March 3. Dawson Trotman. Dawson was a producer. He was a California lumberyard worker.
He had started out strong, but after a brilliant high school career, Dawson’s life floundered. He went from Boy Scout, student body president, and valedictorian to gambler, pool shark, and drunk. He was running bootleg liquor and consuming it—during Prohibition.
When local law-enforcement officers caught him drinking, he uttered a quick “save me” prayer. And by the grace of God, Dawson went from new convert to Bible-college student to disciple-maker-in-action. On this date in 1933, he founded the Navigators, whose purpose is “to know Christ, make him known, and help others do the same.” Today’s story highlights the kind of production Dawson valued.
When you teach what you know, you reproduce what you are.
The aroma of a home-cooked meal filled the room as Dawson and Sailor Les Spencer sat at the kitchen table.
Dawson and his wife had opened their home for regular meetings to teach the Scriptures to guys from the Navy, and these two men met several times each week. With a welcoming smile, Mrs. Trotman set their plates in front of them, and Trotman opened his well-worn Bible.
Over the course of these Bible studies, Spencer’s life changed. In the Scriptures, he discovered who Jesus is and what He’s done. Spencer began to talk with Jesus and listen and to do the things He had said.
Dawson called Spencer “a producer”—a man who could show what he had learned to another man and help him connect with Jesus. The change was so evident that several of Spencer’s fellow sailors on the USS West Virginia asked him about it.
But Spencer struggled. He told Trotman he had prayed and prayed and asked God to send him more producers, but guys he talked to were willing to go to church, but they never did anything about showing someone else.
Trotman told him, “Ask God for one. You have to have one before you can have two.”
Within a few weeks, there were three places set at the table: one for Dawson, one for Spencer, and a one for a friend, whom Spencer brought from the ship. As Spencer and Gurney Harris set their sailor hats on the table, Dawson grinned and reached for his Bible.
“Teach him to do what you’ve taught me,” Spencer said.
Dawson responded, “No, you teach him.”
Spencer did teach Gurney about Jesus, and Gurney taught another sailor, who taught another sailor. And before they knew it, their message of hope spread throughout the US Navy, with one hundred twenty-five men living for Christ on the USS West Virginia alone.
Their extraordinary reach was miraculous. Dawson later recalled that “there was a work going forward on fifty ships of the US fleet.” Very soon, it became clear why God had entrusted them with such powerful influence.
On the morning of December 7, 1941, everything changed for the Navigators. Everything changed for the Navy. Everything changed for the United States.
A group of sailors gathered at one Honolulu home for breakfast and a Navigators Bible Study. They were eating and talking.
The ground beneath them trembled. An explosion thundered through the house, and the house shook. Another blast hit. And another. Everyone in the room sat speechless. On the radio, the announcer said, “The island of Oahu is under enemy attack.”
The sailors jumped up and ran to the car and raced toward their ships under thick clouds of black smoke.
Wave after wave of fighter planes buzzed the unprepared US vessels, and they strafed everything in sight.
Japanese torpedoes appeared on the water’s surface. The first of nine torpedoes ripped a hole in the USS West Virginia, and it burst into flames. The ship began to take on water. Thirty hours later, she joined the other forty-eight vessels that were destroyed and sank to the bottom with sixty-six sailors aboard.
“On that ship, 125 men found the Savior before it was sunk at Pearl Harbor … And men off of that battleship through this particular line are in four continents of the world as missionaries today,” Trotman said.
“And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also” (2 Timothy 2:2 NKJV).
God has purposefully placed you where you are in life. Who within your reach needs to encounter the hope you’ve found in Christ? When you teach what you know, you reproduce what you are.
“History of The Navigators.” Navigators. Accessed August 15, 2020. https://www.navigators.org/about/history/.
Sanny, Lorne C. “The Pathfinder: A Condensed Life Story of Dawson E. Trotman.” Discipleship Library. Accessed August 15, 2020. http://www.discipleshiplibrary.com/pdfs/dawson_trotman_more.pdf.
Taylor, Justin. “60 Years Ago Today Dawson Trotman, the Founder of the Navigators, Drowned While Saving a Girl’s Life: An Interview.” The Gospel Coalition. Published June 18, 2016. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/evangelical-history/60-years-ago-today-the-founder-of-navigators-drowned-while-saving-a-girls-life-an-interview.
Trotman, Dawson. “Born to Reproduce–Early History of the Navigators.” Accessed April 23, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQ_dVYTjLb0&t=183s.
Stephenson, Kristen. “Monday Motivation: The Pearl Harbor hero who’s now a record-breaking author.” Guinness World Records. Accessed April 23, 2019. https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2017/10/monday-motivation-the-pearl-harbor-hero-whos-now-a-record-breaking-author-500025.
“USS West Virginia: When the Japanese planes came swarming down on Pearl Harbor.” Pearl Harbor Visitors Bureau. Accessed April 23, 2019. https://visitpearlharbor.org/world-war-ii-battleships/uss-west-virginia/.
Trotman, Dawson. “Born to Reproduce.” Discipleship Library. Accessed April 23, 2019. http://discipleshiplibrary.com/pdfs/AA094.pdf.
Story read by Peter R Warren, https://www.peterwarrenministries.com/
Story written by Shelli Mandeville, https://worthy.life/