Nothing was going right in a wonderful way!

Nothing was going right! We had identified our next trip as somewhat urgent. Our mission was to continue our contact with our friends in Cuba and continue to explore what it might look like for us to work together. No small challenge in the constantly changing and turbulent social and spiritual landscape!

We recruited significant prayer from wherever we could. I tried out something new too. With each personal request for prayer, if people said yes, then I asked if they could pray for me right then and there for 15 seconds. It was wonderful! Nobody held themselves to 15 seconds! And as they prayed I felt the kind pleasure and confidence of God! Wonderful, yes, as I had become anxious and doubtful that I had heard Him right when we concluded we needed to go!

It was indeed a wonderful trip! Great personal and spiritual connections. We comprehended in an ever-deepening way the complexities our friends in Cuba work under. We sensed their rock-ribbed faith and engaged them in worship, intercession and spiritual warfare, all fused together with joy, respect and honour.

Laura and I returned with a deepened sense of His Leadership and look forward to how things will continue to unfold.

The Kingdom of God moves forward and it is thrilling to do our best to keep up!

To Cuba and Back

Folks, we’re back from Cuba and so glad we went!

 

We had 5 great days with Coba and Conchi and saw God do far more than we had hoped or even dreamed of.

 

This with the backdrop of so much uphill and challenge in getting this trip together, (we asked a number of you personally for specific prayer beforehand) it seems like a dream come true!

 

We longed that the following would happen:

1. Refreshing of our relationship with this fine couple
2. Confirming their abilities, interest and giftings for our Navigator Ministry
3. Deepening of our understanding of their life-reality
4. Strengthening their sense of emotional, ministry and financial support in a very demanding reality.

 

Our specific outcomes?

1. Much-deepened and confirmed working relationship
2. Strengthened capacities on their end of the equation
3. Increased intentions to move ahead in exploring our work together
4. The strong possibility of a conference on Servant Leadership on-site in mid-April

 

One specific prayer request for them: Pray that they would continue to live lives of honour, integrity and fruitfulness in the midst of a society that is currently very demanding financially, socially and practically!

 

We count it a privilege and honour to have been in their humble home and have them serve us in the way that they did!

 

So thanks for your prayers. If you are able to keep this before you and our Great God for the next two weeks that would be wonderful! One idea is to print this report and keep it in your Bible as a book mark to remind you pray when you have your  personal and individual Quiet Time with the Creator of the Universe!

 

Grateful for each one of you,

Irv, for Laura too.

 

Irving (Irv) Augustine

Missions Director

519-660-8300 x230

Fax 519-660-4922

Irva@navigators.ca   www.navigators.ca

 

 

Mailing Address: Box 27070, London ON N5X 3X5

Courier and physical address: 11 St Johns Dr. London ON N0M 1C0

 

 

 

Take the roads less travelled!

We have met for 6 out of 8 weeks now on our course on mission. We are talking about having bifocal vision: mission before me and mission around the globe. Great participation and engagement!

Acts 1:8 has been a surprisingly important verse for us!

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

We are empowered by the Spirit of God. A big part of mission is determining what God is up to in a particular situation and collaborating with what He has already initiated. Walking with the Spirit allows us to discern this and focus on the right thing.

As we do this we can minister effectively into our Jerusalem: our natural place of living, working and re-creating. Also included are our extended families, workplaces, places of play and our neighbourhoods.

Then we can move towards our Judea! Judeans could relate well to Jerusalemites and vice versa! They were similar in how they lived life, the foods they ate, the religious ceremonies they participated in and how they raised their kids. Missional, yes.

Once we have entered into missional connections with our Judean sisters and brothers, we are called to connect with our Samaritans. They live apart from you. Their values are different. They are looked down on by many of your friends. It's tough to understand the priorities they live by and what they give their time, money and attention to. They smell different, their religious customs are distinct and they are tough to stomach. Even their food is different! They even throw pork on their BBQs, if you can imagine!

Well-connected with Samaritans? Then go for the globe! You have travelled the essential roads leading you to effective cross-cultural mission! And I want to talk with you!

Incidental, Accidental, Manipulational and Frustrational are all Avoidable! By being Intentional and Generational!

Generations. I am thinking about generations almost constantly. I recently finished reading Genesis this morning. Generation after generation after generation are generated in Genesis. God is the great Generator!*

Some big lessons from reading Genesis. There is a lot of incidental, accidental, manipulational and frustrational generational reporting. But God ensures that all of His promises will come true whether we are willing to cooperate and collaborate together with Him or not!

One great example is Joseph. He has a couple of dreams as a young person. Unwisely, he chats up his dreams and what they might mean, and garners the ill-will of his brothers. Look at this from Genesis 37 and his first dream:

5 ¶  Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more.
6  He said to them, "Listen to this dream I had:
7  We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it."
8  His brothers said to him, "Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?" And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said.

And his second:

9  Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. "Listen," he said, "I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me."
10  When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, "What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?"
11  His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.

Joseph ends up sold as a slave, imprisoned for what seemed a life sentence for false attempted rape charges. He was wasting away in prison due to the poor memory of a butler, but eventually finds himself finally realizing the fulfilment of his dreams.

What's my point in all of this? We are called to mission. To exchange our lives for others! To realize the dream of spiritual (and many add physical) generations of labourers until Jesus comes again!

Do generations the right way! Make sure you mix in the key ingredients of:

• Humility
• Love
• Trust
• Obedience
• Generosity.

Focus on all of these and avoid imprisonment, well-tossing, slave trading (where you are the slave!) and the criticism, abuse and conflict with those you should be loving the best!

Irv.
Missions Director

* Yes, we are indeed expecting to become grandparents! How did you guess?? :)

Still At It After 43 Years!

43 years and still at it, still growing, still going and still advancing!!

They were amazed as they watched. Paul got up, went over to the Communist Party Students table, and engaged them in a conversation about the Gospel! Once their disbelief began to fade, their line of thought went something like,

"He must really believe in order to do this! We’re going to pay attention to what he has to say to us when he is finished with them!" And they did. All this started in 1972.

Matti and Marja (pronounced Ma-ree-ya) paid great attention to what Paul and Helen Lappala had to say. And have been making disciples ever since, and are still at it! 43 years later, 4 children, several grandchildren, two countries, numerous hours of Bible Study, and many mountains moved by prayer later.

Laura and I just returned from spending two weeks in Helsinki Finland with Matti and Marja Leisola to celebrate our 35th year of marriage together, as well as celebrate the seminal work Laura's parents carried out in establishing the Finnish Navigator Work 1970 to 1974

Matti and Marja had just believed in early 1972. They gave their lives to Christ and asked God to send someone to help them. He did! Paul and Helen met them at the Helsinki University of Technology (now Aalto www.aalto.fi) and began their discipling relationship. 

The Leisola’s have been living and discipling among the many people God has given them over the past 43 years. In Finland Matti obtained his doctorate and went on to lead his research team at the Swiss University of Technology from 1981 – 1988. In that context they led many to Christ, one couple being from Mexico who lived next door to Navigators in Mexico City!

They returned to Helsikini and worked in industry from 1991 to 1997 in his area of specialty of sugars, proteins and enzymes and effectively shared his faith there.

Matti then returned to the Helsinki University of Technology as a professor and finished his career there as Dean of Biochemical Technology and Engineering, now known as the School of Chemical Technology. And once again, he shared his faith, made disciples, and lived and discipled among the people in this context he knew so well.

Matti has become a world leader in the area of Intelligent Design, of clearly seeing how God has authored creation and the impossibility of evolution explaining and articulating the origin of living organisms, let alone the wonder and power of the Human Beings, created in the Image of God, designed to steward creation in such a way as to give glory to Him! (If you want to dig more on your own, check out this link:         ^{http://vixra.org/abs/1504.0130}

So, yes, 43 years later and here they are, still Advancing the Gospel of Jesus and His Kingdom, Into the Nations, through Spiritual Generations of Labourers, Living and Discipling Among All People!

We just finished up two days here in London at the National Office. Great meetings with two of our international leaders, Mike Shamy and Alan Ch'ng.

 

The subject was City Coaches, or, to use a term used by our international work, Mobile Alongsiders.

 

This is the fourth of four roles used to talk about opening up, developing and sustaining Navigator Ministries around the world. Pioneers, Insiders, Local Leaders, and Mobile Alongsiders.

 

Great Scriptures to study on this dynamic and powerful role are following:

• Acts 11:22 - 26
• Acts 15:36
• I Thessalonians 3:1 - 6
• Philippians 2:19 - 24
• Colossians 4:7,8
• Titus 1:5, 2:1 - 7, 3:12, 13

 

Digging in to these Scriptures allows us to come up with a delightful list of activities these Mobile Alongsiders engaged in! We easily came up with 10 functions that we saw Barnabas, Paul, Timothy, Titus, and Tychicus engaged in! Maybe you will come up with more.

 

What we concluded we want to see active between the Mobile Alongsider and those s/he visits are the following:

• The gift of being present and fully engaged with those you are visiting
• Listening for information, heart, meaning, purpose and direction.
• Careful questions that look for the Grace of God, Dedication, Focus, Faith and Resilience
• Genuine concern that will result in well-being, attention and needed adjustments and recognition
• Resources that will allow us to thrive and see generations of labourers living and Discipling Among the Lost!!

We seek to provide this for all of our overseas staff. We want to grow in our ability to do this! And we want to provide this for all of our in-country staff and our Navigator Family.


One great concept if we think about building the Kingdom of God is that of a buttress. It does not form the actual structure of the building. Rather it supports, stabilizes and ensures the structural integrity of the walls.




Pray for us as we seek to implement and grow this wonderful function and see the Kingdom of God move forward and thrive!

 

 

 

 

Well, Folks, I am in Santiago once again, but this time in Cuba! I booked my flight on the internet and didn´t realize that to go from Havana to Santiago and then to fly to Toronto I needed alot more than the one hour the system gave me. I was effectively taking an international flight that required I be there 3 hours ahead of time. Sigh. However that is not why I am writing.

You will hear more about this from me in future posts. However I wanted to give you insight into the quality of people I engaged during my time here. As I leave, Coba and Conchi are preparing for their weekend activity. And what an activity!

They have a Havana Wide Marriage Encounter with 18 churches participating. Their goal is to help them all, eacn and every one of them, with their marriage, glorify God, and impact their communities.

Not only that! They are also preparing these couples to be agents of God´s Blessing and inspiration into the churches where they attend and that they are representing by attending this seminar!

Wow!

All of this after looking after this Gringo for a week!

So, please pray for them! Ask God to bless their time!

And pray that I will be able to get back to Canada tomorrow!

Irv.

PS  Next post I will send you a couple of pictures I think you might enjoy!  I think they are a 1955 Chevy and a 1961! No charge to take the picture!

As we engage in world missions

We are thoughtful about our engagement in world missions. We desire clarity and seek to have insight intellectually, spiritually and be directed by the Holy Spirit himself.

There are many different postures we can adopt. Here are a few:

• The world is a mess and it is our job to clean it up
• We live in a superior society and it is our job to help others not so fortunate.
• I feel survivor guilt that I was not born poor, had little or no educational opportunities and must try to balance the equation
• We have more money, technology and expertise and must therefore help others.

As we look at our involvement in world mission, we seek to be thoughtful, balanced and strategic. Of course, we also allow the Spirit of God to lead us and direct us and make the contribution He has for us to make! Look at this verse from Isaiah 30:21:

Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, "This is the way; walk in it."

I had a profound conversation with two great colleagues earlier in the week. The following is what we came up with as we debriefed her recent trip to Asia and wondered about how to communicate the results of her trip and ministry.

We see three key areas of work and Kingdom Contribution:

1. A Professional as well as Practical Contribution – Through my profession I am able to make a unique contribution. This includes best practices from my training, knowledge from my education and work experience, and insights from working with my colleagues.

2. A Spiritual Contribution – In the context of working together with my hosts, I am free to speak the truth of the Gospel and increasingly of the application and implementation of faith in my own life and how that can spill into their lives. We all pray before, during and after our ministry trips and trust God to prepare the way for these conversations. Because this contribution happens in the context of conversation, the likelihood of spiritual insights and illumination is high!

3. A Personal Connection – Dawson Trotman, the founder of the Navigators, often said that the truth and impact of the Gospel goes from lip to ear and heart to heart. We esteem one another by seeing and knowing one another, by taking one another seriously. We then honour each other through the give and take of conversation and engagement of each other’s joys, pains and life issues, and the miracle of spiritual ministry is carried forward.

This is an awesome and somewhat overwhelming task, and we engage it because of our hope, faith and spiritual perspective that brings us into this ministry. Our work demands all that we have, and we have full confidence God will lead us and use us to accomplish his kingdom work.

2 Corinthians 5:14a For Christ’s love compels us