Greetings dear friends!
Two weeks ago the IBC Board of Trustees met on campus (pictured right). Our members come from Arizona, Washington, California, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Texas. I am so blessed to have such a wise and committed group of saints to serve as my boss. Five board members were in the room and two joined online. As always, we spent a lot of our board meeting planning and praying for greater impact upon Native students in the future.
In the middle of that meeting we heard from the student who left due to her sin at the end of last semester that she wanted to return and is committed to walking in repentance. She returned to campus February 2nd; what an incredible answer to prayer!
Even though we are renting one of the homes we plan to buy, IBC is now completely full in our student housing with 30 on-campus students. Thank you for all the prayers over recent years for our enrollment! Please keep praying that we will be able to buy one of the adjacent homes in the near future so we can continue to grow our full-time enrollment.
Regarding the Native Mending the Soul (NMTS) training: Thank you for your prayers for the training in Montana a few weeks ago; it was a great blessing to see the enthusiasm from the 50- ish people that came out for the training! This annual gathering normally has just 12-15 Southern Baptist leaders from Montana; the NMTS training brought out 3 times that many— including those from North & South Dakota and Virginia and several denominations! The response was one of overwhelming gratitude and appreciation. We started five virtual training groups for leaders across those four states. See the pictures below, and in the banner to this page (credit to team member and graduate Aaron Betselie):
Would you pray for the two February Native MTS trips?
- February 14-16 Joshua & Brina Ortiz are partnering with Sarah and I to train the staff of Diamond Willow (https://www.d-w-m.org/) in South Dakota. I’m sending this letter from South Dakota; the picture to the right was taken last evening at the Missouri River in Chamberlain. While we are here we are planning to help connect two other ministries to Diamond Willow and each other, facilitating greater partnership for the kingdom in South Dakota.
- Then, February 22-26 Sarah, Coreen Esplin, Joshua Ortiz, and recent graduate Josiah Butler will be in British Columbia leading a youth leaders conference organized by NAIM (https://www.naim.ca/). We anticipate a total of 14 training groups will be in operation by the end of the month—plus the three groups currently operating on campus for IBC students! Pray for Sarah as she coordinates all of this.
Two final prayer requests:
We are now approved to offer our Christian Ministry Certificate entirely online via live hybrid (or “hyflex”). Our challenge now is to get the necessary state authorizations (we are currently authorized in just Arizona and New Mexico) so students across the country can take classes. Please pray for these endeavors.
Our Academic Dean Josh Manning is leading the way on a curriculum revision; the last one was in 2019. Please pray that we would be attentive to all the changes and improvements that are needed to more effectively serve Native students.
You’re invited to join us for Celebration Weekend May 22-23. The Showcase on Friday the 22nd will include a very important announcement, and the Commencement on the 23rd is always a great party!
I’ve recently been reading about (and lamenting over) the demise of my alma mater Multnomah Seminary. I was deeply blessed by my time at that school, and IBC is deeply blessed because of the things I learned there. It is a strong reminder of the blessing that IBC has in YOU—Its faithful partners in praying, giving, and serving—who keep this school thriving.
As Philippians 1:3-6 says:
I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
Thank you!
Jason
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