Word on the Street

In 1998, a small group of men and women gathered in the Oaks Lodge at Glen Eyrie and dreamt of a Gospel movement among people in their twenties. On the board they wrote:

“Right where you are, God is moving to draw and connect people in the depth, risk, and reality of knowing Christ.” With these words, b2g was birthed.

For the past eleven years, under the leadership of Gary Bradley and then Bob Adgate, they’ve nurtured b2g. They’ve taken risks, prayed God’s promises, and reached young people.

This past September, under the leadership of Joe and Joy Maschhoff, another group of men and women assembled to seek God on the next steps for b2g.

They determined to reaffirm the statement above, yet also a sensed God’s moving b2g into closer alignment with the broader Navigator family. In response, they’ve changed the name of the mission from “b2g” to “the 20s Mission.”

The 20s Mission of The Navigators is taking faith steps forward, trusting God for a bona fide movement of the Gospel among the twenties and early thirties of America and into the nations. A movement like this will help plant “laborers next door to everywhere.”

The three main purposes for the 20s Mission are:

1. To sustain those touched by our foundational ministries into the rest of life
2. To advance the Gospel among 20-somethings
3. To raise up laborers for the cities and the nations

Find the 20s Mission on the web at http://20s.navigators.org

by Doug Stratton and Doug Benshoof – San Antonio

We recently took a 2 week mission trip to the Blackfeet people in Browning, MT. Our main goal was to begin development of a youth camp for Blackfeet children and children of other Native American nations in the area. God brought such a diverse team together to be the body of Christ to the Blackfeet. There were college girls from Japan and Honduras, a woman from South Africa, families with kids and everyone ranging from early 20s to 70s. With all these diverse personalities, it was beautiful to see everyone working together with positive, eager, and humble attitudes. I know that made an impression on our Blackfeet friends – the power of unity in Christ, working as one body to accomplish His will. “The body” also touched the lives of the Blackfeet through a tremendous outpouring of love and compassion for one woman, Arlinda, who lost her husband just one week before we arrived. To be able to grieve with and comfort her and her family was such a relational bonding time for all of us. We may have gone up thinking it was to work on the camp, but God wanted us to be there for them, to send His love and comfort through us.

Jess is another exciting story. We met him in the summer of 2004 in Browning and in the time since then, Jess began a Gospel of John study with us. In 2006, we went back to Browning. We discovered that since our last visit, Jess and his brother, Arlan, had come to Christ!

During our trip, we camped by the creek of Jess’s ranch. Every evening around the campfire someone would share the Word of God and every night more of Jess’s family and friends would attend. Arlan’s pastor, Titus, also began to come. Titus shared much with us on the spiritual history of the Blackfeet. It was pretty bleak and now there was much resistance to the “Gospel” brought by the white man. One night, Erlina, Jess’s mom, shared how she had been a bad mom and a bitter person all the years after her divorce. Her husband had divorced her and left her with six kids. Erlina turned her life over to God that night. This began a quiet “little revival” with members of the family and some friends beginning to respond to the message of the Gospel. We had become “insiders” and were now welcomed by the entire family. This family was our “worthy family” Jesus told us to look for. (Matthew 10:11).

Jess continued to visit us in San Antonio and we stayed in contact with Titus, Arlan and Erlina. This year, we talked with them about going back to help with a long-held dream that Erlina had – to build a Youth Camp by the creek of their ranch. This task was daunting and met by many set backs and obstacles. But God provided for everything when it was needed.

One night, at our campfire meeting, Jess’s grandfather, Earl, came. Earl had been the chief of the Blackfeet for over thirty years. He shared his testimony about how he and his wife had come to Christ in 1954 and started the first church among the Blackfeet in Browning in the very same place where we were meeting. He shared that in 1959, folks were coming to campfire meetings and a revival broke out. It had continued through the sixties but died out in the seventies. There are several churches now that came out of that revival – but they are small and mostly women and children. The Gospel is not reaching the men, especially the younger men.

I spoke that night on a three generational God. God had started something in 1959 and here we are 50 years later with a NEW generation of believers. Could God restart a revival and raise up a new generation among the Blackfeet? When Earl arrived, he saw that there was a light on in the old church building. He said, “There hasn’t been a light there since the seventies.” God was bringing a great light to the Blackfeet again.