Get To Know Sarah Vernon
posted by Navigators on June 19th, 2025 in Community | Discipleship | Evangelism | Missions
Sarah has been part of our Australian Navigators family for several years and recently joined one of our Short-Term Mission Trips. We interviewed her for the Winter 2025 Issue of Compass, our newsletter, where an abridged version of her interview was first published.
How did you come into relationship with Jesus?
My story of coming into a relationship with Jesus is one of God’s steady presence in my life. God gave me Christian parents who modelled a life of loving and serving Him, and who were consistent in teaching me about Him. God worked through this to lead me to become a Christian when I was very young. It’s easy to take this sort of thing for granted, but I consider it to be one of the ways God has shown His kindness to me.
Since then, my faith has deepened and continues to deepen. There have been a number of key people and groups along the way that have been particularly influential. My time at university and, more recently, my time at Bible College and with the Navigators have continued to grow my relationship with Jesus.
How did you get involved with The Navigators?
I’ve had some involvement with Navs for as long as I can remember. My parents have been connected with Navs since before they were married, so I’ve grown up going to Navs family camps and being around Navs things.
Sarah and Fran
About four years ago, I went with Dad to a fundraising dinner and connected with the wonderful Fran Johnson. In asking for her advice about how to be more effective in sharing my faith, she invited me to a Navs Leadership Training group that met weekly at her home. We then spent two years exploring topics relating to evangelism and discipleship.
Becoming more familiar with The Navigators as an adult has made sense of the verse packs stacked on Dad’s desk and The Wheel hanging on the wall of his study. Now I know these are Navs things.
In what ways have Navigator communities shaped your journey?
The Navigators have been a wonderful blessing and encouragement to me. There are three verses that come to mind to describe the Navs community. Hebrews 10:24 says to ‘consider how to stir up one another to love and good works’; 1 Peter 3:15 says to ‘always [be] prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you’; and Proverbs 27:17 says ‘iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another’. In our busyness, it’s easy to lose focus and forget to be intentional about sharing our faith with those around us. Being part of the Navs community has given me a family of believers who are focused on encouraging each other to be faithful and effective labourers. Time with Navigators is always spiritually refreshing.
Sarah with the Melbourne Discipleship Training Team
How has Jesus been leading you?
Recently, Jesus led me to join a trip with the Navs to South Asia, to support local gospel work. This was an amazing trip, described by one of our group members as the closest thing they had experienced to living the lifestyle of Jesus and His disciples. We had the freedom and flexibility to spend time with people in their homes, listen to their stories, talk about Jesus, pray with them and eat with them. Some of our visits were quite profound and we could see the way in which God had gone ahead of us and prepared these families for our visits.
The trip was a big encouragement and has prompted me and the other group members to discern how God may be calling us to missions or ministry, locally or globally.
How have The Navigators helped you grow and develop your vision?
In late 2024, I was able to join the Navs Asia Pacific Emerging Leaders (APEL) Conference in Indonesia. This gave me the opportunity to meet Navigators from all around the Asia Pacific. One of the friends I made even came on the South Asia trip with me in April, and may be visiting Australia this year!
As well as being able to meet lots of Navigators from around the world, the conference helped me grow and develop what was described as ‘bi-focal vision’. This means, keeping local and global ministry in focus at the same time. We should be focusing our efforts on local labouring and ministry while also praying for and supporting labourers in other nations.
A woman surveying the land.
Why do you have a heart for the nations?
We know that Jesus has a heart for all people across every nation, and tells us in Matthew 28:19 to ‘go and make disciples of all nations’.
Being a part of God’s global mission is an exciting thing. It’s a huge mission!
Featured image: woman surveying the land. Photo by: iam_os on Unsplash.