In the early 1990s, missionaries from Mission: Moving Mountains (M:MM), now called Navigators Discipling for Development (D4D), started meeting with leaders in Muyembe’s community to teach them how to practice whole-life discipleship, address poverty alleviation, and help families experience God’s restoration in all areas of life.

At the time, faith was very minimal in the village’s day-to-day life. Though they knew they could go to church for prayer, many didn’t know anything about salvation. However, when D4D came to train the local church, the spiritual climate began to shift. Through short dramas, reading Scripture verses, and asking people questions from the Bible, the community started to accept Jesus into their lives.

“Before D4D, the only Christian was the leader in the church,” Aidah, an older woman in Muyembe’s community, remembers. “We thank the Lord that, through this ministry, we now have more than 100 people in the community who are saved.”

As more and more people came to Christ, the need for more churches grew. “When we got saved, we had to travel five miles to go to a church, so we decided to start a new church,” Nathan, a member of the community, says. “Now about 11 churches have been built because of the efforts of D4D.”

On the first Friday of every month, these churches all meet for communal prayer, with as many as 300 people attending.

Building a Thriving Community, Right Where They Are

The spiritual revival in Muyembe has not only shaped individuals’ hearts for the Lord, but it has also transformed their hearts for their families. Back when D4D first came to Muyembe, there was a lot of confusion — fighting between husbands and wives and stealing between members in the community. Now, Aidah says there is no fighting in families, and the amount of theft has reduced significantly.

“We worship God in a holistic way,” she says. “We thank D4D for this holistic gospel that has brought us to this level. We now go to other communities and spread the news so that Jesus will be accepted there, as well.”

Beyond family impact, D4D has also set up groups in the community addressing topics such as financial saving, agriculture, youth, health, and more.

For example, when D4D saw that mothers in the community were having problems giving birth, they started to refer mothers to a health center for prenatal care, teaching them how to eat balanced diets while pregnant and how to deliver a baby if a mother couldn’t get to the hospital in time.

“Death was reduced,” Aidah says. “After giving birth, the women were taught to take the babies in for immunization, and they learned how to be ready to be pregnant and where to go for their health. Now, some of these women are working in the health centers.”

Similarly, when it came to agriculture, the D4D missionaries talked about how the Bible and agriculture can go hand in hand. Where they used to grow only maize, now farmers in Muyembe grow coffee, tomatoes, and bananas. These crops help their community to earn money and provide for their families. Though the surrounding area is bare for miles, this small community now houses a tree nursery, which attracts customers from across Africa who are looking to buy seeds.

Recently, Navigator Scott Purser visited Muyembe on his trip to Kenya and Uganda. As he was sitting in a circle with community leaders, they felt a strong wind approach from the horizon. They began to wonder if they should move into a local church or home for coverage, but they noticed how the trees planted around the community dispersed the wind and provided coverage for their meeting.

“See all these trees?” one of the leaders asked. “D4D taught us these things, and they work! That wind came, and we saw how these trees withstood and protected us. What a wonderful God!”

Pray for D4D Around the World!

The village of Muyembe is just one of the many communities that have been radically impacted by D4D’s teaching of the gospel and holistic health and development. From small-scale farmers using “Farming God’s Way” methods to improve their small crops to families preserving precious rainwater to use in creative ways throughout the year, the Lord is using D4D to help villages build sustainable and thriving communities, centered around the gospel.

Join us in praying over these communities around the world, as the light of the Lord spreads from village to village and heart to heart.

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor” Luke 4:18 (NIV).

Discipleship Tip:

Through the community in Muyembe, the gospel has spread from church to church, village to village. Sometimes, all it takes to have great impact is being willing to pass on the Good News to those around you. Who is around you that you can share Christ with? What are areas in your community where you could spread the gospel?

By using the Navigators Discipling for Development (D4D) lessons, she has seen significant impact. Starting with raising goats to pay for her four childrens’ school fees, she eventually bought a house. Then, she started to think bigger.

Hoping to start a church, she traveled to a nearby village. Deborah walked through the community beating a drum and singing, and gradually more and more people started to gather. Her method was unconventional, but effective. A group was formed, and together they decided to farm a field together to raise crops to fund the building of a new church.

One by one, they completed walls and a roof, and gathered toilets for the church. Her vision was achieved, and the gospel found a new presence in the nearby village.

Deborah’s story of rising up and inviting the Lord to work in the lives of her community, is just one of the hundreds of stories that have come out of Africa and around the world through the D4D program — a Navigators ministry that trains people to practice whole-life discipleship, address poverty alleviation, and work with their communities to experience God’s restoration in all areas of life.

The Impact of D4D Around the World

In 1979, Navigator Merri Lee Hipp’s father created an organization called Mission Moving Mountains, a group designed to bring holistic and spiritual discipleship to impoverished and marginalized communities. Starting in Uganda, they worked to mentor local leaders to meet the needs of communities and train them how to improve their lives through economics, health care, agriculture, marriages, spiritual health, and more.

After a couple decades, The Navigators contacted Merri Lee and her husband, Gary, and they merged Mission Moving Mountains with The Navigators ministry to form the D4D ministry in 2007. Now, D4D has mentorship programs in over 300 communities, and has seen people come to faith in Jesus and communities transform.

“The Navigators would talk about the three E’s: evangelism, establishing, and equipping,” Gary says. “And then the next level beyond that is building local leaders. So when we merged with The Navigators, we told them to give us those local leaders who are already established and equipped, and we will build them up, helping them go into communities and discipling them to become all that God intended them to be.”

The D4D process is broken into a series of stages — first, they will find leaders to train, helping them create a healthy team. Then they go into the communities to work with local leaders to discover the specific and unique needs of their area. “We ask them what resources they already have, and what problems they need to overcome,” Gary says. “They can often identify an area where they say, ‘If we get training in this area, we will be able to flourish.’ So then we disciple, mentor, and coach them in a relational way.”

This model of whole-life discipleship has a tendency to multiply from community to community. “They see how their community has been transformed, so they will go to one another’s homes and give advice,” Gary remarks. “Suddenly, we have generations of disciplemaking.”

Impact in Rwanda, Burundi, and Beyond

This model is what the Hipps implemented when they held a D4D training in Africa in 2007. 13 different countries were represented, including missionaries serving in Rwanda who had over 60 churches from their denomination across the country. For seven years, the Hipps continued to mentor these missionaries as Navigator alongsiders — people who come alongside The Navigator mission — coaching them on how to bring holistic discipleship to their church members and communities.

These missionaries eventually spread their reach to Burundi and Eastern Congo to continue practicing and teaching the D4D process in their churches. It was in Burundi that one of those missionaries discipled a pastor, who eventually discipled Deborah. Over 20 years later, the impact of the Hipps’ D4D training and mentorship has continued to multiply and bear fruit.

Though Deborah succeeded in building a church, she is still continuing to support and build up her community. She and her friends work to aid widows by helping them raise livestock. “Recently, we helped five widows in our church build homes,” she says.

Through the D4D training and discipleship, Deborah has witnessed her community change through the strategic use of their resources. “I have experienced transformation in my family and in the church,” she says.

Join The Navigators as we pray for our D4D ministry, that other local leaders like Deborah can impact and build up impoverished communities, continuing the chain reaction of growth and the spread of the Lord’s kingdom around the world.

“Our prayer is that this would become a desired approach, and we are ready to mentor and coach folks that want to do this kind of ministry,” Merri Lee says. “Spiritual life, marriage, agriculture, health, business — all of those things, the people are getting skills that they can pass on to their neighbors. Good things aren’t fully accomplished until people have a capacity to pass it on to others.”

*Name changed for privacy.

Discipleship Tip:

The D4D ministry is so successful partially because disciples continue to pass on the skills and lessons they’ve learned to other communities. Think about what lessons you’ve been taught by mentors over the years. How can you pass on what you’ve learned to others?

The glow of thousands of faces lights up the room, a powerful testament to the spread of the gospel from generation to generation. 

This was one of the many special moments from The Navigators 2023 National Staff Gathering.

Last month, over 1,300 Navigator staff came together in Irving, Texas. The theme of the weekend was Heartbeat: A Vital Movement of the Gospel, focusing on 2 Timothy 2:1-2: “Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others” (NIV).

The gathering held five plenary sessions, which were designed to inspire, uplift, and challenge staff attendees to continue the work to which they’ve been called. Staff heard insights on the Lord’s vision for grace, necessary aspects of prayer, and how He works through each and every one of us to reach the nations and spread His mission.  

Staff members also enjoyed times of fun and laughter, along with encouraging ministry stories from new and old friends, breakouts to equip and multiply disciplemakers, precious times of prayer and worship, and motivational messages from fellow Navigators and international leaders. 

For many, the National Staff Gathering was a reminder of why they became Navigators — to be a part of a vital movement of the gospel by connecting, resourcing, and developing everyday disciplemakers. 

Though this conference looked back over the past four years since our last National Staff Gathering, we also took time to look forward to the work that is ahead of us as a ministry. You can partner with us as we continue this work for years to come! 

Pray that the Lord works through The Navigators to reach the unreached and create new disciplemakers. Come alongside us to spread the gospel and disciple those in your circles, from family members to coworkers to neighbors and beyond.

Whether you serve on staff or through your everyday life, we are excited to see how the Lord moves through this next season of ministry!

“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” Matthew 5:14-16 (NIV).

Discipleship Tip:  

Pull out your phone and find a photo of someone you’re discipling or have discipled. Pray for that person and reach out to offer them encouragement.

Amari shares his heart for Ethiopia, “I visited Ethiopia during the summer while I was in college. I prayed for the Spirit to help me see what God sees when He looks at people. As I was driving from the airport into the city, I saw a woman and her children by the side of the road, she seemed to have lost hope. Throughout my trip I saw brokenness, but also hope as I met people who were working to bring change for those on the margins.” 

Amari was introduced to Eric Ketcham, Lane Lareau, and the Discipling for Development (D4D) team in Atlanta by Navigators at University of Georgia. Amari joined a D4D Foundations workshop in the fall of 2017. 

The whole-life emphasis of D4D resonated with Amari and his heart for his home country. Whole-life discipleship is meeting community members where they are and mentoring them to grow as whole persons into all God intends for them to be. Amari knew that it would take whole-life discipleship and a biblical approach to community transformation that he learned through D4D to alleviate the poverty he saw among the street children of Addis Ababa. Two years ago, he moved from Atlanta to Ethiopia and has connected with Navigators who are there to come alongside their ministry. Eric and Lane are still actively mentoring Amari from a distance, connecting regularly to equip and encourage him in his work and ministry. 

Life-to-Life Discipleship Moves from Atlanta, to Portland, to Ethopia

Taye* met Lane and the D4D team through a deacon at his Ethiopian church in the Atlanta area. He resonated with the whole-life discipleship idea and was particularly struck by the idea that discipleship starts with a relationship with God and as He transforms your heart, it transforms your life and your family. Then as families are changed, transformation spreads from homes to communities. The D4D training has helped Taye integrate his faith and work. He was finishing a training program in the pharmaceutical industry while he was being mentored in discipleship principles of The Navigators. 

Now living in Portland, Oregon, Taye feels called to apply what he learned through D4D to the Ethiopian diaspora in that city. He also sees his work as a place that God can use him in ministry. He transitioned from working for a pharmaceutical company to providing home care support for families who have children on the autism spectrum. As with Amari, Lane continues to mentor Taye long-distance, helping him integrate whole-life discipleship into his faith and work.

Kofi* lived in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, before coming to the United States for seminary studies at Columbia International University in South Carolina. As he was completing his seminary studies, he learned about the D4D residential training experience in Atlanta and was able to extend his student visa for this internship experience.

“For me joining D4D enhanced my understanding about community,” shares Kofi. “I remember the first lesson was about a broken relationship with God, self, others, and creation, and how restored relationships are the redemptive work of Christ. The whole-life discipleship model shaped my perspective about community and God’s plan, which is to create God-glorifying households and communities. It was challenging to move directly from seminary study into the combination of more training and working with the Ethiopian church in Clarkston. Being able to connect with church pastors and the community was encouraging.”

Now back in Ethiopia, Kofi continues to intentionally live out the discipleship principles he learned in his daily life. He is considering ways to serve in the community, even as his next steps have been slowed by the impact of COVID-19 and unrest in his country. 

The Life-to-Life connection of Lane Lareau with each of these Ethiopian men is exemplary of the interactions Lane has had with the international community in the Atlanta area since he relocated there six years ago. When he moved to Atlanta, Lane was finishing up a master’s degree in Global Studies and was looking for experience in working with an international community. He connected with the Atlanta Navigators city team which was doing research into the possibility of doing focused D4D training in Atlanta, because of its makeup as a global city. The D4D whole-life discipleship emphasis of empowering individuals to grow as whole persons physically, socially, emotionally, and spiritually was a good fit for the needs in Atlanta. The D4D team in Atlanta was formed in 2016 and Lane became the project leader in 2019.

“Our emphasis is coming alongside the local community and providing training,” shares Lane. “As we bring new people in for training, we are always considering how to release them into their next steps. Sometimes that means a new expression of ministry locally, and sometimes they are called elsewhere to serve. But our role is to come alongside what God is doing through local leaders, mentoring them, and then releasing them to serve.”

Pray that God continues to multiply the impact of the Discipling for Development team in Atlanta and around the world. Praise God for the way He is using those who have been trained to bring whole-life discipleship to communities in Ethiopia and beyond. 

^{_{*Names changed.}}

A Global City to Train Disciplemakers

The town of Clarkston, Georgia, in the eastern part of metropolitan Atlanta, has been dubbed the most diverse square mile in the United States. Many refugees have resettled in the area, with good access to the Atlanta labor market and affordable housing. More than five years ago, the Navigators World Missions Discipling for Development (D4D) team selected Atlanta as a pilot area in the United States. In addition to the local international communities, Atlanta is a city with linkages around the world.  Previously all the D4D ministry had been in other countries, mostly in Africa and Southeast Asia. 

The D4D team in Atlanta offers training opportunities that include practical experience along with biblical and community development principles to meet physical, emotional, and spiritual needs:

• 1-week Introductory training program on-site in Atlanta in March.
• Summer program – online 9-week virtual program to provide an understanding of doing whole-life discipleship alongside vulnerable populations in a local context.
• 10-month training program with curriculum, field placements, and mentoring. Currently online, but potentially residential again in the future.

For short-term missions opportunities with The Navigators go to navlink.org/short-term.

Sam’s team learned that Bukhalu, Uganda — the community from which this urgent request had come—had been formed by former criminals. It was rife with witches, murderers, and other wicked people who had been driven out of their previous homes by neighbors who hated them.

“We had never worked with people like this before,” said Sam. “Witchcraft, drunkenness, adultery, and murder (especially through poisoning) were their specialties.”

Every other non-governmental organization (NGO) in the area had avoided Bukhalu. In addition to the utterly corrupt character of the inhabitants, the community was extremely difficult to access. In the rainy season it was virtually impossible to reach when the primitive roads that led to the village became nothing more than mud sloughs.

Sam’s team was understandably fearful when he asked them to consider becoming involved with the residents of Bukhalu, but, after several weeks of prayer, they concluded that God was indeed calling them to minister there. The team has now been working in the village for several years and they are seeing some remarkable transformation.

The team began visiting villagers at home—explaining the Gospel to them and urging them to repent and believe in Christ. One of the villagers who came to faith in Jesus is Stephen.

“When we asked Stephen (who is also a local government leader) about the ways that the Bible had brought change to his life and community, he lit up with enthusiasm, says Sam.

“The Bible has told us about our sin and how we can receive Christ,” said Stephen. “We’ve learned that drunkenness wastes time and money and if we stop we find better lives. We’re also learning how to love our wives.” As a government leader, Stephen was often called upon to settle domestic disputes between husbands and wives. Where he once had to do that several times each week, he now only has to intervene a couple of times a month.

In addition to changes in character, the villagers are also seeing changes in their day-to-day lifestyles. “We’re learning how to clean our compounds,” says Stephen, “to remove standing water, and to get our drinking water from the borehole [well] instead of the river.”

One result is that the number of children suffering from diarrhea has been dramatically reduced. “We are learning how to have better lives—spiritually, physically, socially, and environmentally,” says Stephen.

Sam agrees. “Bukhalu, Uganda used to be the kind of community we would show to people as a prime example of a non-transformed community—one that needs the Gospel. Now, by the power of the Gospel and the discipling work of the Ugandan team, Bukhalu is being transformed into a showcase of the glory of God!”

Learn more about Navigators World Missions.

What is Discipling for Development?

Discipling for Development (D4D) is a ministry of The Navigators dedicated to discipling people, developing communities, and transforming lives in impoverished communities. Many small villages lack even basic necessities like healthy living conditions, sufficient food, and economic hope. We empower people to create solutions for their own communities.

Whole-life discipleship with D4D has the following components:

• Disciple people: Offer whole-life discipleship and hope to those struggling in poverty, mentoring them in community to grow into all that the Father intends them to be and do.
• Develop communities: Gain experience in empowering communities to solve their problems, gain control of their lives, and help other communities do the same.
• Transform lives:  See community members grow as whole persons—physically, socially, emotionally, and spiritually—as the Spirit of God transforms their lives.

Get Connected with Discipling for Development

Pray for Discipling for Development teams who are committed to empowering people through whole-life discipleship that transforms local communities.

More than 15 years ago, Peter attended a Discipling for Development (D4D) whole-life discipleship training in Tamale along with 50 other participants. The discipleship training Peter attended includes spiritual growth components of prayer and Bible study, along with an emphasis on empowering people to create a healthy community. Out of them all, Peter is the only one who continued, recruited a team, and started a D4D program in his home village.

Since then, he reproduced D4D in his area by pioneering the opening of other three communities. David and Peter are now coaching four Discipling for Development teams in the surrounding area.

When Peter began D4D training, he had only completed primary school. But because Peter is determined to be a lifelong learner, along with being a disciplemaker, he enrolled in junior high classes as a 27-year-old. Later David and Jane Kordorwu helped him to enter a private secondary school where he wrote and passed his West Africa Secondary School education examinations.

Peter now has his Diploma degree in Primary Education from University of Education, Winneba! He is deployed by the Ghanaian Government to do a one-year National service teaching.

 As God would have it, his government assignment is in the same community where his Navigator D4D Mentor-in-Training program is located. God’s hand is evident in how He provided this opportunity where Peter can be present in this community to coach mentors-in-training and teach school.

The Community Development Committee for his area knows Peter and the many transformations his team has brought to their community and other surrounding communities in north Ghana.

His growth has impacted his own children so much that two of them have completed Senior High School. His only daughter is planning to enter Nursing Training College to become a midwife so that she can one day serve her community like her father.

Peter has developed into a Kingdom leader and a skillful Discipling for Development Mentor since 2017. He is called into training and igniting others to be disciplemakers through whole life discipleship.

Praise God for people like Peter who are committed to empowering people for whole-life discipleship that impacts their local communities. Pray that the work of mentors flourishes.

*Name changed.

Wency de la Vina and his team have spent 15 years of serving and equipping communities in the Philippines in a way that equips and empowers disciples. Along with their existing ministry, the Navigators in the Philippines have recently mobilized to cook hundreds of meals for health workers who serve those impacted by the pandemic. This kind of spontaneous response is repeated around the world, as Navigators step up to meet new needs due to COVID-19 in their local areas.

The faithful service and care for community started many years ago, in Wency’s garage. He tells the story of how God has been working.

A Light of Hope Shining from Wency’s Garage

In 2005, two small brothers from a nearby community of informal settlers kept coming to our house in the Philippines for free food and recyclable materials. We knew that we had to do more to help them and that we could do move working together as a team. So, we talked with the five couples in our Navigator Bible study group. Each week in our garage, our team—sometimes including our children—provided meals for 15 children from the brothers’ poor community.

Inspired by Isaiah 58:6-12, which is about helping those in need, we saw our efforts expand. Within a couple of months, we had about 50 children coming to our garage for meals and conversations. Lacking space, we transferred to a bigger venue in the village. Then we started providing the children with school supplies. We soon discovered that a small group of believers, knitted together by a common purpose in Christ, could use its resources to help the poor. We started to imagine how ministry could multiply if many small groups like ours started serving and equipping the people in their communities!

In light of the widespread unemployment and poverty in the Philippines, we registered Community Hope Alternatives, Inc. (CHAI). Today our small organization establishes small, biblical communities where people grow spiritually and help one another become economically productive and socially responsible.

Renz Rivera, a health-care practitioner, joined our team. He turned out to be a prolific evangelist. Early on, Renz led a girl named Erika to Christ. At the time she was eight-years-old and living in a poor community. A decade later, at age 18, she rejoined his group. Erika started serving CHAI as a volunteer. Our Study Now Pay Later assistance allowed her to fulfill her dream of going to college. She obtained a degree in social work and passed the national board examination.

After much prayer, Erika has recently decided to work full-time with CHAI. Armed with gifts of leadership and service, plus a happy disposition, Erika is a vital, energetic, innovative, and caring member of the team that ministers to young and old in several communities.

What have we learned over the years?

We have learned that to minister to the marginalized—and even to people who are not materially poor—we need a holistic mindset. Simple solutions that only focus on spiritual life usually cannot empower people. Poverty is complex, the result of broken relationships between God and humans, between individuals, between people and the environment. Many even experience a broken relationship with themselves. We’ve learned that effective ministry addresses all of these areas.

We have also learned the importance of international partnership, which is a strength of our Navigator disciplemaking movement. Through an international partnership with U.S. Navigators Discipling for Development leaders we have received coaching and tools to effectively empower the people we serve. Many of the principles they taught us were ideas they learned from their ministry in Africa. This is truly an example of the effectiveness of our worldwide partnership working together!

Discipling for Development is building on ministry foundations to face the current crisis.

Now, as marginalized communities around the world face the coronavirus pandemic, along with all the existing challenges of daily life, relational ministry is even more important. Navigators in the Philippines and around the world have a strong basis of local trust and connection so they can continue to empower people to transform lives and communities.

Pray that God will use Navigators in communities around the world to bring hope and help to many people!

Wency de la Vina became Navigator staff in the Philippines in 1986. He started CHAI, an NGO that works with the poor, in 2008. He and his wife, Celia, have three adult sons and two grandsons.

Discipling for Development is a ministry of The Navigators dedicated to discipling people, developing communities, and transforming lives in impoverished communities. Many small villages lack even basic necessities like healthy living conditions, sufficient food, and economic hope. We empower people to create solutions for their own communities.

This article was first published in Worldwide, the international newsletter of The Navigators.

One praying activity that has been a foundation for many Christians as they have pressed into God’s presence over the centuries is attention to the promises He makes in the Scriptures. The list of men and women of faith who believed that God’s promises were for them is long and noteworthy. Some of the names you might recognize are Martin Luther, Hudson Taylor, Amy Carmichael, J. O. Fraser, D. L. Moody, Elisabeth Elliot, and the founder of The Navigators, Dawson Trotman.

God’s Word is filled with His promises to His people and to each of His followers who put their trust in Him. Peter speaks of the power and blessing the promises are to those of us in Christ:

His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. (2 Peter 1:3,4)

Here are a few of the specific lifesaving truths from God that have carried my wife, Pam, and me through difficult seasons:

• I am your strength. (Psalm 18:1,2)
• I am with you and delight and rejoice in you. (Zephaniah 3:17)
• I walk with you through the challenges. (Isaiah 41:13)

To become a person of influence for God’s Kingdom we must first become people who know God and spend time with Him. And as we appeal to God for help, guidance, and protection, we learn more about Him and about ourselves. We can also remind Him of the promises He has made in His Word. As we walk with Him in prayer, we come to know Him more deeply, and the refreshing, abundant life He gives us overflows to others.

A Discipling for Development disciplemaker and mentor living nearby recognized the problem. One morning while buying fish he pointed to the small patch of mature mangroves still holding on nearby. He asked the fishermen, “What are the good things that these trees provide?” This modeled a Discipling for Development practice of gratefulness also known as “appreciative inquiry.”

They discussed erosion benefits and wood, but especially how fishing was done best by the trees.  He then asked, “Why is that?”

They responded that it was a place for fish to hide, lay eggs, and to grow.

“What would this place be like if there were more of these mangroves? What is keeping this place from being full of mangroves like it was in the times of our grandfathers?” They continued their encouraging discussion, including God’s love and His call to make us stewards of creation.

Through their response to this teaching discussion, the fishermen have made themselves the protectors of the mangrove transplants. They are seeing to the establishment of new mangrove plants. The community is developing this God-given resource not just locally, but up and down the river as well. Meanwhile this Discipling for Development disciplemaker and mentor continues to “fish for men” as he invests in relationships in the community, buys fish, and draws men closer to the Kingdom of Jesus.

In this video Dave Wirgau teaches from Isaiah 49:3-6, examining God’s promise to use your life to reach the nations even in the midst of feeling discouraged.

Doesn’t matter the results or what I see happening. I’m going to trust you. I will trust that you will accomplish your purposes.
-Dave Wirgau

Harvest is a five-part series of short films that will give you a vision for how you can play a part in God accomplishing his purposes. The series features the teaching of Dave Wirgau, longtime campus minister with The Navigators.