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But the people just saw us as hurting people.
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And so it changed everything in our lives, David.
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We just, the things that mattered didn't matter.
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Not even the navigators who cared about the navigators did.
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And then we had friends who gathered around us, both in church and from navigator contacts, a covenant group that we have, they just took over our lives and started to help us walk through this very, very difficult time.
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How does God take a tragedy and bring hope out of it?
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When tragedy strikes, and it will for most of us in one way or another, it seems like nothing else matters anymore.
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It is possible to respond with bitterness and hopelessness.
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Or respond with a desire to see God's hand at work.
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Hi, I'm David Dennis with the Kansas 20s Ministry with the Navigators.
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Thank you so much for listening to Making Disciples Naturally, where we believe that making disciples should be a natural part of every believer's walk.
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On this Third of Three podcast with Dr.
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Jerry White, International President of the Navigators Emeritus, we learn of a terrible tragedy in the life of Jerry and his wife, Mary, and how God was there walking with them during a very dark time.
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Let me take a little detour here.
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And you alluded to your son who passed away.
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And I'd like for you to tell that story because I think that would help people get to know you a little bit better, if you wouldn't mind just taking a few minutes to recount that and how God maybe worked in that situation.
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Yeah, well, nobody wants difficulties and suffering, but suffering comes to everybody in some way or another.
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My son was 30 years old, and he had finished college.
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He was looking to break into the communications industry.
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He had a radio program from midnight to four, but then drove a taxi just to put bread on the table.
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He was fairly newly married.
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And one night he uh was actually not on duty, he was at a friend's house, and he jumped in his car.
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He owned his own taxi, by the way.
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And um radio call came in, he said, I'll take it.
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Picked up a guy who had a purpose, we found this later, just whoever picked him up in the taxi, he was gonna kill and murdered him in cold blood.
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Didn't rob him, didn't do anything, shot him in the back of the head, and um just left him there, and um and so that changed our lives.
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We were in Ohio speaking at a conference, and I got this call from my secretary saying, Jerry, I have to tell you your Steve was murdered last night, and so it changed everything.
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I was in the navigators, I was a regular general in the air force, everything was just peachy, and then all of a sudden nothing matters because you've lost your only son.
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I had three sisters, and we didn't know who had done it, and the man actually they caught him, he confessed, and um, and recently, by the way, just got out of prison, and um, and so it changed everything in our lives, and what it did it humanized me to the staff.
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Here's a hurting man, he's not just this fancy PhD and all this junk, but he's a person who's hurting, and he and his wife need us, and it opened up things in the navigators that you wouldn't believe.
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Um, I remember three weeks after Steve died, we had a major leadership meeting in Cyprus, and I didn't even want to go, but one of my senior nav staff said, Jerry, you need to go.
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So we did, and we couldn't do anything, we just went and but the people just saw us hurt as hurting people, and so it changed everything in our lives, David.
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We just um the things that mattered didn't matter, not even the navigators who cared what the navigators did, but God and then we had friends who gathered around us both in church and from navigator contacts uh covenant group that we have, they just took over our lives and started to help us walk through this very, very difficult time.
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And um, I remember my friends came from Seattle and California and took over our lives.
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And when they left, they talked to my two vice presidents and said, Listen, you're gonna have to watch out for Jury because he's just gonna go back to work like nothing happened.
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So for I don't know how long, David, Jim Peterson and Donald McGillchrist, my two vice presidents, appeared at my door every day at nine o'clock and said, What are you gonna do today, jury?
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And walked with me, walked with us through that time.
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We did recover.
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Uh, Mary has written a book called Harsh Grief, Gentle Hope, as a story of what God has done so a very quiet ministry we have is to those who have lost children.
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And um, so God uses it, um, but it's affected us and our children forever.
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Sure, yeah.
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Thank you for sharing that.
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Yeah, I'm sure it's painful every time you recount that.
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So thank you for for
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that.
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Well, let's talk about the upcoming conference.
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It's on September 26th in Wichita, and uh the three topics that have been chosen are work as a holy calling, approaching the fourth quarter, and influencing our fragmented world.
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So, who would you say uh would be the target audience uh and and would be most likely to benefit from these messages, would you say?
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Well, it would be primarily the layman or woman uh as a housekeeper, as a in their jobs, just living their ordinary lives.
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And the first one is I want them to know that ordinary lives are important, and what you do going to work at the store, the factory, the the office is a holy calling, or staying at home as a as a mom, that's a holy calling, and so that has to do with the theology of work that God blesses work.
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So that'd be the first one.
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The second one is for those, anybody over 40 is thinking, Whoa, things are gonna change, and then they get over 50 and they say things are changing, and then ultimately they come into what I call the fourth quarter of life, which in the book Dangers Men Face, I feature that whole idea, and all of a sudden, your identity, your significance, and your time is something different as you step out of what has been your career.
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For for many women who've been work home homeowners or home workers, their kids leave and they have the empty nest.
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They say, What now?
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So that's the fourth quarter.
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The last one is we look at the world and we say this is a mess.
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How in the world do I have any significance at all?
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In I can't change it, I'm not in politics, I'm not a big leader, I'm not giving millions of dollars to charity.
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So, how do I impact it?
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And so, what I'm trying to do is craft a way of how people can in their ordinary lives infiltrate the lives of other non-believers, and and the focus there is non-believers, not necessarily all the other believers who are around, but how do I connect in a way that affects my city, my community, you know, my the context of my neighborhood, and so forth, and so and my family, by the way, my extended family.
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Like I've got an extended family back in Iowa, and I was back there just a few months ago, and I still have a connection with them.
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So my stepfather and my mother came to Christ, my natural father that I met and his wife came to Christ, my siblings came to Christ, some of my aunts and uncles have come to Christ, so like I came to the academy ostensibly to teach and to reach students, but my natural father lived a hundred miles north of Europe, and for many years we connected with them and they came to faith.
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So, did God bring me to the academy, or did God bring me to Colorado to reach my natural father for Christ?
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Yeah, yeah.
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It's good, it's good.
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Thank you.
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If someone is on the fence about coming to the conference, we want to encourage them, of course.
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But any any uh final thoughts about how what would you say to someone who doesn't know if it's worth their um Saturday to to spend this with us?
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You know, conferences are a strange thing.
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Um, just like going to church is a strange thing.
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Why do I go for one hour?
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What I like to encourage is people come and you never know what's going to happen at the conference because you don't know who this speaker is, and that God will use giving about six hours of your time, not just an hour, but six hours of the time, to do two things.
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One is to get some input for your life, and the second is to connect with people that maybe God wants you to relate to, maybe even to help disciple them for them to influence you.
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So I go to conferences and God does some unusual thing.
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I meet this person, and this person knows somebody else, knows that I have a granddaughter who has a medical issue.
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So I can put you in touch with so-and-so.
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You just don't know what's going to happen.
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It's like fishing.
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You know, you throw, you throw your bait in, and you don't know what you're gonna catch, if anything.
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But you you can't get anything unless you're there throwing your fly, their your line in the water.
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And so it's an act of faith to give six hours and say, God, what are you gonna do with this?
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Maybe my life is gonna change, or maybe it won't.
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But it's worth it's worth doing.
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Won't you consider joining us at our fall conference Saturday, September 26, 2026, at Eastminster Presbyterian Church in Wichita?
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You know, I'm really looking forward to the insight and wisdom from Dr.
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White, as well as interacting with each of you.
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Dr.
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White's website and other links are in the show notes, but I want to take just a few moments to share some of his work with you as we wrap up this podcast.
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Here are five books well well worth our time to read, discuss, and apply to
our lives.
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The first one by Dr.
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White is Joseph's life.
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From the description found online, Joseph's life is a winding tale from the choices laid before him to the struggles he endured to the protection God bestowed on him.
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Out of the ashes of disaster, God enabled him to rescue Egypt and to save a deeply flawed family that grew into the great nation of Israel.
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But there were choices that Joseph made, and there are choices you and I make that determine our destiny.
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The next book that I think is very helpful from Dr.
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White is Dangers Men Face.
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Again from the write-up online.
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Men face particular, peculiar challenges as they move through life.
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Nature, nurture, and cultural norms conspire to draw men into broken approaches to their work, their relationships, their spirituality, their identity.
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And the pace of life makes it difficult to not be swept along by the brokenness.
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Jerry White takes careful aim at the big dangers and point to ways of managing and mitigating them and experiencing victory.
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Topics include loss of identity, career crisis, and sexual sin.
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The third book I would point out is Honesty, Morality and Conscience.
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Again, the write up online states In honesty, morality, and conscience, navigator author Jerry White takes a hard look at some of life's gray areas.
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Examining the origin and depth of our conscience, our moral compass, and truthful living, he explains how God has given us everything we need to face the ethical questions of today in all areas of our lives.
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Explore issues of identity, integrity, and accountability as you look at your sources for discernment and wisdom.
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The fourth book is unfinished.
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From the write up online, it says How to Approach Life's Deto, Doovers, and Disappointments.
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Life is full of disappointments and detours.
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If the road you're traveling is unexpected, or you're struggling to reconcile your new reality with dashed dreams, take heart.
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Jerry and Mary White have been there, and they know there are more options for the road ahead than what you can see right now.
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And finally, the book that Jerry referenced in the podcast, Harsh Grief, Gentle Hope by his wife Mary, Mary White.
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How do you respond to your child's murder?
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Can't hope come from the pain?
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Let Mary tell you her story.
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On a dark spring night, Jerry and Mary White's son became the victim of a brutal homicide.
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The agonizingly painful yet tender story Mary tells here testifies to the divine power of hope and offers genuine compassion to others experiencing severe loss.
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I hope those are encouraging to you, and I would urge you to choose one or two of them to pick up and to read and really think about perhaps start a book club or talk to other people about it.
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I think you'll be blessed.
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Or join us next time as together we learn more about making disciples naturally.