Dear Friends,
BC Staff Standing in Recognition of Candidate Status
It gives me great jot to announce that IBC was awarded Candidate Status by the Association for Biblical Higher Education (ABHE) on February 7th! Thank you for your prayers for this.
When I came to the Indian Bible College in August 2008 to be the Academic Dean, one of my main assignments from the the-npresident was to get the school accredited. When I became the president in February 2009 I retained the role of Dean, but pursuit of accreditation was moved to the “back-burner” behind priorities like improving staff morale, balancing the budget, increasing enrollment, and expanding facilities. In the last four years the Lord brought an Academic Dean, a Librarian, and a Registrar, all of whom arrived at IBC with experience in those roles! In recent years we have been almost fully staffed, have had ever-strengthening finances, and have raised up more students leaders and graduates than ever before, all of which have made a strong case for IBC’s stability and accreditation worthiness.
Students now have the opportunity to transfer IBC credits to other ABHE schools and to receive tribal and federal grants for tuition assistance. To learn more about ABHE or accreditation go to https://www.abhe.org/. IBC achieved Candidate Status in just three years instead of the normal four or five. The director of the Commission on Accreditation told us we were the strongest of all the school’s receiving Candidacy this year, and then encouraged us to go through this next phase in just two or three years! Praise the Lord for all he has done to bring IBC to this place of fruitfulness!
The Indian Bible College had the great privilege of hosting Dr. Emerson Falls for chapel on February 16th. Dr. Falls is from Oklahoma and is one of the nation’s foremost Native leaders. His chapel message was a powerful and inspiring challenge to the next generation of Native Christians to rise up as leaders.
We recorded his message; you can watch it at by going to our Indian Bible website: www.indianbible.org. The next two days Emerson was the keynote speaker at the Southwest Regional Conference for the Association of North American Missions, where I serve as the committee chairman. A total of 125 people attended the conference throughout the weekend.
Emerson Falls Speaking in IBC Chapel
Please be in prayer for my family and I; this is a very busy travel season and we are feeling fatigued. We leave tomorrow to drive to Oregon for a week; later in the month I fly to Alaska, Washington, and Idaho, gone from my family for nine days. I am in the midst of a five week stretch where I preach six times on four Sundays in four different states.
We delight to minister to Native Americans on your behalf–thank you for your faithful prayers and financial support!
Jason and family
The Koppens Singing the “Family Song” at the ANAM Conference