Commentary: A Mission To The World

At age 25, Peter Dorrell accepted Jesus in his life. It was then that his journey as a Navigator began through the world.

 “If you are committed to God you are committed to people,” Dorrell said.

Born in Canada, Dorrell moved to Florida with his family in the mid 1950s when he was just 4 years old. God never had a big influence in his life; he was just another “church-goer” like many Christians nowadays.

“I never felt like I really connected with Jesus,” Dorrell said. “I’m glad there were doubts because it made me want to see what’s true and what’s not about God”.

In college, Dorrell found Rob Hoover, a navigator who taught him the word of the Lord. Hoover and Dorrell shared the gospel and became not just “church-goers,” but disciples by spreading the word of God to other people. From that moment on, his life changed drastically.
           
“This mystical God became real to me…that really captured my heart, I wanted to share the bible and make disciples from then on,” Dorrell said. “God just gave me a new perspective of life”.

After becoming a Christian, he also became part of Navigators, a worldwide Christian fellowship that disciplines Christians by enabling them to share their faith with others.

“The Navigators helped fulfill my calling,” Dorrell said.

During those years of struggling to find God he played many sports in both junior high and college such as baseball, racquetball, track and cross-country. Sport was a passion, and after college, he became a physical education teacher at a Christian school for five years and four years at a public school.

Dorrell started seeing his job as more than a physical educator, besides coaching track and cross-country he was the spiritual leader for many of the kids he was teaching.

After getting married and moving to Blacksburg, he became the Navigators’ leader at Tech. Marriage gave him and his wife, Nancy, a stronger desire to serve God through people.

Soon after marriage, he traveled to Japan with his friend, Hoover, to teach others about Jesus. After this visit, the idea of teaching other people who did not know Jesus became a priority for the couple.

“Foreign missionary work became more exciting for us,” Dorrell said.

The Dorrell family has inspired friends and family about the true serving to God but most importantly, Pete and Nancy have inspired their kids to continue talking and practicing the word of God.

“I admire my dad’s desire to serve God and just live that way,” said Dorrell’s son, also named Peter. “It’s kind of cool to see him, he wants to know what’s most important; he’s an exciting guy”.

Besides the spiritual inspiration, Dorrell has inspired his daughter, Hannah, about what means to be a Christian.

“A feeling that I don’t have to fit in, be who you are, it’s ok to be different,” she said.

Even though the Dorrell family served the Virginia Tech Christian community while they were away doing missionary work, the family decided to focus on missionary work in the world last year.

“Nancy and I want to serve more. I’m not into religion, I’m into Jesus.”

With the help of several Virginia Tech students who later become disciples of God in other countries, the Dorrell family has served its calling.

“We need to understand what’s our identity with God.”

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