Dear friends,
IBC teams are always well received by Native churches as they are amazed and blessed to interact with the joyful, mature, developing leaders that are IBC students. In May the Indian Bible College sent six teams of people out for “Promo Weekend.” Five of these groups of ambassadors for the Lord and the school went into Native churches around Arizona, ministering to children, youth, and adults through testimonies, service projects, Bible teaching, and sharing about the school.
The sixth team went to Canada! The photo on the right is of student Logan Davis, who represented IBC at a youth conference attended by hundreds of Native/First Nations youth near Alberta, Canada. He only had a few minutes to share in front of the group, but a few minutes were all he needed. Here is an excerpt of his trip report:
One of the things I had said about IBC was how we want to see Native people, First Nations people to stop being the missions field, and start being the missions force, not only to their reserves but to others’ tribes and the world. After I said that the crowd started clapping their hands and cheering for what seemed like a minute.
IBC’s big vision resonates in a big way with Native young people! The Board of Trustees met just two weeks ago and did some editing of our vision statement, and you all are the first to see the “new and improved” version! Are you ready?
IBC’s vision is to be the premier Indigenous Christian leadership training organization, helping the Native church cease to be the mission field and rise to become a mighty missionary-sending force.
Much of this vision will take a long time (decades? generations?) to accomplish, but IBC is on its way to being a significant leadership training force to see scores of healthy Native leaders leading a multitude of healthy Native churches so they can send a wave of healthy Native missionaries around the world.
We’ve seen some incredible gains in our 60th year towards this vision, including progress in all four of our initiatives:
- The addition of the new Student Center, which is the most significant campus expansion in almost 50 years (ribbon-cutting pictured above).
- The passing of a bill through the Arizona State Legislature to clear away an accreditation road block. The picture above shows the team that “lobbied” for the bill on the floor of the Arizona House of Representatives with bill sponsor Bob Thorpe.
- A record 22 graduates walked in commencement, including four students from our Navajo extension site. The picture above shows Jason with the Associate and Bachelor graduates.
- The funding of our first ever Director of Work position, which will be filled by new graduate Joshua Ortiz. Josh (in the black robe in the graduate picture) will be helping develop other students in vocational and entrepreneurial skills.
What an incredible year we’ve had! We praise God for you and your part in bringing this to pass!
One of the ongoing challenges is the recruitment and retention of staff. The end of this school year our registrar, Jan Hanson, left to move back near family in Idaho. This created a need—and an opportunity—for one of our graduates to step into her role. Ammie Palmer (Apache, 2015 IBC graduate) has wanted to have a chance to be the registrar for a long time, and Jan trained her in this role before leaving. Ammie needs to raise a significant amount of new support to be compensated for the 30 hours per week we need her, so I am including her prayer letter and paypal link in case the Lord moves you to partner with IBC through her financial support.
I am so thankful for the amazing privilege of leading this amazing organization. Thank you for your prayers for me and my beloved family,
Jason
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Dagot’ee
“Welcome” in Apache
My name is Ammie Palmer and I currently work at Indian Bible College. I graduated from the college in 2015 with a BA in Biblical Studies. I come from the White Mountain Apache Tribe in Arizona. I also attend Phoenix Seminary and am pursuing a Master of Arts degree in Ministry. This last semester I completed Survey of the Prophets and Introduction to Counseling. In addition to attending seminary, I’ve worked at the college for the previous three years.
A little more about myself: Last fall I got a puppy. His name is George. Unfortunately, he cannot live on campus so he is currently with a good friend of mine. He is happy and growing like a weed. He enjoys long walks and drinking water.
In the last three years, I have served in a few different positions at the college. I have had opportunity to serve Student Life as an assistant, in the Admissions Department as Admissions Counselor, and for Financial Aid. I recently got a new position at the college as Registrar.
We are currently anticipating as many as 35 to 40 full-time students for Fall 2018, 15 being incoming freshmen. As Registrar, I will be working with the Academic Dean, assisting students with class schedules, managing the Student Management System, helping with the State licensure paperwork and anything else that serves our students in the Academic Department. For example, this summer I will be working on organizing student files, pre-registering students, and gathering data for annual assessments and future accreditation visits.
Indian Bible College staff all raise their own support to work. As a missionary my monthly goal is $1800. The great news is that IBC will match up to 50% from the Native Staff Development Fund, meaning I need to get to $900 per month. I currently average $300 and need $600 per month to meet my goal. Would you please pray and consider joining my support team and help me serve my fellow brothers and sisters at Indian Bible College for the years to come?
Ashóóg “Thank You”
Ammie
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