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<\/figure>\n\n\n\n\u201cThey were at my bedside saying their goodbyes,\u201d Marc recalls. \u201cAnd then, unexpectedly, I woke up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During his recovery, hospital staff didn\u2019t call him by name \u2014 they just referred to him as the \u201cmiracle patient.\u201d Marc\u2019s experience left him with an unsettling question: \u201cWhy am I alive when I should have died?\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n That question followed him into college \u2014 until one morning before his lifeguard shift at a local pool, when a friend shared what Christ had done in her life and the forgiveness she had received. Marc listened for two hours, and then accepted Christ. The change was immediate and visible. Even the children he taught as a lifeguard later that day noticed something was different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While attending college in 1975, Marc\u2019s roommate invited him to a small group Bible study with The Navigators. That invitation became foundational to the growth of his faith and the base for what God had planned for him to accomplish in the future. Discipled by two men \u2014 one a Navigator and the other from Christian Business Men\u2019s Association \u2014 Marc learned what it looked like to study and live out Scripture in his day-to-day life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat struck me was the personal commitment these men showed me, helping me realize that God\u2019s Word is more profound than simply reading,\u201d Marc remembers. \u201cThe personal interactions I had with them, they helped me to see that I could really dig into God\u2019s Word.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n At one point, Marc was struggling with a crisis in the middle of the night when he remembered that one of his mentors said that he could reach out to him anytime, no matter the time or day. At 10 p.m., Marc called him, desperate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHe told me to come over, and when I got there, his wife was already making tea for me,\u201d Marc says. \u201cWe sat there for two hours, and he helped me look at God\u2019s Word. And I thought, this is what discipleship is all about, the commitment to come alongside someone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n These two elements that Marc learned early in his faith journey \u2014 intentionally studying God\u2019s Word and being in a Life-to-Life\u00ae<\/sup> discipleship<\/a> relationship \u2014 were not only pivotal to his young adult years, but to future decades of ministry that would impact hundreds more for Christ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When Marc thinks of discipleship, he thinks back to his high school metal shop class. One day, he was trying to weld two pieces of metal together. After trying over and over and over again, Marc was so frustrated that he was about to walk out of the class altogether. However, at that moment his teacher came to him and started walking Marc through the project step by step. \u201cHe grabbed a hold of my hand, and he guided me,\u201d Marc remembers. \u201cWhen he released his hand, I got it. That\u2019s a picture of discipleship.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the years after college, Marc began to ask himself how he could serve God with his life. What was it that God wanted him to do? He soon saw an opportunity: to walk alongside men, discipling them and helping them dive deeper into Scripture through inductive Bible studies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI thought back to The Navigators resources I learned, how they taught me that God\u2019s Word is more profound than casual reading,\u201d Marc explains. \u201cThis is what God\u2019s Word is. We are to be tactile, conversing, encouraging one another and digging into the Bible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n At his church in Chico, California, Marc started to notice some men who seemed stuck \u2014 they would attend church, but that was the extent of their involvement. So Marc started discipling the young men around him, taking them through The Navigators resources he had once been taught, and witnessing the transforming work of Christ in their lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That foundation would prove essential when God later called Marc and his family to Venezuela as missionary church planters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The challenge was immediate. He was encouraged to start churches \u2014 but there were no leaders available from the seminary to lead them. Marc was assigned to start a new church in the community of Charallave. Returning to what he knew and was taught, Marc gathered 11 committed believers to work with him in this church and began translating Navigator materials into Spanish. They met weekly for two to three hours, learning not just Scripture, but how <\/em>to study Scripture, with the goal of showing them tools they could use to equip others for ministry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Charallave, the feeling of being totally overwhelmed encompassed Marc. The question he faced was how he would be able to turn over the leadership of this new church to a national leader if none were available. God then brought this question to mind: If the apostle Paul were here, what would he do?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nLearning to Walk Alongside<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Teaching People How to Fish in Venezuela<\/h2>\n\n\n\n