God With Us
“I had a wonderful time”
In September we had a delightful women’s conference put on by Village Ministries International. The women all met together for singing and eating then separated for teaching. Village Ministries shared the materials with Helen Tom, a local believer who taught the same thing to our Navajo speakers while VMI taught the English speakers. Tears were shed, hearts were touched. “Thank you. I needed to hear my own language spoken from the Bible.”
Then: Immanuel Mission is located on the Navajo Nation in the northeast corner of Arizona. It began in 1924 when Clara Holcomb and her parents came to bring the Gospel to the Navajo people. After unhappy experiences with government boarding schools, parents asked the missionaries to teach their children. So in the late 40’s they began a small boarding school for primary students. In the 70’s the dorms burned down and the mission staff decided to purchase buses instead of boarding. In the 80’s a high school was added and there were times with up to 125 students. Due to a reduction in students and teachers, in 2018 we dropped the high school to once again focus on K-8th grade and a year later added a pre-K.
Now: I love to say that the school is a tool for evangelism. Our primary goal is to reach our neighbors with the message of salvation and new life in Christ. In addition to the school, we have other ministries such as a vibrant church, open shop, sewing class, Mom’s group, and home Bible studies. In the summer, church groups from all over the US come to do work projects and VBS in the community.
Needs: We have a pressing need for a bus mechanic/maintenance person. We will need a 5th/6th grade teacher and a Kindergarten teacher. Pray with us that the Lord who has provided for 100 years will continue to provide.
To paraphrase the Macedonian, “Come over to Arizona and help us!”
Anne Denny, Principal
dennyanne@gmail.com
We thank the Lord for all your prayers this summer when we had the devastating hail storm. Raefer Begaye, Nate Lee and others have done a lot of work cleaning up, repairing and replacing. Praise the Lord for Brotherhood Mutual and Jim Hollinger with Wray Roofing from Kansas who came and replaced the roof of the school and gym. We still have more to do—some inside fixes were put on hold until we had the roof repaired, slides still need to be replaced, windows aren’t all finished, but God is faithful and has sent several workers this fall to help.
A dear friend of Immanuel Mission is Brad Keating and his family. While visiting in October, he took the boys P.E. class to Cortez, Colorado for a real golfing experience with a profession golf instructor. Read about it at the link above.
We are five weeks into the summer. We have had three work groups with four more coming. We have made great progress on the new apartment. This week we will lay the tile floor and finish painting. All that will be left will be carpet and kitchen cabinets. The carpet has already been donated. We still need to purchase the cabinets. We have also progressed nicely on a new house for Ranson and Lula Tom. The house is mostly framed but still needs a roof and interior walls as well as electrical and plumbing to finish the rough construction.
Immanuel Mission 