What does it look like to take a leap of faith when you are in the lowest of lows — to be in a place of desperation and feel the Lord calling for your next move to be something … radical? Trusting the Lord with the unexpected can sometimes look like taking a large, uncertain step forward — moving across the world, changing careers, starting a new ministry — and seeing the Lord glorified through it.
For Navigator Mike Jordahl, however, this looked like getting a van.
30 years ago, The Navigators college student ministry was in a tough spot. Staff members were discouraged and having a hard time seeing how God was moving through them, and many were leaving the ministry altogether. As the campus ministries continued to dwindle and become more desperate, the collegiate team knew they needed to do something drastic to recapture energy and momentum on college campuses.
At this time, Mike was leading The Navigators ministry at the University of Kansas. One day, he was sitting in a little office in Lawrence, Kansas, praying for a path forward to help the college ministry. Suddenly, he knew exactly what to do. “I got this idea,” he remembers. “We should get a van.”
The idea was that the van — affectionately named the Nav Van — would drive around for a semester and visit every campus with a Navigator presence. At each campus, the team would host a pizza party for non-believing friends, where someone would share the gospel and the story of how Jesus came to rescue them. They would also gather all the student leaders and staff to pray for them and with them for the campus. As the van journeyed across the country, staff and students would have the opportunity to hop in for a time to go share Christ with the next campus, trusting the Lord to find their way back home when they got off.
“The question we would ask was, God did great things through the student campuses of the past,” Mike says. “Will He do great things and use us today?”
By August of that upcoming school year, the van was rolling.
The Nav Van Journey that Changed Students’ Lives
Starting at the University of Kansas, the van traveled across the country — visiting over 70 campuses in four months. Every day looked different. Those in the van would sleep wherever they could — dorm rooms, host homes — and new staff and students hopped on and off for each leg of the trip. As the journey progressed, Mike was amazed to see how the Lord was using the van to respark the heart of collegiate ministry — for both students and staff alike.
“Different staff and students took turns standing up to talk about Jesus and preach the gospel,” Mike recalls. “And it was amazing! We saw students come to Christ all over the place. We saw student leaders deciding they wanted to pray and trust God to use them. God was at work, restoring this vision and passion to reach students, disciple them for Christ, and send them to the nations.”
For Roger Hamilton, a Navigator who at the time led student ministry in Madison, Wisconsin, the Nav Van came at the perfect time. His family was going through a difficult period, and he was struggling to find capacity with his ministry.
When the Nav Van stopped on his campus, Navigator Mike Mangerchine was on the van and was sharing the gospel when he met a student named John*. Mike learned that John was looking to grow in his faith, and he connected him to Roger, who ended up discipling John for the remainder of his college experience. “He was a great, young, eager, teachable guy,” Roger says. When John graduated, he and Roger parted ways.
Years later, Roger discovered that John had become a pastor after a friend visited his church. Roger reconnected with John and learned, even after all this time, John was still using the Navigators resources that Roger taught him in college.
Roger and John’s story is just one of the many that emerged throughout the van’s journey. “There were all these people who came to faith,” Mike Jordahl says. “Roger is not the only one who has a friend who says, ‘I met Jesus on that night, and now, I’m following Him more.’”
Lighting the Fuse for a Transformed Ministry
Not only did the Nav Van impact the lives of students, but it lit the fuse for a shift in the attitude of The Navigators collegiate ministry, transforming discouragement into revival.
At the end of the van’s trek from campus to campus, The Navigators held a conference called the “Nav Vanalanche,” where they invited students and staff to celebrate what had occurred over the past few months. Over a hundred students joined, and on the last night of the conference, a new opportunity was announced: the very first EDGE Corps, a program that is now thriving as part of the collegiate ministry today.
“The idea was, we needed young people to join our staff, and we needed to create an easy opportunity for them to get involved,” Mike Jordahl says. “Doug Nuenke and others held a meeting for those interested, and several of the students who attended joined us for the first two years of EDGE Corps, and are still passionate Navigators to this day.”
However, what was perhaps the longest lasting impact of the Nav Van was the impact it had on the staff who were previously weary and downtrodden. By visiting campuses and hosting events centered on prayer and needs, trust and cooperation was built, and through that, a transformed hope and vision for the future.
“They needed someone to encourage them, someone to say, ‘I see God at work in you,’” Mike says. “Through the Nav Van and beyond that, it came into focus that we should catch Navigator staff doing something well and tell them we believe in them. And then ask them to bring the best of who they are to what we have.”
So, after 30 years, what is the lesson that the Nav Van has taught us? That not only can God use each generation in new and exciting ways, but also that we can take chances and perhaps do the unthinkable ourselves. That the next time someone has a crazy idea, the Lord might just work in incredible ways.
“It’s desperation combined with the idea of doing something crazy, stepping out in faith and trusting God,” Roger says. “It’s the kind of stuff you see in the book of Acts, trusting the leading of the Holy Spirit to take us to places and do things we wouldn’t ordinarily do — and then, to hold on for dear life.”
Discipleship Tip:
The Nav Van all started with one crazy idea that the Lord used for His glory. Have you ever had a prompting from the Lord that felt too far-fetched or unattainable? Lean in. Trust that the Lord can work through you in powerful ways, even beyond what you could ever expect or imagine.
Psalms to Counteract Fear and Stress
The Nav Van was born out of a time of desperation and hopelessness. Fortunately, the Lord meets us in our anxieties and offers us comfort and guidance. Are you feeling troubled? Check out The Navigators resource, “Psalms to Counteract Fear and Stress,” to see what Scripture has to say about going through uncertain seasons.
This is an awesome testimony!