During those trips I learned how to read a state road map. I still carry an old-school atlas with me in the car, just in case. But today we can open an app on our phones or on the car dashboard to provide us with cues for our travels. The GPS tells us when to exit, merge with traffic, and change lanes. It can provide alternate routes based on traffic, suggest the closest coffee shop, or exclaim “Recalculating route!” when you miss your turn.

But what’s the one thing necessary for a GPS system to function as it has been designed?

A Destination.

When it comes to raising disciples, we should set our eyes on the destination.

I believe that one of the reasons parents and caregivers struggle to disciple children well is that we haven’t clearly identified the destination for their discipleship and the directions that guide them toward that goal.

How would you describe a child who is entering adolescence as an active disciple? Would you choose words that describe their character: loving, joyful, obedient, self-controlled? Or would you choose words that describe behaviors: reads the Bible daily, asks spiritual questions, worships God? Perhaps you would choose words that describe their depth of knowledge and understanding about God and His Word.

Public and private education systems have stated objectives when it comes to student expectations. Lists of student learning outcomes articulate the goals for students at the conclusion of each grade level. Each child is unique and develops at their own rate, so there are those who will exceed the expectations and others who will struggle. But teachers begin each year knowing the goals and guiding students along the path toward achievement. Like a GPS, they might have to find alternate paths for some or help others get turned back around, but with a clear goal and markers on the way, teachers are able to guide their young disciples.

This is what we’ve been missing in our homes and churches — a discipleship map that states the goal for raising disciples and provides directions toward that goal.

In some Christian traditions, the goal for children has been a public confession of Christ; in others, submission through the act of baptism. In yet other traditions, it has been the completion of confirmation classes. Regardless of our tradition, our goal for raising disciples should be the same as the goal for all disciples: to become more and more like Christ every day.

For three years, Jesus taught the crowds, His enemies, and political leaders, but most often, He was teaching twelve ordinary men from various backgrounds, vocations, and experiences. When He chose the Twelve, He had a goal in mind. Jesus knew that at the conclusion of His earthly ministry He would redeem the world through His death, return to God the Father, and equip His followers with the Holy Spirit to disciple others. He needed a core group of leaders who would follow Him daily (Luke 9:23), continuing His mission “to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10) and to “make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19).

As Jesus prepared to leave the Twelve to continue His mission, He met with them to give them some final encouragements and admonitions. Woven through Jesus’ conversation in the upper room (John 13–17), we find descriptions of what it means to become like Christ:

• Follow His example (John 13:14-15),
• Love others (John 13:34),
• Believe in God (John 14:1),
• Keep God’s commands (John 14:15), and
• Remain in Christ (John 15:4).

These descriptors provide some direction toward the goal for all disciples.

With the destination of becoming like Christ as our goal, we can utilize childhood development information from the fields of social science, learning theory, and psychology to create a map for discipleship from infancy to adolescence.* Beginning at birth, there are seven directional discipleship markers — approximately one for every two years of life — that parallel the biological, cognitive, social, and moral development of children. Just as Jesus discipled the Twelve from spiritual infancy to spiritual maturity, we can use this map to raise disciples who become increasingly more like Christ.

Did you like this article? Check out Teresa Roberts’ full book, Raising Disciples, as well as the accompanying free 8-week parenting curriculum today!

Discipleship Tip:

When discipling someone, consider verbally setting discipleship goals. With a destination in mind, you can orchestrate milestones and implement accountability, making sure that you both are progressing forward in their discipleship journey.

*The faith research of James W. Fowler (Stages of Faith: The Psychology of Human Development and the Quest for Meaning, San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1981) and insights of spiritual development from John H. Westerhoff III (Will Our Children Have Faith?, 3rd. ed., Harrisburg, PA: Morehouse, 2012) has also informed this discipleship map.

Meet the Author

Teresa Roberts is Professor of Ministry and Christian Formation, Program Director of Children’s Ministry, and a vice president at Ozark Christian College. She is an expert in children’s spiritual formation training with more than 25 years of ministry experience.

Dr. Roberts holds a Master of Arts in Family and Youth Ministry, a Master of Divinity, and a Doctor of Ministry. She serves in children’s ministry at Carterville Christian Church where she attends with her husband and step-daughter. Learn more at discipleshipguides.com/.

The Holy Trinity is a mystery to me, with its three in oneness and its oneness in three, and I can just barely grasp the deep relational nature of how the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit touch and spin and dance off each other and with each other. Hospitality — that generous making room for others and giving and receiving to and from each other from our plenty and sometimes from our scarcity but we do it anyway — seems to flow out of that communal and relational and so generous nature of God. Being holy as God is holy, if we can believe it, catapults us into relationship with others and the practice of hospitality. Holiness is relational, and that is why hospitality fits holiness like a soft leather glove.

Hospitality involves the holy practice of gratitude.

All of this is made easier alongside the holy practice of gratitude. I have this place, this food, this book; please take it and enjoy it as well. We try to believe that everything we have comes from God, and so it is ours not to own but to share. So hospitality is almost always best when it is gratitude adjacent. However, the discipline of hospitality can happen also while you are still a grouchy, miserly mess. Disciplines take discipline. Not everything is easy or feels good right away, but that might mean it’s even more worth doing, and not less.

Hospitality invites humility.

In Luke 14:12-14, Jesus tells us how to throw a dinner party. Dinner parties are, after all, what most of us think of first when we think about hospitality: “‘When you put on a luncheon or a banquet,’ he said, ‘don’t invite your friends, brothers, relatives, and rich neighbors. For they will invite you back, and that will be your only reward. Instead, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. Then at the resurrection of the righteous, God will reward you for inviting those who could not repay you’” (NLT). In Luke 14:8-10, He even discusses seating plans: “When you are invited to a wedding feast, don’t sit in the seat of honor … Instead, take the lowest place at the foot of the table” (NLT).

Jesus knows me so well. He predicts my thirst for status. When we practice hospitality as part of our holiness, we will come face-to-face with our desire to invite first our friends, the people we especially like or those whom we want to especially like us, along with the relatives we are most comfortable with, and, of course, our rich neighbors. We might strut around like a peacock in our own dining room and not even realize we are doing it. Again, our intentional moves toward holiness will show us how far we have yet to travel. Our efforts to do good on the outside will show us how far we are from good on the inside, and in that gap, we learn again of our need for the forgiving, restoring love of God in our own lives and hearts, and how much we need him, even when we are serving macaroni to friends.

We learn something about ourselves — and therefore move deeper into our holiness journeys — when we pay attention to whom we want to welcome in and how we want to welcome them to our homes, our tables, and our lives.

Hospitality helps us to examine our hidden motivations.

As we consider ourselves, we can confess ourselves to God and ask for help. Why am I making this so fancy? we can ask our inner hostess, in an examination of motivation that is a daily part of pushing into our holiness. What is my motivation? Also, Why am I talking about myself so much? And why can’t I stop?

Our honest answers do not bring the dinner party, the coffee date, or the open house to a screeching halt, but instead provide us another opportunity to be honest with ourselves and with God — who is the ultimate and gracious host of heaven and earth now and the new earth that is to come. Make me holy in my hospitality, we might pray. Kill off my show-off-ness, we might ask. Help me listen more than I speak, as my blunt spouse has said I need to work on.

Help me not to be so needy, I can pray as I juice blood oranges for udon noodles with fried tofu and orange nam jim from my expensive hardcover Ottolenghi Flavour cookbook propped open on the counter. Perhaps for a little while, as part of our own healing, we will make a simple spaghetti Bolognese, accept the offer of our guest to bring store-bought garlic bread and let Maureen help with the cleanup, like she always wants to do. We will resist the temptation to offer our guests a tour of our new barbeque and satisfy our thirst for thanks by turning it outward to gratitude to God. What if whenever we yearn for someone to say, “Thank you, you are marvelous for all you have done,” we accept that as a prompt to whisper, “Thank You. You are marvelous for all You have done.”

Hospitality exercises a variety of spiritual disciplines.

Food is just one expression of hospitality. Conversation is another. When we practice holiness through hospitality, we create a space in which other pursuits of holiness can be practiced, such as listening well and not interrupting, putting others first, and offering encouragement and companionship to the person God has placed and we have invited in front of us. From the way Jesus tells us to invite, and the humility presumed in His recommended seating plan, we can assume that we don’t invite people to our table so we can imprison them to hear all and only about us. We don’t tie them to their chairs with our story and our glory.

We can stretch our ability to put others first, and to forgive.

We can practice patience, a fruit of the Spirit we get to work with, toward friends who arrive late (or even worse, early) and those who stay too long. We practice not biting off the heads of those with whom we disagree. If we do bite their heads off at dinner, we can practice the art of unequivocal apology. Apologizing is a holy act. I’m sorry are holy, healing words. Through hospitality’s gift of space opened up and time slowed down, we can “be happy with those who are happy, and weep with those who weep,” which Paul told us to do only two verses after he reminded us to “always be eager to practice hospitality” in Romans 12:13-15.

Discipleship Tip:

Hospitality isn’t about impressing others — it’s about making space for them. This week, invite someone into your home or life with gratitude and humility, focusing on listening and encouraging rather than showcasing. Ask the Lord for opportunities to be hospitable in your community in order to point others to Jesus.

About the Author

Karen Stiller is a senior editor of Faith Today magazine and writes frequently for magazines like Reader’s Digest, Ekstasis, In Trust, and other publications across North America. Stiller is a three-time winner of the prestigious A.C. Forrest Memorial Award from the Canadian Church Press for excellence in socially conscious religious journalism. She is author of The Minister’s Wife (2020, Tyndale Momentum); co-author of Craft, Cost & Call (2019), Shifting Stats Shaking the Church (2015) and Going Missional (2010); editor of The Lord’s Prayer (2015) and coeditor of Evangelicals Around the World (2015). She lives in Ottawa and has a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Non-Fiction from University of King’s College, Dalhousie.

This article was originally published on the DiscipleMaker Blog by NavPress. You can also hear more from Karen Stiller through her book Holiness Here and NavPress’ new podcast, “Good Books, Big Questions,” where Karen hosts bold, loving, and sensible conversations about faith.

Back when Mark was in college, he remembers seeing his Navigator campus director pack his bags to move his family to do ministry in Thailand. The willingness to leave behind the familiar to pursue the nations resonated with Mark, and it struck a passion in him for cross cultural ministry.

Over the past 20 years, the Newells have seen how building relationships with Hungarian students has led to steady growth in their community — but it takes much patience and perseverance. As Hungary is a country where most people do not have any connections to Christians, it has been crucial for the Hungary team to share their lives with Hungarian students so that they can see with their own eyes what walking with Jesus looks like.

“I think a challenge we have faced is regarding the perseverance that’s needed working in a more secular culture — the years that are needed to journey with friends,” Mark says. “As they grow in trust, they grow in curiosity, and they become open and trust Jesus. What we really long for even more is to see the gospel moving through families. And it’s a joy, a joy to see that the gospel is moving to siblings, to parents, even to grandparents.”

Being an example for how to live in Christ

This was the case for Benni Illes, who met Mark as a Hungarian student in university in 2014. As Mark built a relationship with Benni, he started to talk to him about faith, helping him understand how to read the Bible and memorize Scripture.

“That was very significant for me, to have someone who could not only help me get into the Word and understand it, but also to see what faith looks like,” Benni says.

Now, Benni has been on staff with The Navigators for 10 years, and he is passionate about passing on what he’s learned to others. “Our students don’t really have a Christian community around them — people who they can look up to for examples to see how they live their lives with Jesus,” Benni explains. “I had that example, and I want to follow that for them.”

For The Newells and The Navigators Hungary team, 1 Thessalonians 2:8 has been at the heart of their ministry: “…we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well” (NIV).

By doing life with students — teaching them English, serving together, and coming alongside them in everyday moments — The Navigators team in Hungary is establishing a picture of what life with Christ looks like, and how students can experience the fruit of the gospel in their own lives.

A foundational generation of Hungarians

The Navigators Hungary team has been excited to see the next phase of their ministry: watching God raise up a foundational generation of Hungarian believers. Now, it isn’t just Americans bringing the gospel to Hungarians; it is Hungarians to Hungarians. Friends, classmates, families, and neighborhoods are being touched by the gospel as this generation of Hungarian Christians seek “to know Christ, make Him known, and help others do the same^®.”

“We are praying for a foundational generation of Hungarians who are committed to the Lord, to one another, and to our calling,” Mark says. “We find ourselves praying the words of Jeremiah: ‘Our Lord, God, you have created the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm, nothing is too difficult for you.’ We want to trust God for what only He can do.”

Discipleship Tip:

Benni grew in his faith through Mark coming alongside him and helping him understand how to read the Bible. How can you come alongside others in your life? Consider the example you are setting in your relationships, and how you can give others a better picture of who Jesus is and His Word through starting gospel conversations and simply doing life with those around you.

As his friendship with Jason grew and he saw the impact of discipleship in his own life, Joel started to feel called toward discipling others. Joel discovered a heart for the nations after doing summer missions in Malaysia, and was surprised when he felt the Lord leading him to do missions full-time in the Netherlands through the Navigators iEDGE program.

“I actually have a lot of family who’s from the Netherlands. A lot of my history is from there,” Joel says. “And even though it was not what I envisioned when I thought about cross-cultural ministry, the Lord ultimately led my heart to decide to go to the Netherlands.”

Ministry in the Netherlands

In 2016, Joel moved abroad to work with international students in Amsterdam. Through his time there, Joel met his wife, Libby, who had also had a similar calling to the Netherlands. Together, they moved to continue their ministry full-time, eventually heading to the city of Leeuwarden where Joel’s grandparents had grown up.

While Amsterdam had more of an international feel, with a variety of students from other cultures and countries, students in Leeuwarden were more difficult to draw out and reach. The Dotingas were nearly the only Americans in the city, so building friendships in a new culture was a big hurdle. Yet, God placed relationships in their path to help them get connected and reach new people with the gospel.

After joining a church in Leeuwarden, Joel and Libby quickly got to know a family who had a daughter who was the same age as their own. As Joel and Libby got to know the parents, Noah* and Hannah*, they found out that both of them had only recently given their lives to Christ.

One day, Joel asked to meet up with Noah, hoping that they could talk about doing a Bible study called Every Man a Warrior together. As they were getting coffee, Joel brought up the book, asking if Noah would be interested. To his surprise, Noah in turn pulled the same study out of his bag, saying, “I was going to ask you if you wanted to do this with me!”

“It felt like such a God moment, that in God’s kindness and sense of humor, He brought us together with the same idea of wanting to go through a relatively little-known study,” Joel says. “It was like the Lord saying, How obvious can I make this?”

As Joel got to know Noah, he not only got to see Noah grow in his walk with the Lord, but he gained another friend to walk together through life. “I was able to see how Noah grew in his faith over the following years, but it also grew me to have another peer my age,” Joel says. “We were both new fathers together, and we were able to walk through a discipleship pathway together.”

Running for Relationships

Joel also saw the Lord bring relationships through unexpected, creative ways.

As an avid runner, Joel had always had “running buddies” in the past with whom he could stay active and have deep conversations while running. Thinking of a way he could make new connections, he decided to try to find running buddies in Leeuwarden by posting on a Facebook meetup page.

Through this, Joel got connected to a young man named Alvin*. Running together, they had deep conversations about the gospel, and Alvin began attending their evening Bible studies. While Alvin has not put his faith in Christ yet, he continues to reach out to Joel about spiritual questions.

“I was struck by the amount of ground that we were able to cover through doing a shoulder-to-shoulder activity like running,” Joel says. “I got to see God slowly poke holes, using Alvin’s curiosity to dive deeper into what was going on in his heart.”

A Lasting Impact

Though Joel and Libby are now back to doing ministry in the U.S. after several years abroad, their ministry in the Netherlands is a powerful reminder of how important relationships are in the work of discipleship and sharing the gospel with those who are without Christ.

By committing to make yourself available for Life-to-Life^® discipleship — whether in Amsterdam, Leeuwarden, or the U.S. — God can create amazing opportunities for the gospel to take root in people’s hearts.

“The place I saw the most fruit was through doing life together,” Joel says. “So the question is, what are the relationships God is giving us? And how can we follow those relationships?”

Discipleship Tip:

Sometimes, the best thing you can do to start a discipleship relationship is to simply extend an invite. Whether it’s grabbing coffee with a neighbor or asking someone to go running with you, there are so many creative ways to create close, Life-to-Life relationships. Consider activities you are already doing in your life. Where can you extend an invite to someone around you?

*Names changed for privacy

For Marc and Yumiko Leis, these numbers are the motivation and inspiration for their 33 years of ministry in Japan.

In the summer of 1986, Marc remembers God calling him to the people of Japan through a promise he read in Isaiah 45:5b-6: “I will strengthen you, though you have not acknowledged me, so that from the rising of the sun to the place of its setting people may know there is none besides me. I am the Lord, and there is no other” (NIV).

Marc noted that the “Rising of the Sun” is the literal translation of “Nippon” — Japan’s name for itself — and that the Lord was beckoning him to take part in the fulfillment of His promise: for the people of the rising sun to know there is no other God.

Since then, Marc and Yumiko have dedicated their lives and ministry to the Japanese community, and they’ve witnessed the Lord’s faithfulness as they’ve gradually built momentum for Christ. In the past six years alone, Marc and Yumiko have entered into a new phase of ministry, engaging with local university students and working with churches to train leaders in discipleship, and it has been a pivotal and rewarding time in their ministry.

“This season has been the most fruitful of our 33 years here in Japan — we’ve seen more students come to Christ, grow in follow-up, and stick around to be discipled than any other time,” Marc says. “After so many years of preparing the soil and planting seeds, we are finally seeing the fruit of others take root and produce their own fruit in natural multiplication.”

Walking in the Highs and Lows of Community

A large part of Marc and Yumiko’s ministry is not only sharing Jesus, but intentionally doing life and living in the highs and lows of those in their community. Two such people that the Leis have poured into over a number of years are Mr. Fujimoto* and Ms. Jinnouchi*.

The Leis originally met Mr. Fujimoto when he was a young man, and he would come to their house to participate in student activities and occasional Sunday fellowship meetings. In 2007, Mr. Fujimoto was hit by a truck — he barely survived and was paralyzed from the waist down. After the accident, the Leis continued to meet with Mr. Fujimoto, especially as he struggled with why God would allow something like this to happen to him.

Several years later, he started coming to church and decided to place this trust in Jesus. Still to this day, Mr. Fujimoto has had a difficult time reconciling his suffering, but Marc has met him in those spaces, sharing stories of his own hardships over the years.

“It was so important to him that I shared my own struggles and doubts, but also the promises that Jesus gives us that nothing can snatch us out of His hands and that nothing can separate us from the love of God,” Marc says. “It’s times like this that small group or one-on-one time is so important!”

Similarly, the Leis have been actively pouring into their Japanese neighbor, Ms. Jinnouchi, in the midst of a difficult season. Four years ago, Ms. Jinnouchi asked Marc to tutor her in English. At first, Marc was reluctant, but he felt the Spirit urging him to make time, and they’ve met weekly since then. The Leis have tried to introduce Ms. Jinnouchi to Jesus over the years, inviting her to church events and having her read parts of a children’s picture Bible in English and Japanese as part of her lessons.

This past year, Ms. Jinnouchi discovered that she had Stage Three breast cancer. Immediately, Marc and Yumiko went to her house and asked to pray over her. “As I did, she started crying,” Marc remembers. “No one had ever prayed for her in her life!”

In the midst of her cancer treatment, Marc felt led to share The Bridge to Life Illustration with her. For Ms. Jinnouchi, this was the first time she had ever heard the gospel — that God wants a relationship with her and died for her sins. Though Ms. Jinnouchi desires to believe in God’s purpose for her life, she still isn’t quite ready to give her life to Christ, but the Leis continue to patiently walk with her in Life-to-life^® community as she navigates the road ahead.

Sharing the Gospel Through “The Chosen”

Another way that the Leis have creatively started faith conversations is through watching “The Chosen” TV show with university students and members of their community. Marc works as an English teacher at Tokoha (Buddhist) University and Shizuoka Ken Dai University, and he’s been inviting his 65 students to local churches to watch the show throughout each semester.

“I want to use ‘The Chosen,’ large outreach events like 4th of July and Christmas, and events in our home to draw students into relationship with us and with Jesus,” Marc says. “Our prayer is that their interest would be stirred up and they would want to take a further step to get to know Him.”

Through the screenings, students have been exposed to who Jesus is — many for the first time. After the show is done, Marc will open up questions about faith and dive deeper into Jesus’s character, His Words in the Bible, and how the students can have a relationship with Him personally. For all of them, it is the first time they have ever read the Bible for themselves. 

One night, after watching an episode where Jesus asked Niccodemus to “follow him,” most of the students said that if Jesus asked them directly, they would follow Him too!

Long-lasting Transformation

Marc and Yumiko’s ministry is in the midst of an exciting and fruitful time, and these stories are just a few of the many life-changing relationships they’ve built over their decades-long work in Japan. The Leis are an example of the perseverance of discipleship — that through the daily building of trust and connection in their community, lives are being transformed for the gospel.

“Our focus is to love and serve them in Jesus’ name, helping them find out more about Him if they want to know more,” Marc says. “The results are up to Him, and this way takes more time than other methods of evangelism. But, when they choose for themselves, the results are long-lasting.”

Please join us in praying over Marc and Yumiko’s ministry, for God’s presence in the lives of Mr. Fujimoto, Ms. Jinnouchi, and their student community, as they continue to faithfully work towards the fulfillment of God’s promises in Japan.

*Names have been changed for privacy.

Discipleship Tip:

Marc and Yumiko have found creative ways to share the gospel in their community, such as watching “The Chosen” TV show as a way to open up conversations and questions. Think of unique ways that you could gather people in your community in order to share Jesus.

In Thailand, 95 percent of the population are Buddhist, 4 percent are Muslim, and the remaining 1 percent are Christian. Although missionaries have journeyed in and out of Thailand for over 400 years, the country remains largely unchanged, and most Thai people have no personal connection to a Christ follower.

With the goal to reach the unreached, Jessica and Peter’s aim is to form relationships with mainstream Thai Buddhists — your average, everyday type of person. “Our focus is: How do we get into people’s lives to share the gospel?” Peter says. “Instead of trying to get people into a church, how can we go to people in a ministry among, versus a ministry to?”

As Americans living in Thailand, Peter and Jessica have made it a priority of their ministry to engage deeply with Thai culture and communities as they work toward making disciples. Whether through learning how to cook Thai foods or participating in various groups and activities, Peter and Jessica have become a part of the fabric of their local community, forming close relationships with Thai families.

Malai’s story

One relationship that Peter and Jessica have formed is with a committed Buddhist named Malai*. Over the years, they have seen the Lord work in miraculous ways in Malai’s life.

Malai began working for Jessica and Peter as a house helper seven years ago, and she quickly formed a close, trusting relationship with their family. Jessica explains that they have been observers and guides in a relationship where God has started to clearly lead Malai.

“Jesus is encountering her in her own culture and context — and is offering her life,” she says. “As we’ve continued on in our relationship with Malai, she’s had dreams — a dream of a Middle Eastern man in white: white beard, white robe. She had a dream where this man offered to feed her. This man told her, ‘Feed me. I’m hungry.’ I thought of Revelation 3:20, and so I was able to share that with her.”

Recently, Malai’s niece, Nin*, needed help with the expenses of secondary education. Peter and Jessica told Malai that they would keep praying and trust that God would take care of her niece. Soon after, Malai had another dream. This time, Malai was at the temple and a man dressed in white — whom Malai said was Jesus — was riding in a horse-drawn chariot. Malai was there with Nin, and Nin bowed down on the floor. When Jesus came to her, He stopped the parade, picked Nin up and brought her into His arms. He told Malai that He was going to take care of her. “Malai woke from the dream with a confidence that God Himself was somehow going to take care of Nin,” said Jessica.

The next day, Malai was informed that Nin had received the scholarship to pay for her education.

Another time, Malai had a dream of Jesus where He encouraged her to share her faith discoveries with her estranged sister, Lin*. Though Lin initially refused, Malai relentlessly pursued her, and now they have made the first steps towards reconciliation — even bringing God into their new relationship. Malai recounted that at one point in the conversation, she declared that “the old Malai is dead; a new Malai has been born!”

As Malai has continued in her spiritual journey, she’s started to read the Thai Bible more and has grown in her interest in Jesus, often asking questions about God to Jessica and Peter. She’s even started to share Bible stories and her dreams of Jesus with her family members.

“We look for opportunities to interject and to plant the seed or stoke the flame of what God might be doing in her life,” says Peter.

Ongoing work as missionaries in Thailand

Malai is just one of the many relationships that Jessica and Peter have formed as they’ve engrained themselves into their overseas ministry. Thai culture is intricate, and Jessica and Peter have walked carefully within the tight social circles of the Thai community. Often, their pioneering efforts are a day-to-day, step-by-step process as they foster relationships with one person at a time and work their way into communal networks.

“It’s easy to lose sight of the work God may be doing because it’s often underneath the surface,” says Jessica. “But then seemingly out of nowhere, Malai* will let us know that she has had another dream and it’s clearly Jesus. We are trying to walk alongside her as she journeys with Christ, filling in the gaps of understanding of what she is encountering. Her language continues to change, too, talking about God more and more often and even referring to God as the Creator God, a concept totally foreign to Thai Buddhism.”

While Jessica and Peter don’t always know what is going on behind the scenes in Malai’s heart and mind, what continues to excite them is that Malai is sharing her new discovery of Jesus in her familial and community circles.

Peter and Jessica are experiencing the work of the Lord up close — what it looks like to be part of God’s royal priesthood, ministering to and among His people (1 Peter 2:9).

“I think what’s driven our ministry is seeing ourselves as priests, and taking seriously that we are a part of the priesthood,” says Peter. “God has placed us in this season and time and in these relationships.”

*Names changed for privacy.

Discipleship Tip:

Peter and Jessica have worked hard to build deep relationships with those in Thailand, doing life with their Thai friends so that they can eventually reach their families and communities as well. Sometimes, focusing on discipling one person at a time can be the most effective method to create spiritual generations. Who is one person that you can do life with and intentionally pursue today?

Transcript Excerpt from the “Grief & Discipleship” Podcast Episode: 

Norman: When my son was three years old, he started spiking fevers and we didn’t know what was going on. We took him to the pediatrician in a small town in Alabama. We see God’s hand in this now because right away, this pediatrician suspected that our son might be dealing with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA), which is a fairly rare condition. It’s just rheumatoid arthritis, but it happens in children rather than the elderly.

Sure enough, she was spot on with her diagnosis. The thing about JRA is that it’s not curable, but treatable, like adult rheumatoid arthritis.

Of course as a young parent, you’re trying to wrap your mind around an unexpected diagnosis. It seemed like fevers and we thought, surely it’s just a virus. Instead, it turned into a little over three-year process of helping our three year old with extremely painful inflamed joints, where at times he couldn’t get out of bed. At three, you can’t understand what’s going on.

Both my late wife, Katie, and I would say that’s where our fake or floral picture of what the future looked like while walking with God got set aside. This was replaced with a much more realistic version of what it looked like to walk through life with God in a broken and fallen world. This was one of the most painful experiences we had ever been through. It’s hard to see a child suffer.

Years later, Katie lived with cancer. She was diagnosed with cancer in her mid 30s. It was breast cancer at an early stage—caught really early. We were hopeful with the diagnosis and the treatment she went through. However, she was one of the statistics where the cancer recurred and then had a third diagnosis where the cancer metastasized. That was seven years for us living with a lot of uncertainty about the future. Katie died from cancer after her third diagnosis.

Probably many people listening have experienced continuously praying for God to do something, and He says, “No.” You ask God, “What sense is there in the death of somebody who loves You, has stayed faithful to You, and has children at home?” This is a test of your willingness to keep trusting God even when you can’t figure out why He’s doing what He’s doing.

We always say experience is a good teacher—it’s not. Experience is not a good teacher; experience is not a teacher. You’ve never had an experience that has interpreted itself to you. Experience can’t teach you anything. You or the people around you are the ones who interpret the significance of the experiences you go through.

This is where God and the Word of God come in. It’s not like experiences of difficulty, pain, or suffering tell me anything. I’m telling myself what these things mean. Am I a trustworthy source to interpret the significance of these things? Or will I look to God and let Him tell me why all of these things are happening or at least tell me who He is in light of all that’s going on?

How To Disciple Someone Through Grief

Norman: Typical of the culture of the ancient Near East, as soon as Job’s friends found out about the devastation that Job had experienced, they showed up. They came to him and sat silently with him as he wept and mourned.

Then things kind of went bad when they started trying to explain to him why all of this terrible stuff had happened to him. I would say stick to doing the first part of what Job’s friends did for anyone who’s suffering.

Show up and continue to do so. For those who have lost a loved one, they tend to have a lot of people rally around them initially, but then very few stay with them over the months ahead, when there’s a lot of emptiness. Showing up to be with people is important.

What Spiritual Practices Help Someone Through Grief

Norman:

1. Spend extended time alone with God, especially in times of grief. When God is the last person you want to talk to, it’s probably a good idea to choose to go sit alone with Him. This way you have no other alternative except to talk to Him and perhaps listen to Him. It’s a very neglected discipline.

Being alone with God is one time you can say, “I am not trying to do anything; I’m trying to be God’s child. I’m trying to face Him, though I feel He’s hurt me or I’m angry with Him.”

There have been multiple times when I have resolved to spend extended time alone with God and I can’t. In those moments, I would say don’t beat yourself up. Try again next week. Trust that God is with you and He’s for you.

2. Memorize and meditate on Scripture — both individually and with a group. I started this by myself and then joined a few friends in memorizing through the book of Psalms. We take a psalm a month, and commit it to memory. When the psalm is long, we take a stanza and memorize that.

The practice of meditating deeply on Scripture has been really important for me.

3. Stay in community. When going through grief, I could easily isolate myself from people. It’s easier to not have to explain what I’m thinking, feeling, or how I’m doing because half the time I didn’t know. Resolving to stay in community, even when I didn’t want to be around people, was a discipline I needed.

Since my tendency is toward isolation, I needed to ensure that I was in community. There are some people whose tendency would be exactly the opposite. That group of people may need to make the opposite decision of drawing aside to be alone.

Knowing your tendencies and fostering and choosing habits accordingly will keep your mind and heart healthy.

After some conversation, John asked her, “What’s the name of your skin condition?”

“Neurofibromatosis. NF for short,” Angela said.  She then went on to explain how it affected her daily life.

“Would you like us to pray for you?” John asked.

Without hesitation, Angela said, “Yes,” and John led her over to take a seat at his Healing Corner stall set up in the market, a booth designed for healing prayer.

A Call for Prayer in East Asia

John became a Navigator in 1972, but it wasn’t until 1975 that he felt a calling for world missions. “The Lord gave me a promise: Isaiah 49:6,” John says. “‘I will also give you as a light to the Gentiles, that you should be my salvation to the ends of the earth.’ I began to take steps to figure out where that would take place, and how that would happen.”

After visiting East Asia in 1980, John felt a calling to serve the people there, and so he moved as a full-time resident two years later. Now, over 40 years have passed, and John continues to do faithful ministry in the region. 

John’s work has taken a number of roles over the years, from leading Bible study groups and mentoring church leaders to counseling others through deep emotional and relational healing. However, over the past several years, John has been introducing a new form of care to his ministry — healing prayer. 

John himself has experienced the power of the Lord’s healing, once when an injured rotator cuff in his shoulder was miraculously healed, and another time this year when a woman who was a new believer prayed over an inflamed tendon in his right bicep. “With my arm, after we prayed together, the pain was gone by the end of the day,” John says. “And it’s been gone since. It’s the example that Jesus is always ready to do something. Anytime, anywhere, with anyone.”

After the first time John experienced healing in 2015, he and several others began to offer healing prayer services before their church meetings. “We’ve tried to develop the expectation that all things are possible because Jesus is the same yesterday and today,” John explains. “He has no limits. If we invite His presence to be with us, then anything can happen.” In 2023 alone, he has seen people experience some degree of healing over 250 times. 

Prayers for Emotional and Mental Healing

The Healing Corner ministry began as an extension of the work John was already doing in churches. The market was sponsored by John’s wife who leads an outreach to prostitutes. Each stall was operated by Christian organizations that sought to sell inexpensive products to the residents of a low income area, and they provided a food stand that gave out free ice cream and desserts. 

John decided to set up the Healing Corner stall as part of the market, offering services of prayerful healing to those who were interested. During the market, John would ask people if they would like healing for various ailments and then would offer to pray for them. “It was also an opportunity to say, ‘This is what Jesus did for you,’” John says. “‘And He’d like to have a relationship with you.’ For some folks, it might take two or three of those experiences for them to get serious about wanting to know Jesus.”

When Angela sat down at the booth, John asked her about her background and condition. She had been adopted and endured abuse while growing up, but fortunately, she had become a believer and was in a fellowship group to support her healing journey. John and his wife prayed over Angela’s skin condition and internal healing, and at first, Angela didn’t experience any change.

“We chatted a bit longer, and then I said I wanted to bless her faith,” John says. “So we prayed again, speaking about her identity in Christ and her future in Him. When we finished, she opened her eyes and her face beamed with joy! God had touched her spirit and revived her hope for the future.”

Jesus’ Prayers for Healing

Angela was one of 15 people that and his wife prayed over for the two-day Healing Corner ministry. Nine of the people they prayed over experienced some degree of relief or improvement for their condition. 

One woman realized her joint pain was gone and she was eager to learn more about Jesus, taking a Gospel of John booklet home with her. Another woman, who had needed a cane to walk due to knee pain, found her pain totally gone after several prayers. She walked out of the market without using her cane, and later, she testified to others how Jesus had healed her.

“Every place Jesus went, He revealed God’s kingdom through a combination of verbal proclamation of God’s truth and visible demonstration of God’s power,” John explains. “Activities like the Healing Corner simply create an opportunity for Jesus to demonstrate His power in public places, giving an opening to proclaim the truth of who He is and what He loves to do for people.”

Praise God for the ways that Jesus revealed himself to these people through healing and prayer! You can join John in his ministry in East Asia by praying that he continues his focus on the Lord and that Jesus continues to work through his faith and prayer. 

“Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness.” Matthew 9:35 (NIV).

*Names changed

Discipleship Tip:  

Sometimes a person’s physical, emotional, or mental healing leads them to spiritual healing and a desire for a relationship with Jesus. Is there someone in your life who needs healing? Begin praying for their healing and watch for God’s movement in their life.

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.

Alex and Mary met Zoey* during their years in Asia. Now Zoey, along with her husband, Chaz*, live in the Seattle area. Alex and Mary have prayed for opportunities to deepen their relationship with this family.

The first opportunity came as Alex and Mary stayed with Chaz and Zoey’s older son while Zoey was giving birth to their second child. Their availability to serve provided a foundation of trust, particularly with Chaz, whom they had just met.

Then Mary started a Bible study with Zoey (who is a follower of Jesus) and another woman. Chaz was a follower of another religion but was supportive of Zoey’s Bible study.

Another opportunity to connect was for a family birthday party. The family had planned a large party with many friends in a park, but the weather forecast was unfavorable, so Alex and Mary opened their home. Afterward, Zoey shared that their friends had felt warmly welcomed. This was significant because some of these immigrants from Asia have felt barriers in their interactions with other Americans.

As Alex, Mary, their team, and ministry partners continued to pray—the relationship and trust grew. One day, Chaz asked Alex if they could read the Bible together. Of course, Alex said yes!

Very soon, Chaz shared that he had taken down the spiritual objects related to his former religion in his home. He has started following Jesus, and even told his family who still live in his home country about this significant step. Now Chaz wants to learn how to pray and know God better—this openness has given Alex the opportunity to disciple him and build a solid faith foundation.

*Names changed.

Discipleship Tip:

Think about someone who has yet to have a relationship with Jesus. Create a reminder on your phone, wear something on your wrist, or put their initials in a place you look every day as a reminder to pray for their salvation.