Navigator To Many

Navigator To Many

Memorizing Scripture became a way of life for many because of his influence.

DAWSON TROTMAN was born prematurely in Arizona on March 25, 1906. He was not expected to live. His mother attributed her son’s survival to God, while his father attributed it to luck. This wasn’t their first difference of opinion. The family moved to California, and eventually Dawson’s parents divorced.

In high school Daws was a natural leader. Both president and valedictorian of his class, he also led the Christian Endeavor Society at Lomita Presbyterian Church. But he was living a double life. After graduating from high school, he immersed himself in the Roaring Twenties, living a reckless life of alcohol and gambling.

Dawson Trotman was nearing rock bottom even before the day he and his girlfriend nearly drowned while swimming. When she was unable to swim back to shore, Daws tried to rescue her, but then they both began to sink. A couple in a nearby boat saved their lives.

A month later the police picked up Daws for drunkenness. His mother asked a Christian neighbor to pray for her wayward son. The next day the neighbor called her back, saying, “We spent the night praying, and the Lord showed me a vision of Dawson holding a Bible, speaking to a large group of people. And the burden has lifted. Don’t worry about Dawson any more.”

Two nights later Daws went back to visit his old Christian Endeavor group at church. Their Scripture memorization contest captivated his interest, and over the next two weeks, he memorized twenty verses. One of those verses blazed into his consciousness as he walked to work one day: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life” (John 5:24, KJV). The concept of eternal life intrigued Daws. He prayed, “O God, whatever this means, I want to have it.” Immediately another memorized verse flashed into his mind: “As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.” He prayed a simple prayer: “O God, whatever it means to receive Jesus, I want to do it now.”

After committing his life to Christ, Dawson joined a personal evangelism group. He discovered that the words of God he had memorized were a powerful witness, which compelled him to learn even more. Bible memorization became a discipline that would shape his future life and ministry.

After starting a discipling group Daws called the “Minute Men,” he met a sailor, and their meeting crystallized Trotman’s vision. Thousands of young men were spending months at sea aboard ships, and Daws saw the potential of training sailors to disciple their comrades. God began raising up men who wanted to disciple their shipmates, and in 1933 the Minute Men became the Navigators. Their motto: “To Know Christ and to Make Him Known.” By 1945 there were Bible-memorizing Navigators on more than eight hundred navy ships, stations, and army bases. When World War II ended, thousands of former sailors went to college on the GI Bill, and the Navigators followed them onto campuses across the United States.

In 1950 Billy Graham asked Dawson to develop a follow-up program for crusade converts. The Navigators’ philosophy significantly impacted other ministries as well, including Wycliffe Bible Translators, Operation Mobilization, Mission Aviation Fellowship, and Campus Crusade for Christ.

In 1956 at the Navigators annual summer conference at Schroon Lake in the Adirondacks of New York, Dawson saw a girl fall out of a speedboat and dove into the lake to rescue her. He held her above water long enough for others to pull her out but then sank himself. Before anyone could reach him, Dawson Trotman drowned.

The caption under his obituary photo in Time magazine said simply, “Always holding someone up.”

Reflection

Central to Dawson Trotman’s vision and to the ministry of the Navigators is memorizing Scripture. Committing Bible verses to memory is an excellent way of making them part of your life. If you have never memorized God’s Word, begin today.

When I learn your righteous laws, I will thank you by living as I should!

Psalm 119:7