We Need Helen!

As City Campus Director of the Nashville Navigators, I can’t say enough about the ministry impact we’re experiencing locally through the efforts of Helen Ebert, who is a part of our Nav Encore Mission.
 
Frankly put, we need Helen! Our ministry in Nashville is exploding on campus, with numerous students coming to faith in Christ and deepening their trust in Him through time in the Word and prayer on a regular basis. We now have 15 staff working on four different campuses, including Vanderbilt, Belmont, Lipscomb, and Trevecca.
 
As my wife, Linnette, had our fourth child, naturally, her capacity to lead and disciple the many women on our staff team was greatly diminished. We prayed together for God to provide help—and God brought us Helen! What a gift!
 
Helen began meeting regularly with five staff women who are in their twenties and early thirties to train them in character, walking closer to Jesus, and ministering out of the overflow into the lives of others. Whenever the staff women are together and Helen’s name is mentioned, they all rave about her attentive and compassionate shepherd’s heart. She offers encouragement and inspiration to them as they learn the blessings and challenges of spiritual leadership.
 
Helen also speaks into their lives with great depth and insight concerning the role of a wife and mother. These staff women are being transformed to look more like Christ right before my eyes. In fact, I can’t figure out how to express my gratitude enough to Helen for the time she is spending with my wife.
 
On top of all this, Helen is having a global impact through continuing the ministry she and her husband, Larry, carried out in Africa. (Some 20 years ago, Larry died in a car accident in Africa. He and Helen had ministered there on short-term trips, and God used them in many ways. Today, she remains in contact with people at the clinic where they had ministered, which is named for Larry.)
 
As I look around, it’s obvious that Helen is pouring her heart out to the next generation, and her impact is felt by so many.
 
The apostle Paul reminds us that the body of Christ is indeed one body made up of many parts, each playing a vital role for the functioning of the body (1 Corinthians 12:12-27). We’re grateful for the gifts, talents, and abilities God’s given to Helen, and that she is able to use them bountifully in this corner of the Kingdom.
 
While we in the Nashville Navigators need Helen, let me close with a word of encouragement that the body of Christ needs you as well. What gifts, talents, and abilities has God given you—and how are you using them for the advance of the Gospel of Jesus and His Kingdom? What is God’s Spirit saying to your spirit?