Classes Resume at OSU in 2016

We are off and running with year two as the Oregon State Navigators!  Classes started yesterday, and our small team of leaders have been hard at work meeting incoming freshmen.

OSU NAV Staff and Student Leaders preparing for Fall Kickoff

We are reminded of God's faithfulness to us when we think of how so many of you joined us in prayer and support last year at this time.  Thank you for partnering with you to see students Know Christ and Make Him Known at OSU, across the Pacific Northwest, and to the ends of the earth.

Students in the Karaoke room at Bowling Bonanza 2016 

Please pray with us for our first ever Nav Night tonight at 8 PM (10 PM Central!).  We will be worshiping God, teaching the 3 Effects of God's Word from Isaiah 55, and inviting students to Join us in studying the book of Romans this fall.

Thank you for praying.  We are grateful for you!

Kyle and Katie Nelson

Volleyball and Ice Cream with some new friends!

Nav Nigh#1 at OSU.  Great night of worship in the park

An exciting and challenging Spring

It is so much fun to think that we have now been at Oregon State for almost a full school year.  As the rain is letting up, I'd like to share with you two exciting developments and one challenge from our first year at OSU.

Katie on Campus:
As many of you know, our ministry at OSU is in a much different stage than the UNI Navigators were.  When we arrived this fall, we had a small staff team with us and zero students.  This has provided us the chance to step back, reflect on 10 year of campus ministry, and seek God on his direction for this new phase in the Pacific Northwest.
On Wednesday afternoons, Katie has been leaving me with the kids, and going onto campus with Emily, our only staff woman.  Katie and Emily have been meeting OSU women, collecting spiritual interest surveys, and sharing the good news of the Gospel.  With 4 small kids at home, this is the first time in a while that Katie has had the freedom to be on campus, personally initiating with college girls.

One of Katie's favorite meetings has been with Kinzie:
"We met Kinzie earlier this year when we were discussing our spiritual interest survey with one of her friends.  When she heard we were discussing faith, she jumped into the conversation.  We discussed what she believed about God, and what she thinks it looks like to have a relationship with Him.  We exchanged phone numbers, and Emily has now been having coffee with Kinzie every week, and looking into the Bible together."

Katie and I are so grateful for this opportunity to step into a very young ministry, re-learn some of the lessons that come from praying for students, initiating with new people, and trusting God to use our lives to point people to Jesus!

Define OSU NAVS Culture- Fall 2015

A couple years ago I came across a book called Leading from the Sandbox.  I picked up a model for helping teams develop clarity about the vision of their organization.  The idea is to provide four borders that define the activities that fit within your organization.  The hope is that, like a sandbox, these parameters provide boundaries to "play" within, while allowing members enough freedom to be creative, as long as they stay within the boundaries of the group.  The four boundaries are Mission, Central Ministry Focus, Preferred Culture, and Guiding Principles.

One of our Goals for Fall, 2015, was to define OSU NAVS culture.  Here's what we have prayerfully come up with using this model.

Mission: To Advance the Gospel of Jesus and His Kingdom into the Nations
Central Ministry Focus: Spiritual Generations of Laborers
Guiding Principles:

• Value of God's Word- 2 Timothy 3:16
•  Personal Relationship with Jesus- Matthew 4:19
• Personal Responsibility for the Great Commission- Matthew 28:19-20
• Value of the Individual- John 4:1-26
• Power of Spiritual Multiplication- John 17:20-21

Culture

• Fun/Welcoming- Acts 2:46-47
• Grace/Truth- John 1:14
• Commitment/Accountability- Proverbs 27:17
• Faith/Risk Taking- Jeremiah 32:17
• Simplicity/Reproducibility- 2 Timothy 2:2

What we Do:  Living and Discipling among the Lost

Thank you for praying with us as we ask God to continue to sharpen this vision, and accomplish all he wants do through us at Oregon State.

Goals 2017 at Oregon State

In Matthew 9:37, Jesus said,

"The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.  Pray therefore that the Lord...would send laborers into the harvest."  

We'll be able to really measure success of the OSU NAVS in 20 years.  If these students are still walking with Jesus, and making disciples, then we will be really excited.  We are asking God to develop Lifetime Laborers.

With this in mind, we have prayerfully come up with some goals for the 2015-2016 school year with this 20 year vision in mind.

Fall 2015

• Define OSU NAV Culture (Check out post on 2/17)
• Launch 3-5 Healthy Bible Studies on Campus
• Identify 15-20 Potential future Leaders
• Branch one study into a student led study

Winter 201617

• Disciple 15-20 Students with a vision of Spiritual Multiplication. -2 Timothy 2:2
• Recruit 5-10 to our new summer training program at Snow Mountain Ranch in Colorado
• See 3-5 Students discipling one person intentionally
• Establish a Nav Night on Campus

Spring 2016

• Begin seeing students putting their faith in Jesus for the first time
• Branch half of our Bible Studies into new Bible Studies
• Each Staff person sees a 3rd generation in 1-1 discipleship
• Recruit 10-20 student leaders for next year

Please join us in thanking God for his work in the lives of students, and that he would graciously empower the OSU NAVS to develop and send out lifetime laborers. 

2015 at OSU

Jacob, Scott, Garrett and Emily arrived in Corvallis
in September in time to begin meeting students on
campus.  We spray painted two bikes Beaver colors
and collected a stack of spiritual interest surveys.  We had a
great time meeting students and recruiting to our first
OSU NAVS Bible Study.

Throughout our first term on campus many students, mostly
freshmen, tried out our Bible Study on the book of John
in Cauthorn Hall on campus.  By Christmas break we began
to make plans to launch two new studies for the second term!

Every chance we get, we have
invited students into our home.
Following the model in
1 Thessalonians 2:8, we have
had the joy of sharing the Gospel
and our lives with OSU Students!

2 Carloads of students took a trip to Bend, OR with us for some
snowshoeing.  We got to seek God together on where the NAVS
at OSU are heading and what it would look like to be more
involved.