Missions

Based in Lawrence, Massachusetts, this Joni and Friends Area Ministry serves the six New England states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. We work with local churches and organizations to provide outreach programs that minister help and hope to those who face the daily challenges of life with a disability. We’re committed to reaching individuals and families affected by disability in our community with the love of Christ.

Joni and Friends puts on three Family Retreats during the summer. One retreat in June hosts families of adults affected by disability. One August retreat hosts families with children affected by a disability while the third hosts a mix of adults and children.

Every Navigator’s passion is to help others to know Christ, make Him known, and help others do the same. Through small-group Bible studies and Life-to-Life discipleship, we come alongside people and teach them to be Christ’s followers as they study and apply the Word of God to chart their lives. Then we train them to pass what they have learned on to others.

As a college student in Maine I was trying to create an identity for myself in grades, relationships, and anything I could find but none of it seemed to work. That’s when a friend brought me to The Navigators meeting for the first time and I was introduced to a community of new but genuine friends. Through my time in The Navigators as a student I came to know Christ for myself, and by my senior year I decided I wanted to join staff to help other students just like me. Now I get to be part of creating the John 13:34-35 loving community that drew me in as a student and show students the true fulfillment of a life following Christ. I get to meet with students, currently at the University of Connecticut, to help them learn how to read the Bible and to equip them to reach their friends with the gospel, and I pray that as they move towards graduation we will get to send teams of disciplemakers out into the cities and nations from UConn and the northeast as a whole.

Young Life is a non-profit, non-denominational Christian outreach to high school-aged kids. It is now in more than 800 communities nationwide and in 53 countries around the world. Young Life seeks to provide a creative and healthy environment in which students can investigate and evaluate the Christian Faith. Young Life Gorham volunteers and staff reach out to adolescents through volunteers, staff, club meetings, and camps. Young Life is open to high school students of any or no faith background.

Everyone is welcome in Young Life! Our programs are custom made for kids throughout their adolescent years. Young Life is the name of our organization and is also the term we use for our program with high school students. We call our middle school program WyldLife. The initiative for college and university students is called Young Life College.

Young Life’s multicultural ministry, focused on kids in diverse cultural communities and those in economically-depressed areas, is arguably the largest of its kind in the United States. We refer to our ministry to kids with disabilities as Capernaum and to our work with teen moms as YoungLives. In a partnership with Military Community Youth Ministries, Young Life reaches military teens through a program called Club Beyond. The Small Towns initiative brings Young Life to communities of fewer than 25,000 people.

Christian pastors and ministry leaders need to thrive in their ministry call, not just survive. No leader is meant to ride solo, although they often do. Pastors need someone they can trust who will ask them “How’s your soul?” and then listen without judgement. Mentoring is preventative care by nature, providing safe accountability, direction, prayerful support and encouragement to stay the course and finish well as led by God.

Not only do I get to lead trips for colleges all across the Northeast (NY to ME), I also get to help with the local campus ministries near Portland, leading Bible studies and outreach events on campus as well as discipling young men in their spiritual journeys.