Students Find Faith, Hope at Rehoboth

Rehoboth Christian School’s director, Carol Bremer-Bennett, is adopted, her rich background a stew of Dutch, Mennonite, and Navajo, all ingredients God has stirred together to prepare her to minister in New Mexico.

Adopted by a Dutch Christian Reformed Church family, Bremer-Bennett’s birth mother is Mennonite and her birth father is Navajo.

“God had a place for me here at Rehoboth and a calling that would bring those worlds together.”

Rehoboth, a PK -12 school with 475 students, is 110-years-old. It was started by Dutch CRC missionaries who wanted to spread the gospel to Native Americans.

“We’ve been going strong ever since,” Bremer-Bennett said.

The school’s population is largely Native, with 70 percent of the students coming from Navajo or Zuni backgrounds; many of them live on reservations.

“It’s a ministry to students, parents and the whole community,” she said.

“There are a lot of difficult things on the rez: alcohol, gambling, drugs, suicide, domestic violence, and unemployment.”

At Rehoboth, many of these families find hope through a Christ-centered education and teachers and staff whose care goes beyond the school day.

Bremer-Bennett tells of one student who recently gave his testimony at a school concert.

“He had just heard from his mom after two years,” she said.

The boy, who lived with his grandparents, revealed a childhood in which his mother locked him and his baby brother in a closet while she did heroin.

Now a tenth grader, the boy was thrilled by the unexpected call. The mother told her son that she had become a Christian, and that he was her hero.

“That happens a lot here. You reach out to the children and the parents see a change in their child,” said Bremer-Bennett. “At Rehoboth, we are their faith community. This is the place they go for worship and support.”