happenings@navsing Connect Conference
Our Global Campuses, Our Mission Field
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n a Navigator Congress more than 30 years ago, I made a stand and said, “Lord, here’s my life. Make it count.” When I stood that day, I had no regrets giving my all to Jesus. My life has never been the same. I’m giving you the same invitation to connect with God.” Covenant Evangelical Free Church (CEFC) Senior Pastor Rev Edmund Chan encouraged some 450 students and leaders from different universities and polytechnics in Singapore who attended the Connect Conference: Our Global Campuses, Our Mission Field last September 21-22. Almost all participants stood, filled the stage, and knelt down in response to the altar call, declaring their submission to God.
Jointly organised by The Navigators, Singapore and Campus Crusade for Christ, the conference is hoped and prayed for to be a catalyst for a movement to reach our global campuses for Christ in an intentional and concerted way.
According to the Singapore Economic Development Board (SEDB) website, “EDB will reinforce Singapore’s reputation as a global schoolhouse.” The aim is to have 150,000 foreign students in Singapore by 2012. Other speakers for the two-day conference were Rev Wee Boon Hup, President, Trinity Annual Conference, Methodist Church of Singapore and Jason Mandryk, WEC, co-author of Operation World, who shared about the “exciting” advance of the gospel around the world. “When we speak of missions, we think of it geographically. It is true, but inadequate. Missions are kingdom people engaging with kingdom agenda in the very place where God has placed them. For most of us, it is right there in the marketplace. For you, right now in your station in life, it is right there in your campuses,” said Rev Chan. Other highlights of the conference include workshops and follow-up training by churches and campus organisations. Follow-up events and seminars will take place in smaller scale. The next Connect Conference will be held in 2009. – ALC v
Singapore Polytechnic Navigators alumni gathering
News Flash
The gathering organised by a few Singapore Polytechnic Navigator alumni was pulled together all within a month after they bumped into each other at the wake of a fellow alumnus who had passed away suddenly of a heart attack. There was a good mix of those from the 70s, 80s, and 90s. The fellowship on Saturday, October 21, 2007 was warm, spontaneous, and encouraging. Their testimonies will be featured in the next issue of the NavNews. – AK v
My friends noticed the change by Xiao Lei, Ngee Ann Polytechnic (NP) Navigators
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come from East Asia. After I finished my high school in 2001, I came to Singapore to work. I dreamed of success. I was disappointed when I did not get a chance to be promoted after three years of hard work. At that time, I was a part time student at NP. One day while having dinner at the school canteen, two guys from the Navigators approached me. One of them shared his Christian belief. I liked what he said so I agreed to meet him again. For about two semesters, he would come to the campus from his work once a week to spend about half an hour or more to read the Bible with me. Gradually I understood the gospel and knew I should accept Jesus as my Saviour, but I hesitated. I spent another year reading the Bible with him. I also joined their fellowships, sports activities, dinner at the ministry leader’s home, and camps. At that time I still couldn’t make a decision. Yet strangely, I was being changed. I was becoming less and less worried and selfish. My friends noticed the change in my life. One day I was at one of the NP Navigator fellowships when God spoke to my heart strongly and encouraged me to trust in him. I surrendered to him finally and accepted Jesus as my Lord. Xue Yang Kui, the NP Navigator labourer who had helped me spiritually over the years from the day we met helped me to accept Jesus as my personal Saviour and Lord. After my decision, I experienced unusual peace in my heart. This peace in Christ continues to strengthen me. v
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ang Kui came to know Christ through the National University of Singapore Navigators when he came to Singapore from East Asia to attend university. After graduating, he started to serve in the NP Navigator ministry. He is currently working at Life Science laboratory as an assistant research officer. He led Xiao Lei to Christ. Besides following up on Xiao Lei, Yang Kui currently helps many other NP students. v
Photo “Silence” by Cheryl Empey, www.sxc.hu
For all who came alongside... The impact of Navigator labourers in my life
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he NavTeens ministry camp I attended during my secondary school days was my turning point. It made a big impression on me how the labourers loved and served us. Over the years, I saw time and again the many personal sacrifices they made for teens like me. Through them, I’ve come to know deeply how much God loves me and how much he has done for me! His love draws me to know him more and compels me to help others know him. I want to invest my life in people the way that others invested their lives in me.– Choo Ting Ling, The NavTeens
Our partners in the gospel of Jesus Christ I
’m from Indonesia. I was thirsty for the Lord, but at that time, I wasn’t so sure how to really seek him and wasn’t even sure what it means to be a Christian. When I joined the NUS Navigators, my leader helped clear out my doubts and helped me to really know God for who he is and learn to do more quiet time and worship. Going to the NUS Navigators was my first step in my journey to knowing God. – Felicia Lie, National University of Singapore Navigators
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ith the Navigators, I found my 3 M’s – master, mission and mate. My family life wouldn’t be the same if not for some devotional values I had picked up through the discipleship training. – Mok Chok Sun, Alumnus
Thank you Photo “Morning Fog” by Dan Shirley, www.sxc.hu
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thank God for the people that came along my life to show me examples of disciplemaking. I thank God for people who are committed to disciplemaking by the choices they have made, by the lives they lived. – Lim Ming Hock, The NavTeens
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he impact (of the Navigators) is great because it’s eternal. Through them I came to know the Lord. Through their care and concern and nurturing I learned to grow and walk with the Lord. Now it’s my desire also to go and share the gospel with others especially my students so that they, too, will come to know the Lord and become disciplemakers themselves. – Tan Seck Heong, The NavTeens
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od has used the Navigators to change my life. I used to be a “Sunday Christian”. Through the Navigators I have learned what it means to have a relationship with God, what it means to be a disciple of Christ, and also how to disciple others. That gives a lot of meaning in my life – to see other people turn to Christ and also make disciples. – Jeremy Toh, National University of Singapore Navigators
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first met the Navigators when I was a young mother. Over the years, they have helped me in many ways. They taught me how to have a meaningful devotional life, wonderful values, Scripture memory, Bible study, and help in marriage and other areas of life. But probably the most important thing has been the love that I have experienced from these people who were really interested in me and my life and who cared about me and what I could become for God. – Maureen Goulstone, New Zealand Navigators
disciplemaking TOOLbox
Connect Conference 2007
It’s no use for you to win the battle today but lose the war tomorrow. No use to live as a good Christian disciple and as a student today, but lose a sense of direction when you get out to the marketplace due to its overwhelming demands and structure of life…
Engaging the marketplace
by Rev Edmund Chan, Covenant Evangelical Free Church
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he time is now on the campuses. Don’t squander it away. Give your time to diligent, disciplined study. God is calling you to make a difference in your campus, so that by the time you graduate and you enter the marketplace, you have the resources of a disciplined life. God is giving you a great future. Know Jesus. Abide in him. Be grounded in his word. That is your call. In the New Testament, of Jesus’ 132 public appearances, 122 were in the marketplace. Of 52 parables Jesus told, 45 had a workplace context. Of 40 divine interventions recorded in Acts, 39 were in the marketplace. If we’re not engaging the marketplace with the kingdom’s gospel, we are missing the opportunities God gives. Distinguish yourself. Daniel was in one of the most pagan environments in the known world and yet in that environment where the Lord put him, he distinguished himself (Daniel 6:1-3). How was that possible? He lived connected to God. He understood the teachings given to him and applied them where God had put him.
This is an opportunity for you now to develop. Tackle these areas in order to distinguish yourselves in the marketplace. 1. Work competence. Whatever faculty you are in right now, study the best you can because your work depends upon the quality of your study. If you don’t study hard now, it will be difficult to distinguish yourself in the marketplace because you won’t have the competence for it. 2. Conflict in values. The world tells us be the best and shout the loudest. God says walk in integrity. 3. Conflict in relationships. The marketplace has been called a “dog-eat-dog” world. Unless we know the kingdom of God and the love of the kingdom in our hearts, it will be difficult to survive in this world. God calls us to bring and usher in the kingdom of God and its redemptive purposes right in the workplace. 4. Time. Don’t miss the very purposes of God. Busyness is the number one killer of the spiritual life. One of the crises in Christianity today is the crisis of spirituality in an age of busyness. As student, this time is a great opportunity for you to learn how to cope with the busyness of life. Manage your time well. v This challenge to students was delivered at the Connect Conference on September 21 jointly organised by Campus Crusade for Christ and The Navigators, Singapore.
Kingdom
by Thomas Chua, National Director
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ne day a man I was talking to confessed how he was filling the emptiness in his life with all kinds of hobbies. Life loses its meaning when we are not living out God’s purposes for us. The reverse is also true: that we can be so involved in the kingdom of God, in the King’s business that we forget the King. What drew me to the Navigators some 40 years ago was the fact that they were people who knew God. They knew the Word, they knew God; and I wanted to know God. So I came around. Together with knowing God, I was also so enthused with the vision and passion of the ministry. I became so involved with the kingdom that in a sense I forgot the King. Not that I forgot God, but I minored on the King and majored on the kingdom. There are no guarantees that if I major on the kingdom that I will major on the King. God has been reminding me of old passages like Psalm 27:4, Jeremiah 9:23-24, Philippians 3:10 and Revelations 2:4. I know that when I major on the King, I will be inevitably be involved in the kingdom. I am thankful and praise God for all who co-labour with us in the kingdom, some of whom we have featured in this issue of the NavNews. As we are involved with his kingdom, let us major on knowing, loving and becoming like Christ. v
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Question
Ponder
How are you releasing yourself for the marketplace ministry either now or for the future?
Write to us if you have a comment or story angel@navigators.org.sg
asia and beyond by Jim Chew, Asia Missions Director
The growth of the Navigator work beyond Singapore
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e are called to advance the gospel of Jesus and his kingdom into the nations. Singapore is very strategic and has a lot of potential as we think about living out what we are called to do. Within a radius of 5,000 kilometres from Singapore or about seven hours by plane we have more than half the population of the world. Facts: • The Asia region has 23 countries, 3.5 billion people, with 750 unreached people groups • 20 countries are located in the 10/40 window (the latitude between 10 and 40 degrees north of the Equator where we have the majority of the world’s unreached with the greatest mission challenges) • Asia has 867 million Hindus, 670 million Muslims, 770 million Buddhists, Shintoists, Confucianists • Every year, Asia’s population increases by 43 million
Asia holds large contrasting situations from the high-tech sophistication of our island nation on one hand to the rural villages. The economic gap between the rich and the poor is still widening as it is globally (1.1 billion people earn less than SG$1.50 a day). This challenges us to holistic ministries with missionaries qualified professionally to contribute to the material and social conditions around them, as well as spiritual needs of people. Jesus came to proclaim good news to the poor and to the broken in our world. The Navigators in Asia have a work today in 18 Asian countries with 900 staff, almost 800 of whom are Asians from 14 nationalities (largest are Koreans, Indonesians, Filipinos, and Singaporeans). Our motivation is to see the gospel penetrate the mainstreams of Asia’s 3.5 billion people. East Asia and India are Asia’s most populated countries – both having more than 1 billion people. Our work in India especially among Hindus has been growing and so has our work in East Asia. v
Seeing our dreams fulfilled
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n the middle 1960s, I stood with Lorne Sanny, then the president of The Navigators, on a hill in Kuala Lumpur, and prayed that God would raise up key labourers from the universities in Malaysia who will influence nations. One student God touched was Jerry* who gave his life to Christ. Over the years, he has seen practically every member of his extended family trust Christ. Jerry married Sandra*. He then went to East Asia as an engineer with a multinational company. In the past 20 years, this couple has influenced and discipled literally hundreds for Christ – students, cab drivers, graduates, professionals, and business people. Sandra has discipled a good number of beauticians and maids. We envisage the flow of the gospel among these believers that will multiply among their relational networks. We are seeing our dream fulfilled of seeing “labourers being next door to everywhere”. We see each disciple and labourer influencing their relational network of friends, relatives, and neighbors – impacting the mainstreams of Asia with the good news. v * Names have been changed
www.navigators.org.sg The calling of The Navigators is to advance the gospel of Jesus and his kingdom into the nations through spiritual generations of labourers living and discipling among the lost. Views expressed in published articles are those of the individual writers and may not necessarily be the views of The Navigators Singapore. THE NAVIGATORS SINGAPORE • National Director: Thomas Chua • Editor / Design & Layout: Angeline Koh • Writer: Aurelia L. Castro 117 Lorong K, Telok Kurau, Singapore 425758 • Tel: (65) 6344 4133 • Fax: (65) 6344 0975 • E-mail: admin@navigators.org.sg Printed by Seng Lee Press Pte Ltd