Month: January 2021

I have been able to make regular weekly home visits to work with many of my students.  We are working on social skills as well as academic skills, but sharing has been a tricky thing during this pandemic.  On one home visit, I had a balloon for the preschooler but not for her older sister.  The older sister said, “PLEASE, can I play with your balloon?!” and the preschooler looked at her like she was crazy and answered, “Um, NO…  GERMS!!”   Preschoolers certainly know how to take advantage of  the pandemic when it serves their purposes.:) 

Anne Moffitt

Every morning I text 8 -10 families to remind them to get on Zoom in 10 minutes.  It doesn’t come with a snooze feature, but I have called 30 minutes later if a kid still doesn’t show up so I guess it actually does.

A new 6^th grader wasn’t being successful at his school and has enrolled in our school.  Miss Kelli is teaching Acts and he asked what “saved” meant.  It is exciting to get to teach him about the Lord Jesus.

The 2^nd graders are saying their memory verses to their moms.  Mr. Jim got to hear Mom and Grandma quote the 2^nd grader’s verse as a result of helping him learn it.  They wanted the prize of a Sweetwater sticker—which IS pretty cool.

Several non-students are watching our chapels on the Immanuel Mission School Facebook page each week.  Immanuel’s message is heard here and even to the remotest part of the earth. God is with us all.

Teachers are going above and beyond with home visits every week and personal zoom calls or phone calls daily. You could still help us here by teaching a science unit remotely.  Or connect me with someone who might be interested and willing to meet this need.

Anne Denny/Principal

This year has been the year of firsts. First-year of teaching (for me), 1st day in the classroom, two weeks later we had our 1stday of school outside and a week later we switched, and had our 1st-day of house visits. All of these changes due to following the covid regulations. This year has had a sense of “who knows what will happen next,” but through all of the changes, God has constantly provided the right      resources and right ideas at just the right time.  

Has it been a challenging year? It has not been  without its    challenges.    For example, we as  teachers have to pick what is the most important for the   students to learn,  because  distance learning just takes longer than  usual learning.  But there is so much good that is coming out of it too. School wide we have Bible lessons  being sent into the home; we have    Chapels being sent into the home each week, and if you were wondering what you could pray for… yes pray that teaching will be effective and the      students will learn life skills, but also pray that the word of the Lord would not    return void,  but it would reach not  only  the  students but the families that are hearing the messages in their own homes. God is  doing great things THIS year. 2020 is not a mistake. As Psalm 139:16b says, “All the days ordained for me were  written in your book before one of them came to be.”

Christy Love

Hi, my given name is Sami Davies and my Navajo name is Dághá?gai which means ’White Beard’. God’s blessed me with the opportunity to lead a men’s study for the past 2 years with 2 or 3 men participating,  We started with Romans, then 1st John. When we finished 1 John, around the middle of May, all three said they wanted to study Revelation. We’ve been studying it weekly and just finished Chapter 15 today. Revelation really proves itself to be a blessing and almost necessitates these final words every week….’But wait, there’s more!’…..

Currently, God has opened possible opportunity for 3 more men’s studies. The first 2 or 3 meetings we will go through a short booklet called, “Who’s the Greatest Man Alive”. I describe it like this, “If you know Christ, it is a wonderful refreshing tryst with Him. If you don’t know Christ, it is a wonderful opportunity to come to know Who He is, What He has done and What we must do.” And in studying the booklet, we go to the scriptures and they get the opportunity to read them for themselves.

Please pray I will be faithful to the Bible in leading the studies and that the eyes of each one of us participating are opened to the wonderful things in God’s law.

Thank you, Brother in Christ, Dághá?gai, Sami Davies

“Hello?  Are you there?” “Can you hear me? Can you see me?”

“Ok everybody, let’s put the kittens away so we can do math.”

“Hi grandma!  Everyone say ‘Hi’ to grandma. Okay, back to History” 

These are just a few of the things you might hear (repeatedly) if you walk by our classroom while teaching on zoom.  It definitely has its challenges, but it makes life interesting.  One student joined our class in the car for the first hour and sitting in Home Depot for the next hour (don’t ask me why?)

Instead of walking to the sharpener to show off your new shoes, you can now make us all jealous by what snack you get to eat while on camera.  Learning new concepts takes 3x as long (at least that was true with learning to add fractions with un-like denominators).   Some days, the teacher goes home and screams or cries or both in frustration.  But we get to see each other, we get to talk to and/or tease friends.  We recognize we are not alone.  We are learning and growing (slowly).  We pray together and for one another.  The Word of the Lord is being read, preached, studied, and quoted in each home.  We are learning to be thankful for what we have, had, and will have.  We are hopeful for the future.  This is just a season.  The Lord is always good, always faithful, and always with us.  We are Immanuel Mission School—God with us.  

Kelli Wilson

The Bible says, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me;  for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you shall find rest unto

your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”  Matt. 11:28-30. 

     Since the pandemic began, our whole teaching        technique  has changed here at Immanuel Mission. So what does a school bus driver do all day? I get the cake jobs… Delivering lunch, shuttling homework and bringing assignments back  to school. Generally having a good time driving around the desert. Mornings before lunch, might find me helping John Bloom on a capital improvement project, or helping with  maintenance. Speaking for myself only, I will admit the yoke is easy.

 Like being on vacation. 

Scott Valentine

 We are thankful to the Lord for His continued direction in hosting the Open Shop for our community!   This is our  second year of running Open Shop every Thursday from   9-3 in the VoTech (Auto Shop) building at the Mission.  We have a wonderful group of dedicated men  that come to work together on each other’s vehicles and projects and also serving the elderly and single women around Sweetwater. Young men come to learn and work alongside more experienced men in the areas of mechanics, welding, and general repair.  We share a message from the  Word and a time of prayer together while Brie and  another wife make lunch for the men. This ministry has been such a blessing to each of those involved.  It is a place of  friendship,  learning, growing together,and serving one another. Please continue to pray for those who come, that their hearts would be soft towards the Gospel. We are blessed by God’s faithfulness in the     Open Shop ministry and are thankful for  your continued prayer support!  

Kevin Bielecki