Thank you so much for your prayers for our two significant events last month! Both the ANAM Southwest Regional (where IBC staff have students served three years in a row) and the workshop at the ABHE Convention went exceedingly well.

Here are a few specific observations from the ABHE convention workshop:

  • Native staff Coreen, Ammie, and Joshua each did an AMAZING job. They were all articulate and concise.
  • The conference planner, director of accreditation, and an ABHE board member all reaffirmed how important this topic (multi-ethnicity in higher education) is to have communicated at the convention, and that it needs to be a recurring event.
  • The other educational leaders participating in the panel discussion (the president of a Hispanic school and vice-president of a Black school) were extremely grateful for IBC taking the lead on putting the workshop together.

 

Last Thursday IBC had its annual Confession Chapel, where staff and students have the chance to live James 5:16 (“confess your sins to each other”) and Galatians 6:1-2 (“restore those caught in a sin” and “bear one another’s burdens”). This chapel is one of the best indicators that IBC is truly full of grace and truth as Christ is (John 1:14).

Chapel lasted over four hours, as the majority of the student body shared their story of either past abuse or present struggle with sin. There is nowhere else that makes these students feel safe enough to share this kind of heartache and brokenness. After each person speaks, they are surrounded by staff and students who pray for them. Our disciplemaking staff then follow up with many of the students afterwards to help them live out repentance and/or
pursue healing from the trauma of the past.

I have a few prayer requests for you this month:

  • Please pray for all the students who confessed sin and struggle in chapel last week; pray that they would learn to walk in freedom and live out their repentance free of shame.
  • All the students and several of the staff (myself included) hit the road for ministry this weekend for the annual Ministry Immersion Trip: the majority of the student body will be serving on the Navajo reservation, while I and my family will lead a trip to Texas and Oklahoma for seven students and two other staff. Please pray for fruitful ministry for both teams.
  • Dean of Women Coreen Esplin is beginning a seven-week soul-care sabbatical this weekend, giving her the opportunity to recover from the heartache of carrying the deep burdens of so many of our female students.
  • Please pray for rest and refreshment during this time; pray too for my wife Sarah, who will be assuming a lot of the discipleship responsibilities in Coreen’s absence.

Thank you for your faithful prayers and generosity towards seeing Native Christians healed, walking in freedom,
and serving their own people!
Jason & family