School

Immanuel Mission is located on the Navajo Nation in the northeast corner of Arizona. It began in 1924 when Clara Holcomb and her father came to bring the Gospel to the Navajo people. In the 40’s the community asked the Christians to have a primary school for their children that was closer to home and where the children would be given the love of Christ. In the 70’s the dorms burned down and the
mission staff decided to purchase buses instead of boarding the students. In the 80’s a high school was added and there were times with up to 125 students at the school. Due to a reduction in students and teachers, in 2018 we had our last graduating class as we reduced our school ministry to once again focus on K-8 th grade.

We currently have 53 pre-K through 8 th grade students at the school. The school has always been a tool to reach the community with the love of Christ. It brings children and parents into our sphere of influence every day. Other ministries we have are the Immanuel Navajo Chapel which has about 50-70 people each Sunday. We have a men’s auto mechanics shop that meets every Thursday to help work on
neighbors’ vehicles. There is a sewing ministry every Friday for women who make things to share with the elderly and also to nursing homes. Many are involved in small Bible studies with people in the community. We have a weekly youth group for teens. Visiting teams come primarily in the summer to do VBS outreaches and work projects. Our gym is used regularly by the community for family functions.
Funerals are held and graves are dug with much more regularity than we would like, but it is another opportunity to point people to Jesus and the resurrected life He offers.

Because of the generosity of the Lord’s saints we have been able to “hire” several Navajo workers to help us in the work here as supplemental teachers and support staff in the school. We give them the national minimum wage and then encourage them to trust the Lord to provide for each of them beyond
that. Please consider partnering with a specific Navajo worker to pray for them and to financially support them in the work here. It is a joy to see students we have taught now filling roles in the school and reaching Navajo people with the truth of the Gospel.

We would like to see more Navajo classroom teachers. Two of our classroom teachers, a husband and wife, are both at retirement age and will want to be replaced in the next few years. We are praying that the Lord will provide a Navajo speaker at our church to share the truth of God’s Word in the Navajo language. We long for our neighbors to leave behind the “elemental things of the world” and know
their Creator who offers them adoption as sons. Pray for us as we seek the Lord’s will in sharing the truth of new life and a relationship with Jesus Christ.

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.”

Proverbs 1:7