more or less standard greeting: “ Here’s a verse the Lord gave me today.” (Then he repeats the verse, letter perfect with the reference before and after.) After the verse comes a big smile: “And what verse has the Lord given you today?” By now the sense of guilt is complete and the Navigator’s friend can only squawk out some gibberish about not having such a good memory. One rumor has it that several years ago Dawson put out an order tell ing his followers to ease up on put ting outsiders on the spot. He knew only a few dedicated believers could stand the pace and perfection demanded by the Navigators and that outsiders must be gently led and not pushed. Today Navigator representatives are on six continents and contacts are listed in more than 75 coun tries. On the day of his death an other step of Dawson’s vision was realized as the Navigators set foot on the continent of Africa to help evangelize and train disciples among the Mau Mau. The Navigators gained new rec ognition in 1951 when Billy Gra ham asked Dawson to join the way to handle the moving of the back wall of the church). Some times we sat with our present wives, sometimes not. One favorite occu pation was turning the pages of the hymn books and picking titles of hymns that expressed our amorous delight in the gals who later be came our wives. This worked well until someone found a particularly timely title upon which we would shake with laughter. Sometimes the elder Tinning would peer down from the platform intently—but he was a patient man and held his peace. Those Sunday nights used to see the church fill up with young peo ple. And so Dad Tinning used to pour out his heart to the young people. Dad had one theme, Christ and. Salvation. Daws heard it! Oc casionally dad would take a vaca tion or a speaking engagement else where and allow me and some of the other young people to take over the evening service. Once we built a garden on the platform with live
Graham team to set up a follow up program for converts. Since then he has been responsible for the instruction of those who make decisions during the meetings and laying the groundwork for follow up to be carried on by local pastors and church lay workers after the crusades close. Those who were close to Dawson Trotman say that if there was one thing that characterized his Chris tian life it was the one word, real ity. The Lord was real, the Word was living, prayer was not an arti ficial sanctimonious whine, but a vital commun ication with God Himself. If he hated anything pas sionately, it was artificiality and hypocrisy. This was the man who died last month in the cold waters of Schroon Lake while saving the life of one of his young followers. Back in Colorado Billy Graham preached the memorial service and then the body of Dawson Trotman was laid to rest high on a lonely plateau overlooking the Navigators’ headquarters at beautiful Glen Eyrie. The grave is by a rock where Dawson often came alone to pray and meditate. plants and shrubs plus a fish pond made out of an old-fashioned wash tub. We figured out some deal so that the water would shoot into the air and then was siphoned over the edge and re-shot into the air. Daws and the other boys and I thought it was terrific. It was. As I deliv ered a message on “ God’s Garden” the audience listened intently for a few moments. The fountain began to act queerly, the water to shoot violently this way and that which would have passed unnoticed ex cept that as the water was drawn off, air was sucked into the hose and very loud gurgling sounds echoed over the auditorium much to the delight of Daws and the oth ers who knew they had me in a tight place and enjoyed it fully. After we got our girls home we frequently met at some pre-ar ranged place and would ride about in Dawson’s big red (sports car with tan top) Buick. Strangely enough even in those days Daws didn’t miss anything that anyone
Daw son Trotman continued
igators were aboard 100 ships. By the time the war was over they were on 1,000 ships and in many army camps. Out of the prayers and efforts to reach servicemen grew the earliest materials with which tens of thousands of people are now familiar *— the B-Rations, the Search the Scriptures Bible study plan and the Topical Mem ory System. After the war the Navigator work branched out to include men and women not in the service. But the invitation to join the inner circle was never wide open. The Navigators have never been inter ested in cluttering their organiza tion with lazy Christians. Only the dedicated are tolerated. Because of this rigorous spiritual discipline a few outsiders have felt the organ ization was made up of super religious snobs. When many a Christian, (this was more true a few years back) sees a fledgling Navigator heading his way an un easy sense of guilt seems to engulf him as he braces himself for the I ’ve known Dawson and Lila Trotman for 30 years. I was the smart aleck preacher’s son and Daws was a roughneck working on the Patten Blinn Lumber Co. docks at San Pedro. Daws was a little older than I and I’m not sure whether he did or did not gradu ate from Narbonne High School. I was in my senior year when my dad took over the Lomita Commu nity Presbyterian Church. Irene Mills and Laura Thomas (deceased) had a Fun and Study Club every Thursday night to which these two old maid school teachers attracted 30-45 high school girls and fellows. To most of us they gave an expensive Scofield Bible. As I recall the time came when they gave one to Daws but that took time. He came to F&S Club because of the girls and years later married Lila Clayton who was somewhat younger than he. Dawson and I used to meet in the back row (we would have sat further back if there had been any
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I wentto high school with
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THE KING'S BUSINESS
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