Living Your Legacy

Spring 2024

Welcome to Living Your Legacy

Here, you can read about how your support helps advance the gospel of Jesus Christ and His Kingdom. We hope you enjoy these stories. Visit our website to learn how you can support The Navigators’ programs which are making an impact for so many.

Marvin Shares His Story with Trotman Fellowship Members

During a recent webinar available to Trotman Fellowship members, Marvin Campbell shared how he was invited to know Christ, make Him known, and help others do the same.®

Brad Invites Marvin to Read the Bible

In 1985, a U.S. Naval Academy upperclassman, Brad, was making rounds inspecting rooms and noticed Marvin’s desk had a Bible on it. This encouraged Brad to reach out to Marvin and then invite him to read the Bible with him every morning. At their first meeting, Brad showed Marvin the Bridge to Life Illustration.

The diagram helped Marvin to know that God loves him and wants him to have an abundant life. With Brad as his discipler, Marvin made the decision to surrender his life to Christ. Brad then encouraged and challenged Marvin to grow in Christ and make Him known by asking, “Who else can you share this Good News with?” To help him on this journey, Brad walked alongside Marvin and equipped him to become a disciple of Jesus.

At first, Marvin was hesitant to share the Gospel with strangers. But at an evangelism equipping weekend, he noticed a lone man on the beach who seemed out of place. The Holy Spirit whispered to Marvin, “Don’t be selective with my Gospel.”

Motivated, Marvin shared verses with the man who unexpectedly burst into tears. The man revealed, “This morning, when I woke up I dared God, ‘if you exist, show yourself before the sun sets or I am going to take my life.’” It was a powerful message to Marvin about how intentional God truly is.

Today, as U.S. President of The Navigators, Marvin can help even more people embrace God’s call by partnering with sister organizations such as Young Life, CRU, Intervarsity, etc. Marvin sees the potential for The Navigators to help them become better disciplemakers by equipping them to share Christ’s love conversationally and visually.

Marvin reminds us all that it is a privilege to be a Navigator, serving the body of Christ with the principles of 2 Timothy 2:2—“And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses, entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.”

Who Can You Invite?

Perhaps there is someone in your life who could benefit from a relationship with Christ? You really do have what it takes to help others to grow in Christ. Brad reached out to Marvin with one of the most effective ways to connect friends with the truth of the Gospel – reading and talking about the Bible with them.

The Trotman Fellowship

The Trotman Fellowship is a community of Navigators who are making a lasting impact on their neighborhoods, military bases, college campuses, and workplaces through a legacy gift. These everyday people give substantially more than could ever be done otherwise through a gift in their will. After caring for their loved ones, their gift to The Navigators sets a powerful example of dedicating their resources to God’s glory for the greatest good.

In addition to advancing the gospel of Jesus and making that part of their personal legacy, Trotman Fellowship members receive a number of benefits including invitations to special regional gatherings.

Last November, a Trotman Fellowship event in Dallas brought together other ministry partners and Navigator staff. The group heard a brief update from Darryl Jolley, The Navigators’ City leader in Dallas. They also learned about how to navigate some of the trickier aspects of estate planning from Kurt Knoll and Adam Lopez of The Barnabas Foundation, an organization that The Navigators partners with. Finally, they shared a delicious dinner and enjoyed a full evening making new friends and catching up with others. It was a memorable night for Trotman Fellowship members to find connection and build a strong community.

This spring, we’ll invite Trotman Fellowship members to a similar event in Chicago. If you are in that region, we hope to see you there!

For more information about the Trotman Fellowship and the many ways you can secure your legacy of helping people to communicate with God and be drawn into worship, visit our website.

Giving as an Expression of Joy and Gratitude for God’s Abundance

Left The Navigators as one of the beneficiaries of their IRA

God’s grace toward us is abundant. As a response, we have a responsibility to give as an expression of joy and gratitude for the bounty of God’s goodness.

Quentin and Shari Morford recognize how much they and their family have benefitted from The Navigators’ ministry at Glen Eyrie conference center and Eagle Lake Camps. By attending conferences and camps, their spiritual life and marriage grew closer to the Lord.

As part of their estate plan, the Morfords wanted to give back to those ministries that have been a blessing to them and their children over the years as a reflection of their faith and values. They chose to donate a portion of their traditional IRA to The Navigators because it was a smart way to increase their giving without paying taxes on the donated amount. In this way, they have taken care of their loved ones, while also modeling to them a legacy of stewardship and generosity, setting a powerful example of dedicating resources to God’s glory.

Is your life abundant with God’s blessing?

Whatever your situation, in Christ we are heirs to God’s kingdom. Have you considered some of the ways you can be a faithful steward of his abundance? You can make tax-wise gifts with tremendous Kingdom Impact.

Reaching the Overlooked

Kolten Powell and Neil Larson moved to Austin in order to pioneer a new college ministry in that city. Upon arrival, they weren’t sure which of the city’s 17 different colleges the Lord was leading them to serve.

An obvious opportunity for significant growth was the 70,000 Austin Community College (ACC) students who were largely being overlooked by Christian ministries. What wasn’t so obvious was how to transfer their skills from doing Navigators Collegiate ministry at the University of Wyoming to a community college that lacked dorms, dining halls, fraternities, and sororities. They knew they had to be innovative.

Their strategy was to become students themselves. By enrolling in a poetry class at ACC, they started to interact with students in their class. “In poetry class, you talk about your feelings a lot, and you jump into deep things pretty quickly,” Neil says. “By week three, Kolten and I were driving back home, and we realized that we knew where all the students were spiritually.”

“Our whole strategy was to live like Jesus ourselves,” Kolten explains. “We were going to love those around us like Jesus and serve the students’ needs like Jesus did.”

Neil and Kolten continue to build Life-to-Life® relationships at ACC by attending classes and hanging out with students in the campus student lounge. They have a clear mission to build relationships with students one-by-one, invite them into their discipleship community, and empower them to live out their faith in their classes and with family and friends.

Discipleship Tip:

Is there someone, perhaps a young person or student, that you could invite into your life? Your gifts, relationship with God and heart for others are all you need to get started. Pray and watch to see how God might answer and how the two of you can grow in your faith together.

Sharing the Good News on College Campuses

We make disciples like Aliyah, who then make disciples through intentional Life-to-Life™ discipling.

Freshly arrived on the University of Central Florida, one of the first social activities Aliyah Black took part in was a “Ladies Nacho Night.” Drawn in by eating nachos and playing games, she and her friends returned the next week.

She enjoyed the diverse community of people and as she built relationships with ministry staff, they began to feel like family.

Collegiate Ministry Staff member Angel Chapman reached out to Aliyah, and shared The Bridge to Life illustration. This tried-and-true resource helped Aliyah to understand why she needed Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross to solve her greatest problem: separation from God.

Aliyah shares, “I’ve never had the Bible explained to me like that, when I realized, I can make a decision right now, it made me think about it. All I have to do is take the invitation. I recognized and understood for the first time that Jesus died for me and wanted a relationship with me.”

The impact of Aliyah’s accepting this invitation is clear not only in her life, but in the lives of others as well.

Discipleship stories are coming in from universities all over the country, regarding the spiritual generations forming through The Navigators Collegiate Ministry. Our goal is to equip students with the skills and tools they need to advance the Gospel wherever life leads.

Navigators newsletter spring 2023

JOIN THE TROTMAN FELLOWSHIP TODAY

The Navigators’ Trotman Fellowship is a special group of supporters who have made a transformational commitment to building God’s Kingdom through the work of The Navigators. Members of this dedicated group of supporters are not only making a lasting impact on our mission, but are also eligible to receive invitations to special events and other exclusive benefits.

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