ABQ Navigators

Rob Mahon has served on staff with The Navigators for over 30 years. The Navigators is an international interdenominational Christian organization whose mission is to help as many people as possible “know Christ and make Him known, and then help them help others do the same”. The Navigators have over 4,000 staff in over 100 countries. Rob is also an ordained pastor who served on the pastoral staff of Hoffmantown Church for 8 years.

 

Rob is married to Karen. They just recently celebrated their 4^th wedding anniversary. Both were previously married with both their spouses passing away in 2011. Together they have 6 adult children and 8 grandchildren (and 1 more on the way!).

Phil and his wife, Lillian, have been married 26 years and have four adult children, ages 24 to 18. Phil is the Albuquerque Navigators 20s city director and also is the interim Navigators campus director at the University of New Mexico. Phil has been on staff with The Navigators for 31 years, and he has a passion to raise up Christ-centered laborers among young adults in the Albuquerque area. 

Karen has been involved with ministry to women for over 25 years. Since 2001 she has been on staff with The Navigators, with whom she develops ministry for women throughout Albuquerque, where they work, worship, live and play.  She also serves as Co-City Director for the ABQ Nav City Team with Rob Mahon. Karen is married to Leroy and they celebrated their 39^th wedding anniversary in July. They have two adult children, one son-in-law and a 5-year-old grandson.  Together they lead a Bible Study small group through their church and share a heart for making disciples.

Laura came to Albuquerque in 1999 with plans to spend a summer discipling teen girls with The Navigators urban ministries.  She never left, and now, 20 years later, continues to minister to some of those same girls and their children, in addition to other families she has met in her neighborhood.  She has been the director of Juntos, a youth leadership program, for the past 15 years and is a part of the I:58 mission of The Navigators, focusing on communities that have been affected by injustice and poverty.  Laura and Fred have been married for 15 years and have two daughters.  Fred has taught at the local parish school for 25 years, Harmony attends Highland High School, and Kathryn attends the middle school where Fred teaches.

Victor and Natasha were two lost kids who seemed to find one another in the dark. After twenty-three years of marriage, they know now that it was God who led them to one another. Now with three biological children one quasi adopted and currently raising another, along with claiming three grandsons and one more on the way, that just being the physical family. Together they have been blessed to spiritually raise men and women from either just being born in Christ, to basically feeling like orphaned children in Christ into a real, personal, deep, fruitful and purposeful relationship with He who is the author and perfecter of their souls. 

 

Victor and Natasha are both on staff with the Navigators and have a ministry to the military context of the work here in Albuquerque for the last eight years at Kirtland Air Force Base. Victor spent almost eleven years in the Army including a 15-month deployment to Iraq. Their heart for helping military men and women to learn how to surrender to the King of Kings and serve Him with all their heart, soul, mind and strength is only matched by their love for Jesus.

Dale is part of the Disciplemakers For Life mission of The Navigators with a focus on the Workplace and Church ministries where he is passionate about integrating faith into the workplace and seeing generational disciple-makers as its fruit.

Prior to his current position, Dale worked for 17 years at Johnson Controls, Inc. as a mechanical engineer specializing in building automation energy management systems, then changed careers after becoming a Christian and discipled by a Navigator. He is an ordained pastor and served on staff with a few of the large megachurches in Albuquerque.  

Dale has been married to Tracy for 41 years and has 4 adult children and 7 grandchildren and 1 more on the way. He loves to spend his free time being with his grandchildren, fly fishing or playing pickleball.

Abe and Lizzie Chavez reside in Albuquerque, NM. They have been married for 36 years and have five daughters and ten grandchildren. Their daughters are adults ranging in ages from 35 to 28.   

They have been on staff with The Navigators for 25 years and minister with Emmaus Journey ministry (a Catholic evangelization and discipleship ministry).  They are actively involved in numerous parish ministries at Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary Parish. Their emphasis of ministry is evangelization and discipleship, desiring to see God use them in the lives of fellow Catholics so that they too are mobilized to help other Catholics enjoy similar growth in their faith journeys. God has granted them opportunities for ministry both within their local parish and their diocese in marriage, Small Christian Community, and family ministries, and parish music ministry. 

Prior to his current position, Abe worked for 15 years as a telecommunications engineer with the phone company.

Sarah grew up a military brat and missionary kid. She moved to Albuquerque in 2004 and got involved with The Navigators at the University of New Mexico. Sarah heard about Juntos from Nav Staff at UNM and started volunteering at Juntos in 2005. She graduated from the University of New Mexico in 2010 with a Bachelors in Psychology and came on staff with The Navigators in 2011 serving with the I:58 Mission at Juntos. Sarah loves animals and owns a dog named Gus and a cat named Oscar. 

Hannah is a Nebraska girl who moved to Albuquerque in 2016. She has been on staff with he Navigators for 8 years working first in collegiate ministry and now serving in community ministry with I:58 branch of the Navigators. Specifically Hannah works with families that have been affected by injustice and poverty through a children's leadership program called Juntos. Hannah is married to Gabriel and together they have a 1 year old little boy and are expecting their second little boy June 2020.

Karen Mahon spent nearly half her life in Africa, first as a high schooler, then later serving with the Navigators with her first husband, Craig Goldfain, in Ghana and then in Kenya.  Starting in 2004, she and Craig were making disciples among African Immigrants in Denver, Colorado.  After Craig passed away in 2011, Karen continued this ministry.  Since Karen and Rob were married in 2015, she has kept flying to Denver about once every 5 weeks, encouraging the key people in that group.  She loves making friends with internationals, (and enjoying international meals together!) and coming alongside them in their faith journey, here in ABQ, or anywhere! Karen and Rob's blended family keeps growing (new grandson due July 1, 2020!) and we are very grateful they all know Jesus. Karen loves being part of the ABQ Navigator team, since it really operates like a family.

Jake and his wife Jess have been married since 2013 and have two children: Josiah and Mercy. Jake studied Philosophy at the University of Northern Colorado where he was involved with the Navigators as a student. Jake joined Navigator staff in 2017 after working in a big box retail store for a few years. Jake currently serves in the collegiate Navigators and is trusting God to use his life to equip and mature college students who will advance the gospel in the nations with humility, justice, mercy, and righteousness.

Brady has been a part of an ongoing miracle in keeping his wife, Megan, from losing her sanity since May 2011. They have three girls: Mosley, Joules, and Sloane who keep them on their toes. Brady studied Organizational Leadership at Fort Hays State University (Google it, it is real), and Megan Business Management, both graduating in 2010 (Megan graduating in 2012 in Dental Hygiene). After graduation and deciding ruling the world wasn’t for him, Brady infiltrated the Baptist collegiate ministry at Oklahoma State University, and in 2016 both Megan and Brady joined staff with The Navigators Collegiate at Oklahoma State and in 2020 moved to Albuquerque to serve on the UNM campus. You will find Brady with his beard waving majestically in the wind drinking the best coffee he can find, rooting for Duke basketball, and giving hot takes on all his life lessons. You’ll find Megan most times doing something far more productive than her other half, but you will find both with a passion for bringing students along to maturity in Christ and instilling in them a vision of life long disciple-making.

Doug and Shawna have been married since 1989 and have three daughters and a son-in-law. They currently serve with the collegiate staff team at the University of New Mexico. They have been on staff with The Navigators since 1998 serving on campuses and in regional leadership. Prior to that, they lived in Branson, MO for several years working at an outdoor theater "The Shepherd of the Hills" and trying to acquire a taste for country music, which never came to fruition. Both of them met at the University of Arkansas as students and can be heard occasionally calling the Hogs most Saturdays during the fall. 

Click HERE for a quick overview of what Navigators Collegiate is all about!

Parker and Elise are on I:58 Navigator staff and have roles in a national and local context. Parker functions as the Associate Director of I:58 Navigators. Elise is working with I:58 Navigators on special projects. I:58 values marginalized communities acutely affected by systemic injustice by coming alongside them with a vision for whole life discipleship and centering their voices in leadership.