{"id":267675,"date":"2025-09-29T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/?p=267675"},"modified":"2025-11-04T08:35:39","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T15:35:39","slug":"50-years-of-reaching-teens-in-dc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/blog\/50-years-of-reaching-teens-in-dc\/","title":{"rendered":"50 Years of Reaching Teens in D.C."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Eleven years ago, Don and DeAnn Fraser<\/a> packed up their home in Peoria, Illinois and moved their family to the Washington, D.C. metro area to lead a Navigators Next Generation (Next Gen)<\/a> high school ministry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Next Gen celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, it\u2019s incredible to look back on how God has multiplied spiritual generations through this ministry\u2019s mission to encourage and facilitate Life-to-Life\u00ae<\/sup> discipleship<\/a> among teenagers.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"A
Jr. Sr. Banquet at a Navigators Next Generation gathering in D.C.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The Next Gen Legacy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Next Gen began in 1974 with Dick and Marti Stum<\/a>. For 20 years, Dick worked as a high school math instructor, eventually joining Navigator staff full-time as God continued to bless and grow their ministry. Dick still actively invests in young men, but now serves with Navigators Encore<\/a>, having passed leadership of Next Gen to Don and DeAnn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGod shows up when we give ourselves to kids,\u201d Don says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Faithfulness and joy is incredibly evident in the Frasers\u2019 ministry to youth. Over the years, there has been a healthy flow of students who go from Next Gen to The Navigators Collegiate<\/a> ministry, and from Collegiate back to Next Gen and other ministries as Next Gen alumni grow up and decide to come back as volunteers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A young woman named Kayla<\/a> is an example of this. Kayla\u2019s faith journey began at The University of Maryland. She was later discipled by DeAnn while volunteering with Next Gen, before and during veterinary school. Today, Kayla serves with The Navigators in Vermont.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like Kayla, there are Next Gen alumni who are serving as professionals, pastors, and in missions all over the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God is using Don and DeAnn\u2019s unique gifts and passions to grow His Kingdom in other contexts, as well. Don is gifted with good technology skills and has served the D.C. metro team in many important operations. For example, he started YouthNet, a Navigator youth network that provides resources and connections for youth ministry friends across the country<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similarly, DeAnn leads an important SHAW (Sexual Health and Wholeness) ministry called \u201cChosen Again\u201d that serves and supports wives whose husbands are in recovery from sexual addictions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don and DeAnn are also faithfully making disciples where they live. Through the Frasers\u2019 intentional disciplemaking, their neighbors are beginning to pursue faith. One of their neighbors has been reading the Bible with DeAnn for the past year and often takes her kids to church with the Frasers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This neighbor\u2019s husband \u2014 a six-foot-nine-inch former international basketball professional \u2014 has started to join his family\u2019s church attendance. On one recent trip, he was receptive to Don sharing the gospel. Now, he and Don are reading through the Gospel of Mark and regularly attending a men\u2019s breakfast and Bible study group together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Impact That Expands Across Generations<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As The Navigators celebrate 50 years of Navigators youth ministry in the D.C. area, we celebrate and thank God for the Stums, the Frasers, and many others who have teamed together to disciple high school youth over the years. The impact of their work extends beyond youth to college campuses, those in our broader community, and to the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Discipleship Tip:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Don and DeAnn Fraser began discipling youth through simple, consistent Life-to-Life\u00ae<\/sup> relationships. Consider how you can embrace the next generation of young believers \u2014 reading Scripture together, listening well, and pointing them to Jesus. Even small moments can spark lifelong faith.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
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7 Tips for Discipling the Next Generation: Lessons from Apostle Paul<\/h3>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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What does it look like to invest in the next generation? The apostle Paul invested his life into Timothy. If we want to see disciples who are able to pass on what they\u2019ve learned to future generations, we need to follow in Paul\u2019s footsteps. Check out seven tips on how to disciple those younger than you in our resource, \u201c7 Tips for Discipling the Next Generation: Lessons from Apostle Paul.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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LEARN MORE<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Don and DeAnn Fraser share how Navigators Next Generation high school ministry impacts the Washington, D.C. community, continuing this ministry\u2019s 50-year legacy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":267658,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_helpful_pro_status":1,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,6337],"tags":[1483],"mission":[63],"topic":[44],"class_list":["post-267675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-disciplemaking","category-ministry-impact-stories","tag-disciple","mission-navigators-neighbors","topic-discipleship"],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/093025-Article-Web.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"The Navigators","author_link":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/staff\/thenavigators\/"},"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267675"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267675\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":267685,"href":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267675\/revisions\/267685"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267675"},{"taxonomy":"mission","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/mission?post=267675"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.navigators.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=267675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}