Word on the Street

by Ernie Scalabrin

Hi Everyone! Well, what is going on in the NYC Metro Mission? Well, first of all, we would be remiss if we didn’t mention that the Yankees winning their 27th World Series Championship was definitely a highlight!

Of course, the things that God is doing are the “true highlights”. We are seeing God work in magnificent ways here. Due to its international scope, NYC is called “The Center of the World”. In our ministries, God is touching the lives of Filipinos, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Muslim, Buddhist, New Age, Wicca, Jews, Albanians, African and Hispanic Americans, Ecuadorians, Mexicans, Cubans, Bosnians, Serbians, Greeks, Armenians, Italians, Guatemalans, Brazilians, Indians, just to name a few.

We meet yearly with the Metro Teams from Boston and Philadelphia. This past fall, we had a great conference in New Jersey with our new Metro Director Bob Adgate and his wife, Ronda. It was a warm time of ministry and story sharing. Bob and Ronda introduced themselves, encouraged us, and shared with us the direction and heart of the national leadership of The Navigators as we move forward into the future to advance Jesus’ Kingdom and make disciples together.

NYC staff and associates meet regularly in Greenwich Village for encouragement and sharing led by our NYC leader, Andy Puleo. These times are a blessing and allow us to see what is going on across our ministry venues – neighborhood, inner-city, youth, collegiate, church discipleship, Korean and more. We have an area wide metro rally planned for February 6th. We would appreciate your prayers for this time as we have invited staff, associates and stakeholders in the region to join us! We are working on more of these rallies to extend our calling, values and movement to the region and beyond.

Andy and Donna Puleo have been ministering to the poor in Roosevelt, NY. Charles, a friend of theirs, offers to help them out at times and they are relating with him about life issues. He is in the process of getting a job and new place to live. Billy, another man they are working with, is doing well and they see and minister to him often. He has enrolled in school to study for his GED. They look forward to be able to partner more through Minister Reginald Benjamin (of ABBA ministries) networking in the Roosevelt area. Abba ministries regularly distribute food, school packs and other relief to distressed residents of Hempstead. Most of Pastor Benjamin’s contacts come from ex-cons and their families. He is very well received by hundreds at each event. Andy and Donna also have great ministry contacts with many African American pastors in the NYC area.

We, (Ernie and Judy Scalabrin) are seeing God work in great ways on the New Jersey side of the NYC Metro Area. We are seeing relationships grow from our multi-ethnic contacts with people in our surrounding neighborhoods. Our dear Korean Buddhist friend expressed her admiration for our family even though our material standard of living differs from hers. She wanted to know more about Christianity because our family life seemed more real and purposeful to her. Her husband is a nice man who works for LG, and though he provides well, he is hardly at home for family time. This is common for many lost families here. Due to the intense competition involving wealth and materialism. Most families lack real life and they know it.

With the economic issues facing our nation, we are seeing God use us more with the business community. Ernie has led two businessmen to Christ and is discipling them. We are in growing relationships with them and their families and helping them to “Navigate through life spiritually.”

Our public school Bible club is in its 8th year. We continue to see children come to Christ each year and be discipled impacting families. The Board of Education allowed us this year to expand to a second day during the week to accommodate the older 6, 7, and 8th grade students. This children’s Bible club is international with many backgrounds. We are given complete freedom, by the school (with parental permission) to share the Gospel and the Scriptures with the children. Our first students are now in college! Ernie also goes to the nearby high school and teaches at the Christian “Harvesters” club. We have been asked by Christian families of other towns to have such clubs. Although the clubs are legal, it can often be intimidating to get started.

Our other ministries in New York City are also thriving. Finances are the biggest challenge and prayer request for our team. Since this is an extremely strategic area of the world for missions, ministry opportunities are abundant here! However, there is a cost of living that is one of the highest in the nation. Pray for us! Although, God has been very gracious in His provisions, finances are an ongoing challenge for all of us. Finances can threaten and hinder the work of all our ministries more than anything. But we praise God for His abundant fruit and work in our midst! Hallelujah!

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Donate to the New York City Metro
Donate to Andy and Donna Puleo
Donate to Ernie and Judy Scalabrin
Read more about the New York City Metro Mission
at new-york-city.navigators.org

by Ed Cvelich

Three years ago, I met Daquan (not his real name) at the park. A friend and I were teaching basketball skills and running drills. I invited him and his best friend to join us. My immediate impression was that Daquan was shy but also very attentive. He became a member of our Walltown Wildcats basketball team, but usually stayed off to the side and didn’t fully participate. Yet he would spend hours at the park practicing the drills alone. His natural quickness and agility has made him the best player in his elementary school and in the neighborhood. Basketball is Daquan’s passion. Unfortunately, school is not. Last spring, I approached Daquan’s 5th grade teacher for a recommendation to register him and his friend in Student U – a summer academic program designed to prepare them for middle school.

Daquan’s teacher was very happy about the support they might get through Student U and this is what she wrote:

“When Daquan joined my class last fall he was the classic bad boy. He came with a notorious reputation. At first, he was sullen and refused to participate in any group activities. But I could tell he had that spark; he was all there. I know as a teacher that I try to treat all students alike, but we have our favorites. Daquan is one of my two favorites in this class. He really made a turn-around this year. He now participates and helps. He can still be quickly triggered into his detached tough-guy posture but he is different now. He told me, ‘I want to get smart because I want to play basketball in high school.’ He is still very fragile and without continual support he can easily become another lost soul who just hangs out at the park and does nothing.”

I’ve been mentoring Daquan and his friend every Monday for the past year. That means we eat fast food and typically talk basketball. Occasionally, the conversation goes deeper but those vulnerable moments are rare. We do, however, read a couple of verses of Scripture each time we are together, believing that sowing seed will eventually bear fruit.

My wife, Page, and I are not in this effort alone. The youth in Walltown don’t just hang out on our front porch. We have guy’s house on the next block where Dan and Louis live and a girls house one street in the opposite direction where Susan, Gerri and Emily live. Plus there is Bahari and Mamie’s house, as well as Jonathan and Leah’s house. Daquan and his friend, as well as dozens of other boys and girls, make the rounds among our houses to hang out, talk, eat, do homework and Bible study. It is a team effort.

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To read more about the Urban Hope – visit www.urbanhope.us
Donate to the ministry of Ed and Page Cvelich.

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Do you have a ministry story you would like us to highlight?
Send it in to metro@navigators.org.

From Dennis Williams

The majority of our work involves coaching and mentoring the next generation of believers and Nav staff who are having an impact where God has planted them in life. My wife Sara has become involved with a growing number of women whom God is developing and using to touch others for Christ. Carey is one of these women who is helping to mentor young girls. She commented to Sara, “It’s a privilege for me to support these girls in their growth. Your walk with me has helped me lead them. Thanks for your investment in my life.” Carey also actively shares the Gospel with many of her peers and family. Pray for God to continue to use Sara to help many women grow in their closeness to Christ and their impact in the lives of their families and friends.

Armando and Mary Jane moved here four years ago to minister among the 100,000+ Albanians in Metro Detroit. This fall, Armando asked if I would team with him to lead a Bible study for a number of Albanian men. Some are new in their faith and some are seeking what it means to know God. Now that we’ve met together several times to read the Bible and talk about faith in Christ, it’s very obvious that God is drawing each of these men closer to Himself. I believe that many families are going to be touched for Christ through these men. Pray for God to give wisdom and strength to Armando and Mary Jane as they relationally open doors for the Gospel among their numerous Albanian friends.

Four times a year, our Marketplace Ministries team hosts a luncheon where men and women can invite friends from their workplaces to come and hear a fellow business person talk about how faith in God, the Bible and the Lord Jesus Christ have impacted some aspect of his or her life. We average over fifty in attendance at these luncheons, twenty of whom have brought work colleagues with them. We are in the process of helping these twenty have a larger impact in their business networks, and developing materials we can use as we coach and mentor them in life and ministry. Several have already set up Bible reading groups where they work, and we’d like to see that number grow this next year. Pray for the Lord to use our team to encourage many of these brothers and sisters in Christ to trust Him for a ministry in their workplaces to those who do not yet know the Lord.

We are committed more than ever to minister the Word deeply to others and increase their fruitfulness.

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To read more about the Detroit Metro Area – visit http://navigatorsdetroit.org
or Donate to the Williams.
or Donate to the Detroit Metro Mission.

by A Shober

Kerry-Ann works in partnership with our Nav ministry in the Tidewater Metro area of Virginia through her church. She works with the Urban Discovery ministry by helping people get their GED, helping girls with their self esteem, helping single moms become better mothers and value their children and, most of all, helping people learn about God and knowing Him better.

She was saved through this ministry and God moved her to stay and help the poor and broken of inner city Norfolk, Virginia and all the dangers that exist there.

Kerry-Ann realized that a war rages all around us. Most of the time we can’t see it – but on one day it broke out in force in the physical world.

Kerry-Ann, her son and a friend were sitting in their car, when an all out war broke out around them. Two rival neighborhoods were fighting fiercely and bullets started to fly – with Kerry-Ann’s car right in the middle. Miraculously, no one in the car was injured. God had protected them when by all accounts they should have been dead.

After being angry and upset about it, this incident led all of them to ponder God’s hand. It led them to pray for those involved in the shooting and gave them an even greater desire to continue in their work with the downtrodden who are trapped in this war zone.

It didn’t daunt Kerry-Ann because she knows that God is on her side and He wants her there for these people He loves. This event brought into sharp focus the need for Jesus in the city; The need to bring a life-giving hope and a love that surpasses all understanding – to give those young men and women a chance at a life without violence, without hatred. That hope, that peace can only come through Jesus. And she knows that she has to stay to bring that to them.

She said, “We were all reminded that this spiritual war is real, that people need the Lord and that we have to continue sharing our faith. We also cannot let fear hinder our walk and the Gospel.”

Ultimately, it is God who works and protects in all situations – and Kerry-Ann gives Him all the glory for all He has done to further His kingdom and work through her for the people of this city.

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To read more about the Tidewater Metro Area – visit http://tidewater.navigators.org/

From Laura Jenkins

I recently looked around the room at my Albuquerque Metro Team and realized that every single one of them is regularly influencing my ministry and my family life.

My main role in ministry is to coordinate a large kids program in my neighborhood called Juntos and to mentor young leaders there. At home, my role is as a wife to my school teacher husband and mom to two toddlers. My Metro team influences me significantly in all of those roles!

There are the Collegiate staff who have led worship at Juntos in a pinch, who love our college-aged Juntos leaders and who sacrifice some of their best students (who could be leading studies on campus) as volunteers at Juntos every Monday night. Then there are the Catholic staff. They have lent us some of their young people as volunteers, too, and have been a part of almost every Juntos Family Christmas party we have had. And, of course, the Business and Professional (B&P) staff. They meet with me to help keep me organized on my funding, help with computer issues, and pray with me to determine God’s vision for the urban ministry here in Albuquerque. There is another Urban staff couple who mentored me when I first came to Albuquerque and now pray with me and offer wise counsel. Our Native American stakeholders help me understand the nuances of Navajo culture and provide some important relational connections. Another stakeholder couple in B&P (whose home many of us have also called “home” at some point in our Albuquerque journey) is gracious to baby-sit my kids at the drop of a hat. All are family to my husband and me.

And that complex web of relationships only includes the ones that I am directly involved in. It does not even begin to include the number of people from all of our ministries who are influenced by Faith@ Work lunches, the staff children being ministered to by Collegiate staff, our Catholic/Protestant partnerships, and the support of Collegiate and 20-somethings activities by B&P staff. Nor does it include the tears, laughter and prayers, the dinners, the vacations and the game nights that we share with one another – simply because we are blessed to call one another “brother” and “sister.”

Prayer Requests

• Many on our Metro team are facing health-related issues either personally or in close family members. Pray for strength, grace and wisdom.
• Almost everybody on our team is facing funding challenges. We recognize God as our Provider and fully trust Him based on His faithfulness. Pray for many more generous friends to walk alongside us.
• The harvest continues to be plentiful in our city! Pray for more laborers in the urban ministry, the Catholic ministry, on the military base and to focus specifically on 20-somethings.

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To read more about the Albuquerque Metro Area – visit http://albuquerque.navigators.org