Word on the Street

from Chris Mogensen – DC Metro Leader

For the past eight years, Judy and I have been partnering with a small group of Navigators from across the country to plant a self-sustaining Gospel movement among the next generation. We have called this movement “b2g” because we recognize that, over the long stretch of active career life, it is “better together” when we live out the Gospel in everyday life. We have found that it is only when folks deeply connect with other like-minded believers and explore together the issues of faith and life that we are able to see God working around us and join Him in that work. It is absolutely essential to gather folks who are trying things for the sake of advancing the Gospel and learning in the process.

One year ago, at a b2g gathering in Seattle, six young professionals shared six unique ways they had been connecting with their friends around the Gospel. They shared about a growing number of friends in a neighborhood coffee shop, hosting a weekly “dinner with Jesus” for a growing number of twenty-something friends, intentionally befriending folks at a local sports club, and how their prayers had been changing a small group of mutual friends. Can you picture what followed? Circles of discussions continued well into the evening. We expect to see this again in late July.

From July 30 – August 2, the 2009 b2g National Gathering happens in Chicago. Judy and I are hoping to take at least a dozen folks with us to meet with the other young adults gathered. They will be interacting for three days over how they are seeing God working and what they are trying in serving their friends who do not yet know Christ. Twenty-somethings from many different metro areas will lead the meetings. And a few of us veterans will add what God has been teaching us as we have been committed to this movement.

Maybe you know a 20-something who could benefit from something like this. Would you let them know about the website (www.b2g.org/live-inspired) and encourage them to attend? It could be a time of great encouragement for someone who has a heart to reach their world for Christ. The registration deadline has been extended to July 17th.

Or maybe you could help support the b2g National Gathering with a gift (donate here). They are trying to raise some money to help with things like scholarships. Or, perhaps you can help support Chris and Judy Mogensen and their ministry to 20-somethings in the DC Metro Area (donate here). Would you pray about these?

from Al Engler – Seattle Metro Leader

The Nations at our doorstep

Thursday evenings are special for us because one of our neighbors hosts an open table for dinner. Her generous spirit and inspiring cooking ability always make for a delicious and delightful evening. The tastiest morsel is the conversation. One Thursday we talked about African politics and on another the place of work in bringing fulfillment (and how hard should a person work anyway?). Our neighbor has the most interesting friends.We have interacted with people from Kenya, Ethiopia, The Czech Republic, China, Korea, Mongolia, and Jamaica. People are married and single, gay and straight, and from a wide political spectrum (although most of the width is on the left side of the spectrum). They are people who want to be engaged and like to discuss life.

On Thanksgiving, our neighbor organized her friends to feed the homeless. For some, it was the first time serving like that. Believers from our faith community are becoming friends with our neighbor and we hear her asking questions and making statements that indicate a deepening interest to know Christ more personally. We love her and are so grateful for the door to the nations of the world that God is opening through our next door neighbor. These connections to the Nations are taking place all over the Seattle Metro Area.

Overseas Connections

As we write this, a team of Navigators from Seattle are in Kazakhstan. They are teaching three different groups of students on Discovering Your Life Story at a university in Almaty. They are spending lots of time with students from the university in conversations about life, culture, and values. Jon Sween, leader of our 20-something mission, has been connecting with this country for several years. This year two of our collegiate leaders joined Jon on the mission trip. One of their goals is to prepare to take a team of campus leaders there this summer for ministry.

Tom Crompton has been leading our efforts in Africa for several years. Before returning to the Pacific Northwest, Tom and Sue were Navigator Missionaries for sixteen years in Ghana. The Navigator work in Ghana is now led by Ghanaians, but Tom has continued to partner with and be an encouragement to Kingdom leaders in Ghana as well as other countries in Africa. In September 2009, four staff and stakeholders will travel to Ghana and Liberia. This group will be doing a number of things to strengthen and encourage the brothers and sisters of Ghana and Liberia including speaking at a laborers retreat and visiting and connecting key African leaders.

In Seattle, we share a deep passion and commitment to advance the Gospel into the nations. We have fostered good relational partnerships with Kazakhstan and in Africa (Ghana, Liberia, and Guinea Bissau). These linkages not only allow us to reach out overseas, but they give us a conduit for exposing people from Seattle to the nations of the world.

Seattle Upcoming Events

• Wiconi Family Camp & Pow Wow – 30 July – 1 August 2009 (Native American friends)
• Navigator Family Picnic – 12 September 2009
• City-Wide One Day Conference (Doug Nuenke, Speaker) – 21 November 2009
• Pacific Northwest Regional Conference – 15-18 January 2010 (Connecting students, military, b2g, business professionals, etc.)

Would you like to know more about the Seattle Metro? Check out their website at seattle.navigators.org or if you may donate to the Seattle/Puget Sound Metro here.

Prayer Requests

• Ask the Lord for hundreds of transformed authentic followers of Christ who will have a penetrating influence on those around them (nonbelievers and believers).
• Ask the Lord to fulfill the promises stated in Ezekiel 36:37, 38 (NIV) for the Seattle/Puget Sound Area. “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Once again I will yield to the plea of the house of Israel and do this for them: I will make their people as numerous as sheep, as numerous as the flocks for offerings at Jerusalem during her appointed feasts. So will the ruined cities be filled with flocks of people. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”
• Ask the Lord to fulfill the promise given to Abraham for those serving Him in the Seattle/Puget Sound Area:
 “He took him outside and said look toward heaven and number the stars if you are able to number them.” Then He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” Genesis 15:5
• Pray that God’s workers in the Seattle/Puget Sound will be described as those who “serve God with wholehearted devotion and a willing mind.” I Chronicles 28:9
• Ask God to show the way and open doors of His choosing to bring about a loving multi-ethnic family of believers among Navigators in the Seattle/Puget Sound Area.