Missionary stories filled with the heart of God. Please keep them in your prayers.
Dear friends, Aloha from beautiful Hawaii! Our sabbatical here has been a great blessing, and I was planning to tell you all about it in my first update in over two months; unfortunately the coronavirus crisis is pre-empting focusing on our personal matters, so I’ll send out more information on that next week
Dear friends, I write this to you on the eve of our departure for Hawaii. Our bags are packed (all 17 of them!) and our tasks of handing things off have been completed. We’ve spent a lot of time visiting family here in Oregon, including time with 12 of the 13 cousins. We visited ourContinue reading January 2020
What a blessing to serve the Lord here at the Indian Bible College. And this month we are delighted to share with you a photojournal of our praises and prayer requests.
Dear friends, IBC’s school year is off to a good start! We are halfway through the semester and we are seeing significant growth in student lives! The spiritual warfare I referred to in the previous email is still going on, but we are experiencing God’s goodness and protection–thanks in part to your prayers!
Dear IBC Friends, Happy September! IBC had an eventful summer, with new staff joining the team, seven work teams improving our facilities, a local fire and the possibility of flooding, and much more. My family traveled for the school for the month of July; we are grateful for the connections we were able to make.Continue reading September 2019
The Indian Bible College just wrapped up an amazing school year! Here are a few of the highlights: Four Native Americans leaders joined the staff. We had more full-time, on-campus students (35) than ever before. IBC graduated more students with bachelor’s degrees than ever before in one year—all of whom were leading discipleship groups ofContinue reading June 2019
Dear friends, First of all, let me share that the Lord has answered your prayers for an Academic Dean! Just last week Gene Stevenson was offered–and accepted–the role of Academic Dean. He is in his late-30’s, is pursuing his doctorate, and has a great passion for cross-cultural ministry–and a growing burden for Native Americans. GeneContinue reading May 2019
The Koppen Family has been very active these last four months. This is a glimpse into our lives in 2019.
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.
Dear friends and ministry partners, The new semester is up and running and going well! We’ve had a total of five full-time students leave IBC over the last four months, but two new students started in January, so our full-time enrollment is 32. We seemed to be too full last semester, so this semester isContinue reading February 2019
Dear friends, The picture above captures one of my favorite moments of the semester: while teaching the Indian Bible College Core Values to the twelve students in my Human Relationships class, our new President’s Cabinet came into the class to help model our fourth Core Value (team leadership).
Happy Thanksgiving, my friends! This year’s “Thanksgiving edition” of my update is going to start with the prayer requests, then move to ALL the things I am thankful for.
Dear friends, The new school year is up and running and we have a packed campus! Thanks for your prayers for our preparations.
Greetings from the other side of the world in India! It has been an amazing trip with a powerful impact on the lives of others. I was privileged to preach both Sundays, first in southern India (Ongole) and then yesterday morning in northern India (Bhimtal). We visited villages, a school for the blind, and prayedContinue reading Update from India! July 29, 2018
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 theContinue reading July 2018
I am working feverishly to get caught up on my time-sensitive projects so I can begin some family vacation, but wanted to take a few minutes to update you on the end-of-the year events that you were praying for. Celebration weekend was amazing! Here is a breakdown on what took place May 24-26:
Greetings in Christ! At our annual Feedback Chapel on Tuesday, we asked students a number of diagnostic questions to get their perspective on our strengths and weakness. We asked about student life discipleship, academics, facilities, financial services, and more. Here are a few of the responses to the question “What do you wish other peopleContinue reading May 2018
Dear friends, God is doing amazing things at the Indian Bible College! Here is a description of last month’s confession chapel (written by staff member Martha Gushee):
Dear friends,
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January and February have been two of the busiest months we’ve had in a long time! Here is a glimpse—through pictures—of what has taken place: In early January we planned a trip to Phoenix to pick up a potential staff member from the airport. Sarah and I drove down separately, and the school minivan she (and the kids) were in broke down north of Phoenix. Most of the school vehicles are older with high miles, so have “old vehicle issues”.”The day did not go as planned, but thankfully we were able to get the van “towed” (pictured here) and still pick up our new friend from the airport! |
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Happy New Year to all! Jason has asked me (Sarah) write the update this month so I can share with you about the family and some of my ministries. I thought I would take you through a typical week for our family. |
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Beneath a warm autumn sun IBC students and a few staff leap from the school van and file expectantly into the imposing church building cowering beneath the mountain. Only returning students have an inkling of what is about to take place. Staff who have arrived earlier to prepare
welcome them at the door with handshakes, smiles, and verbal greetings.
Inside the building there are seats for 34 of us around a horseshoe formation of tables decorated for fall. In the center sits a smaller table carefully holding a wine goblet filled with juice, and an unbroken loaf of bread. Welcome to our annual Lord’s Supper Chapel. Do you smell the pork roast?
The atmosphere is a bit subdued as we anticipate the meal. Teaching is given from I Corinthians 11 on the Lord’s Supper; did you know that our Christian gatherings can do more harm than good (v. 17) if we are being selfish instead of loving (v. 21)? Wow! What does that mean for our gathering today?…for the gatherings as the church?
Happy Thanksgiving, my friends!
The semester is going very well! We are thankful that we are on pace to see all 23 of our full-time students finish the semester—a rare occurrence, given the incredible spiritual and cultural pressures they face to drop out.
As I write this letter, IBC is in the throes of a new school year. The staff is busy teaching new classes (including two extension classes), establishing trust in new discipling relationships, and training student leaders. Most of last year’s students have returned and we have some great new students! We are excited for all the Lord has in store in the new year!
From the Desk of the President
Dear friends,
New student orientation is underway and regular classes begin Monday! We have NINE exciting new students that arrived on campus yesterday. This may be the most motivated and ministry-minded freshman class I’ve seen in my 9+ years at IBC! You can begin praying for them right away…
Dear friends,
What a joy the end of the school year was! We had 12 graduates, including four bachelor grads, who received a certificate or diploma. Many of the presentations in the Friday night Student Ministry Showcase were very inspiring, we had almost 20 alumni represented at our Saturday morning alumni breakfast, and Commencement speaker (and Navajo Nation Vice President) Jonathan Nez did an amazing job.