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Looking back & moving forward
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2014: An unexpected journey
by Brian Snyder, Lifeline’s Navajo Ministry Administrator
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Looking back, 2014 started kind of sour for our Navajo ministry in Arizona with many issues and unresolved questions. In fact, in 2014, a great deal of time was spent crunching numbers and trying to figure out how this was going to work. God had a plan; we just didn’t see it yet. Most of 2014 was geared towards Red Sands Christian School, but a lot was about to happen that would shake our ministry to the core.
February brought even tougher news, as we didn’t see how we could financially survive another year operating Red Sands Christian School. Many prayers, questions and conversations were exchanged with ideas on how to move forward but very few answers were coming.
Ironically, I received an invitation to a Christian school administrator’s conference, which I wasn’t really interested in, but figured I could gain insights on how to shut a school down gracefully. But it was the opposite! The conference brought hope, encouragement and especially answers! We discovered a way to provide funding for the school and to grow enrollment.
School Tuition Organizations (STO’s) were introduced to us, which have been helping private Christian schools for years in Arizona. To keep it simple: Every Arizona tax payer (individual or corporations) can pay their taxes to the State or to Education. This educational tax credit is payable to STO’s and they in turn distribute it to private schools in Arizona. Wow! It sounded way too good to be true!
Lifeline’s leadership agreed on a trial run for receiving funds and less than 12 hours after registering, one STO let us know that a large amount of money was available to us if we qualified. After having all the paperwork and parents on board, we received an incredible amount of money for the last part of the school year! God is so good!
In March, I submitted a plan for the school’s survival to Lifeline’s leadership. We had a lot of work to do, but felt it was doable with the new door God had opened for us. With their approval, we began to make some changes. With the school headed in the right direction financially, we also needed to work on academics and perform an overhaul of the school. We realized a lot had been done to bring this school to where it is today. However, we wanted to take it to the next level. As John Maxwell said, “We want to use the ceiling of our past to be the floor of our future.” That’s exactly it!
In March/April, we received a new logo for the school, the parents were on board, we developed a new mission statement, and adopted Lifeline’s schools’ core values. We also began reviewing curriculum to select the best curriculum for the school. We had a lot of help from other Christian school’s in Arizona to get off on the right direction and make sure we were set to receive the maximum amount of funding for the 2014-15 school year.
As the school year came to a close in May, we made sure our teachers knew – and were on board with – the direction we were taking. All teachers would need to have a college degree, be working towards one, or have their state certification. We needed to make sure we had the right people on board for the future of the school.
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But then a step back, or so we thought…
May brought work teams to minister to the Navajo. We had been working on fixing up the Dilkon campus (on the Navajo Reservation) the year before and there were some remaining projects to make this a great area of ministry for the future. God knew what was coming and had prepared the perfect team for this time.
The third day the team was here, we were shocked to learn that our lease on the Dilkon property had been revoked! All property on the reservation is leased and is revocable. Our lease was given to us by a family in the 70’s, but now they wanted the property back. (This does happen and can become very ugly in disputes.) We decided not to fight this issue and graciously packed up everything and moved to a church back near Red Sands. This began a series of events that really helped us see how God is using us in Arizona!
What happened next restored our hope and was such a blessing: the Nazarene church in Leupp (on the Reservation) opened their facility for our team to stay there at no charge. What a blessing and the team was willing to do anything to make it work. The next week brought more blessings as First Baptist of Winslow opened their facility to us to house work teams. They not only helped us for the next week, but for the following year as well. The Methodist church in Winslow has offered their fellowship hall to us – for no charge! – for our street ministry too. One by one, the churches and Christians in the area began to lift us up in prayer, support and encouragement by helping us as they could.
The rest of the summer was great, as a lot of work team projects were completed and many new changes for the school were being implemented. One of the most exciting projects was the new school softball field. The kids are so excited about this and it was a huge blessing to see it completed. Churches and past teams continue to bless us with softball and other sporting equipment for the school.
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Moving in the right direction…
Two amazing events happened over the summer, which included a family at Red Sands giving their life to Jesus and being baptized in Clear Creek. It was a beautiful moment! Brian Schultz and Alicia Jensen also surrendered their lives to the Lord, along with one of the work team members and was baptized in Clear Creek. God is so good.
The school year started on July 29. There were more students and many new things: desks, curriculum, direction, core values, and much more. School funding began to come in through the scholarships and it really allowed us to move in a new direction with confidence.
Unfortunately as we moved forward, we knew at least two teachers were not going to stay with us, as we began interviewing for new teachers and a full-time Principal for the school. We had some great candidates, but two teachers stood out to us. We also had a great selection of candidates for Principal, but that never panned out for this school year.
In August we began to make plans for the two new teacher’s arrivals, as teachers Gertie Lee and Kristin Lee were leaving, which was hard for all of us. The first to arrive was our 4th-5th grade teacher, Jennifer Miller from Florissant, MO. Our second teacher to arrive was Anitra Harrison from Newport News, VA; she assumed the 6th-8th grade classroom. Both teachers were well received, and we ended up with four teachers and 25 students total for the school year.
Another great addition was Brian Schultz. He picks up a few students for us and also helps with maintenance around the mission. God again is so good in blessing us over and over.
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Exciting happenings
October led us to one of the neatest events we ever had at Red Sands. I convinced the ministerial association in Winslow to hold the Concert of Praise at Red Sands this past year. This incredible event was a huge success with 9-10 churches performing and approximately 200 in attendance; we hope to hold again in 2015.
In addition to this event we announced that Red Sands Christian Church would be taking work team to Haiti in October 2015. We have had about 5-6 people interested so far and this is truly exciting. We hope to share this cross-cultural experience with our church and show them that they do have a purpose in their life.
As we neared the end of 2014, we had the opportunity to attend ICOM in Columbus, OH. What an incredible conference and it was a very encouraging time for us all. Thank you to all who stopped by and encouraged us and prayed for us.
December came too quickly, but the teachers, students and staff were ready for the break. The school year ended with an incredible gift exchange with the gifts sent by sponsors, churches and individuals. The kids were truly blessed by you! Their year-end Christmas performance was a unique, modern twist on the Christmas story and they did a great job.
Again this year, two churches sent a large number of shoebox gifts for us to distribute the weekend before Christmas. This is one of the most moving times for us to touch the lives of not only the kids, but the parents alike. To be able to pray with those living on the Reservation, to hear the stories of struggle, and hand out gifts simply to show the love of Christ is an incredible opportunity and we are so grateful for the churches that participated in this again this year.
One of the last things to happen is that our large van died and the large school bus is getting a new transmission installed as I write this. This is a large expense that we need to take care of because we depend on this school bus every day of the year – with school and with work teams. It is about $4,000 and if you can help in any way with this, we would really appreciate it!
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Looking ahead
God continued to show His hand of love, grace and direction to us all year. It was probably one of the best years we have had so far. It did leave us with some questions that I hope God will lead us to answers, regarding building and vehicle needs. We have some exciting options, but obviously we want God to open this door wide to make sure we are all on board with where He is leading. I can’t wait to share with you about what He reveals, but I know that God is truly interested in making sure Red Sands Christian Church and School not only survive, but that the ministry truly thrives and reaches people with the hope that is found only in Him!
Thank you for being a part of this ministry in so many ways. We ask you to continue to support us in prayer, in finances and by coming and helping us in this ministry. We will keep you up-to-date with all that 2015 has to offer, and we look forward to partnering with you!
Thank you so much!
In Christ’s love,
Brian
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