November-December Ministry Update

Greetings from Arizona,

Tis the season to wrap up the fall semester. Please pray for the students who are attempting to complete final assignments and pray for their time with family and friends over Christmas break. Often students may not encounter a safe or spiritually healthy environment while they’re away from school. Prayers of protection and prayers that they create opportunities to be a positive influence for folks at home are appreciated.

I’m thankful for a successful semester, witnessing the students continuing to grow and transform into who God has called them to be. The last number of weeks included some nice events, including the staff being asked to decorate our office door (my door – photo right, but I didn’t win the contest), special help for scholarship applications and the fall conference along with preview days.

Financial Aid – Scholarship opportunities

This semester I was able to help 15 of our eligible full-time students process and receive their Pell Grant, including 3 students who, through some extra work related to their current financial situation, resulted in the blessing of a Pell Grant for the year.

Since Indian Bible College (IBC) became nationally accredited the Navajo students have had the opportunity to apply for a significant scholarship through the Navajo Nation, however, many have never applied or done so on time. Therefore, this fall we organized a Scholarship Lunch (photo below) for those who hadn’t yet applied. They brought their laptops to the student center in order to begin the application process with the hopes that a spring semester scholarship might be awarded. Pray that the 11 Navajo students (half of our student body) will be blessed by scholarship help from their tribe.

Fall Conference & Preview Days

November is Native American History month, so not only during Tuesday chapels, but also each day of the Fall Conference both students and staff shared about their tribes, culture, language and traditions. It’s always educational.

During the 3 conference days alumni joined us as well as preview days students. It’s always a blessing to meet with potential IBC students who may either begin classes in the spring semester or next fall.

Together we celebrated the completion of the Native edition of Mending the Soul (MTS) and heard presentations from students and staff who traveled on IBC sponsored International trips in the summer of ’24 to Mexico, Spain and France. Please pray for opportunities that the students and graduates will have in the summer of 2025 to serve and share God’s love throughout the world.

Several of IBC’s staff, known as the native resource team for Mending the Soul Ministries, recently completed a “contextualized Mending the Soul Workbook for the 574 tribes in the US. More than four in five Native Americans have experienced some form of violence in their lifetime, and now they have Christ-centered trauma care for their specific community!” (quote from the MTS website)

Personal Update

Regarding my health, I’m continuing to seek answers through two new specialists, as all the other providers have seemed to run out of possibilities to pursue for the cause of hypercalcemia. For 16 months I’ve struggled with daily fatigue, shortness of breath and voice hoarseness, to which there have been no causes found although those symptoms began after having pulmonary embolus and 2 years of hypercalcemia and chronic kidney disease. Thankfully, I’m on a medication that seems to be keeping the calcium level normal which means the kidney disease is not progressing at this time. Please pray that the hypercalcemia cause is found. Jesus remains my hope!

Have a very Merry Christmas and a joyous New Year!
The babe in the manger is our King,
Linda