By Eddie Broussard, International Vice President
For security purposes, all names in this article have been changed.
Deep in the heart of Eurasia, in a nation often overlooked by the rest of the world, one Navigator woman’s humility—not professional ministry methods—has impacted many Muslims.
Due to an unfortunate misunderstanding, conflict erupted within one of our thriving missional enterprises in Eurasia. An employee, Ellen, who was being discipled by Navigators in the business, mistakenly assumed that the CEO’s wife, Mary, who also serves as a top-level company influencer, had done something culturally offensive. Unaware of the truth, Ellen considered it a betrayal.
The rift between Ellen and Mary stormed for a few weeks, like a slow-moving hurricane. Ellen, an emerging leader in the Navigator work, began to distance herself from those who had been discipling her. The emotional pain started to impact her faith, creating doubts. She made comments like: “I don’t ever want to meet with believers again . . .”
A lot was at stake. News about the conflict spread among company employees, most of them Muslim, impacting the firm’s internal reputation as a principled, ethical business. It could have caused a calamity within a productive business that generates more than a hundred jobs and that has a beautiful community impact. Because the company plays a pivotal role in helping Navigators establish a foundational generation for the future of the Gospel in the region, the relational clash had the potential to spoil years of pioneering missions work in Eurasia.
Enter Jesus. Enter the Holy Spirit.
Mary, who had done nothing wrong, nevertheless saw all that was at stake. She stepped out in obedient faith to contact Ellen, but her phone calls were ignored. So, Mary went to Ellen’s house. When Ellen opened the door, Mary literally got down on her knees and asked Ellen for forgiveness. On her knees.
In Muslim Eurasia, this never happens. A CEO’s wife, a woman helping to lead a business, would never do this with an employee. Humility is not part of the cultural ethos. Positional authority in business trumps authentic, relational trust. Those at the top of the power structures almost never say they are sorry or admit error.
Ellen was shocked.
From that moment forward, Mary’s profound act of humble faith was like a stone tossed into a still lake. Ripples of beauty and healing extended first into Mary’s relationship with Ellen and then throughout the company. Four emerging Navigator leaders (all nationals) saw, as Jesus demonstrated, that leadership is not about power or position or “being great”; they saw that true leadership is about service, humility, and weakness.
Paul said it best. “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
That humility, displayed so beautifully by Mary, shows how the power of the Gospel ripples through a community and across generations. It’s not politics. It’s not ministry methods. The power of God is demonstrated in our weaknesses so that his glory, not ours, is revealed.
Humility is not natural for us. We tend to be prideful and self-protective. We strive to protect our egos, our sense of justice.
But in Christ, I don’t have to prove anything, or protect myself. Jesus, on the cross, already did that for me. God in his grace changed the core of my identity. The Lord of the universe, my creator, defines who I am. Despite my sin, he declares that I’m a child of God. Therefore, he protects me. He provides all I need. He enables me to do his will. Having all I need in his grace, I am free to be humble. Like Mary.
