Incredible Impact

To Sabbath School teachers: This story is for Sabbath, July 24.

By Diana Fish

W

hat kind of impact can a mission school have on a family?

Shima, which means “mother” in the Navajo language, heard about Holbrook Seventh-day Adventist Indian School about 40 years ago.

An elderly friend spoke very highly of Holbrook Seventh-day Adventist Indian School, located on the Navajo Reservation in the U.S. state of Arizona.

“The school provides an excellent education to our Navajo children,” he said.

Shima listened carefully because she very much respected her friend. He had worked as a code talker for the U.S. military, using the little-known Navajo language as a means of secret communications during wartime. Shima enrolled five of her seven children at Holbrook Seventh-day Adventist Indian School.

Her eldest son learned how to weld and do other metal work at Holbrook Seventh-day Adventist Indian School. He loved working with metal and became a metalworker.

Shima’s second-eldest child, a girl, decided to go to an Adventist college after graduating from Holbrook Seventh-day Adventist Indian School. She studied nursing at Pacific Union College in California and works today as a nurse on the Navajo Reservation.

Shima did not send her two youngest children to Holbrook Seventh-day Adventist Indian School. She decided not to send them because she became unhappy with the school. One of her daughters, Nabaa, had some difficulties at the school, and the school ended up asking her to leave. Shima felt hurt that her daughter was not allowed to stay.

It turned out, however, that Nabaa not only had difficulties at Holbrook Seventh-day Adventist Indian School but she also had difficulties at every school she attended. She eventually graduated from another school, where she lived with a Christian family, and went on to college and became a teacher. Nabaa is still teaching and is a member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church today.

Nabaa must have forgiven Holbrook Seventh-day Adventist Indian School for dismissing her because she enrolled all three of her children at the school. Nabaa’s children, who are young adults, have graduated from Holbrook and are doing well. One is a teacher and another is about to become a teacher. The third child is the wife of an Adventist pastor and is studying to become a teacher, too.

What ever happened to Shima’s two youngest children who never went to Holbrook? They learned about Jesus from their family members and both became Seventh-day Adventists. One of them teaches at an Adventist school today.

What kind of impact can a mission school have on a family? Holbrook Seventh-day Adventist Indian School has had a major impact on Shima’s family and many others on the Navajo Reservation and beyond.

Thank you for your Thirteenth Sabbath Offering three years ago that kickstarted plans on a new gym and health center called New Life Center at Holbrook Seventh-day Adventist Indian School. Your offering this quarter will help finish the second phase of the center, where the school will address high rates of obesity, heart disease, diabetes, depression, and suicide among Native American children and youth.