January 2026 - My Missionary On-Line

January 2026

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Happy New Year from IBC and the Koppens!

I hope you’re enjoying and flourishing in 2026 as much as we are!

It was a rough end to 2025… My third daughter (Angie) broke her collarbone near the end of November and needed surgery. The Fall semester ended in December with the painful loss of one of our freshmen students who was unwilling to address her sin; this had a very strong impact on the other freshmen students. Then my entire family got sick the week of Christmas and we cancelled a lot of our plans—including the commitment I had made to speak at the Winter Break Retreat of Broken Arrow Bible Ranch.

By God’s grace we were still able to go to Urbana in Phoenix the last few days of December (even though Sarah and I still felt rough), including helping a group of students and alumni attend.

On January 3rd we did a blacklight paint party for Angie’s 16th birthday. It was a fun reprieve for her after being laid up with her shoulder injury.

As we gear up for the spring semester, we started with two block classes during “January term”: Intro to Biblical Counseling and Language Elective (which helps students learn their own tribal language). Sunday through Wednesday of this week we also offered the second on-campus “intensive” on Native Mending the Soul; two new training groups started up and five new alumni facilitators (all Native) were trained (pictured left). Participants came from
Washington, Idaho, and New Mexico. Sarah did a LOT of work on this. We are praising God for the amazing demand for and fruitfulness of the Native Mending the Soul project.

Next week six of us (pictured right) will travel to Billings, Montana our first regional training in Native Mending the Soul—hosted by the Southern
Baptists. We are told that 50 Native ministry workers will be in attendance! We plan to start five new training groups. This will be our first “conference style” training, so it will be a significant stretch for us. Please PRAY for us as we lead this conference January 21-23.

Would you also please PRAY for the funding of the Native Mending the Soul project? We have trips planned to South Dakota and British Columbia in February, and we continue to receive requests for training. This is all very expensive, and many of those needing training cannot “foot the bill”. We submitted four grant requests for $120,000 total and just $41,000 of that was funded. We are praising God for those funds, but are needing more help! You can give to this project at https://www.indianbible.org/support-nmts/.

As I write this, we have two new female students going through New Student Orientation. Since every student is returning from last Fall (other than the one mentioned above) we will actually have an enrollment increase for the start of the Spring semester. Please PRAY for these two new students and all the returning students as we start the new Spring semester on Monday (yes, on MLK Day!) You can be encouraged by watching a brand-new student testimony video here:

Finally, please PRAY for the staff as we prepare for the upcoming spring semester. We have a phenomenal staff right now who are gifted, committed, and effective. AND they are almost 2/3rds Native American! Pray too for funding for the staff raising support and for the Native Staff Development Fund (NSDF). The NSDF is helping fund a lot of Native staff and will likely be out of money in a couple of months. You can give to this fund at https://www.indianbible.org/partner/ (select Native Staff Development Fund from the I want to support drop-down menu).

I am SO thankful for those who partner with IBC through prayer, volunteerism, and financial support! You are an invaluable part of the team! I’m praying the Lord’s blessing for you all,

Dr. Jason Koppen
Child of God, Husband, Father, and President

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