earlier generation Navigators on the job in the Pacific Jonathan and Fernah Peacy are living and working in the Solomn Islands, and gearing up to disciple local friends, some of whom have had contact with The Navigators in New Zealand. Jon is a fisheries officer, working for the Solomon Islands government, and Fernah has returned to her nursing career. They represented The Navigators in Dunedin in the 1980s. Read Fernah's blog If you are moving, or changing your postal or email address, please give your new address to John MacClure at the office.
This is the Latest edition
of Navigate. Some tried and true resourceswww.navigators.org has many pages, but the one you may appreciate is the ministry tools page where you can download helpful things such as the Bridge Illustration, the Wheel Illustration, and the Hand Illustration. Print them out and use them as you help others. www.discipleshiplibrary.com is the radio outreach of The Navigators. Here you can listen to streaming audio talks by the pioneers, such as Lorne Sanny, Dawson Trotman and LeRoy Eims, including classic addresses gathered over 60 years. LeRoy's Daily Walk page is set out as a year's supply of daily, three-minute sermons in simple English. Everything is also available in MP3. New Zealand Government travel
advisories View links to Navigator websites About The Navigators 1. We have 4647 staff of 70 nationalities ministering in 108 countries: 2245 men and 2402 women, 2862 principals and 1785 spouses, 4622 Active and 25 On Loan. 2. 1265 or 27% of these staff are cross-cultural
missionaries: 341 of 49 nationalities serve in their own countries
and 924 in other countries. 3. 792 or 17% of our staff minister in 34 of the
59 countries of the 10/40 Window:·35% of our 2160 staff outside the 4. 482 or 10% of our staff, including 355 or 38% of our foreign cross-cultural missionary staff, minister in 40 of 81 countries hostile to the gospel. 5. Americans account for 2756 or 59% of our staff, and for 723 or 57% of our cross-cultural missionaries. 6. 1367 or 19% of our staff are citizens of the
Developing World: Africans, Asians, Latin Americans, Middle
Easterners, Oceanians. 8. Nationalities with more than 30 cross-cultural missionary staff, both within and beyond their borders, in descending order of their % missionary, are: • Koreans 141
46% 9. Separately, not included in these analyses, we have 134 other staff:11 Disabled, 15 Widowed, 108 Retired. |
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