Matèriaux Ministère
Matèriaux Ministère is French for ministry materials. Eighty years ago The Navigators was a mono-cultural, monolingual group. If you were a Navigator one could safely assume that you were using a handful of ministry materials that had shaped the life of every Navigator. Now God has blessed us with fruit in many contexts and languages, and that earlier uniformity is in our rear-view mirror.
But Navigator disciples and laborers still need ministry materials. This is not a new issue for the people of God. Moses left Joshua with the first books of the Bible to equip him. The apostles wrote letters that we are still using today. The church fathers brought those together and passed them on to us. And leaders like Wycliffe and Tyndale gave their lives to provide written resources for the people of God. Now the Internet has created many new challenges and opportunities.
Please pray that God will lead the group of Navigator leaders I am working with as we spend the day together May 5th to consider how to help our field ministries to provide ministry materials for Navigator disciples and laborers of today. (Joshua 1:8)
Prayer update: Renee and I were deeply encouraged through our time in the Middle East. One leader moved to a new city 6 months ago and has already seen 20 mslms turn to Christ, mostly through one former revolutionary. Another lives in a war zone where many are turning to Christ. Another is grieving because a boy she led to Christ is experiencing intense abuse from his family. Others have been faithfully working for years with very little fruit. I taught about sustaining generational movements of the Gospel in the midst of persecution. But I learned more than I taught.
Donation update: I am reminding everyone who might at some point send a gift for our ministry that The US Navigators has made the decision to outsource their gift receipting services in order to lower admin costs. They have asked all staff to notify supporters of their missionaries of a change of address for gifts that are sent by mail. Please make sure that if you use an envelope that it has the correct address. From May 1 the new address for all check donations is:
The Navigators Gift Processing Center, P.O. Box 6079, Albert Lea, MN 56007-6679