Reflections from Rehoboth as a New High School Prepares to Open

Donovan Carlile is busy these days helping with electrical wiring and other tasks to make sure the new Rehoboth Christian High School in Rehoboth, N.Mex. is ready for the opening of classes on Thursday, Aug. 9.

Funded entirely by donations from alumni, families, churches, donors, and foundations, the more than $9 million facility for grades 9-12 will include 9 new classrooms, renovations to two existing classrooms, space for staff, an art classroom, two science labs, a computer lab, and a lounge space for students.

The new school will be about 30,000 square feet, housing up to 225 students. Until now, some students have had to attend classes in temporary classrooms on the campus.

Taking a break from his job, Carlile said he worked for 35 years building and designing roads for the Navajo tribe and retired several years ago to become maintenance supervisor on the Rehoboth campus.

He had been thinking of continuing for a few more years in road work, but then he learned of the position at the school while serving on the Rehoboth school board.

When they offered him the job, he thought it over and accepted, he said, excited by the prospect of the new school being planned and because the school means so much to him. He attended and graduated from Rehoboth.

“This school has been the building block of my faith. The people at the school have put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears into me and many others,” he said.

“God created this school and brought the people here for a purpose. I’ve always been open-minded and open-hearted about what I was doing. Rehoboth taught me a lot, and now I’m giving back.”

After graduating from the school, founded in 1903 by Christian Reformed Church missionaries, Carlile attended the University of New Mexico, where he studied civil engineering.

The years of constant travel and the hard work of civil engineering, along with other challenges, have at times set him back. But the friends he met at Rehoboth and at CRC congregations he’s attended have been there to help.

 “I’ve been through a lot of mud, but these guys [from the school and churches] have stood by me. It can be hard to find people like that who can articulate their faith and then live it out,” said Carlile.

One of his friends is Bob Ippel, choir director, former middle school teacher, and now executive director of Rehoboth Christian School. Ippel came to Rehoboth in 1993 and has known Carlile and members of his family for many years.

Carlile and his family members have been strong supporters of Rehoboth -- and they know from their own lives what a school like this means to people facing hardships.

“Rehoboth is a very important place. It can be a refuge for people when they are hurting,” said Ippel.

Over the years, he has seen people living on or near the Navajo reservation struggling with poverty, addiction issues, family strife and other things, “We do see brokenness and hurt and people just wandering in this area,” said Ippel. “But we believe God has a plan for each of us, and the school has played an important role in Donovan’s life and the lives of so many others.”

Ippel was named executive director last year. As the new high school awaits teachers and students, he is grateful, he says. The building is a testament to the faith and generosity of many people over the decades, especially members of the CRC.

“We are reminded that this new building would not have been built without the work of the Holy Spirit and the grace of God,” he said, sitting in his office in the administration building on the campus. “We have gotten tremendous gifts out of the blue. God is so good.”

Yet the new high school opens at a time of uncertainty. Christian education isn’t as important to families today as it was in the past. Meanwhile, other options such as charter schools are opening.

But especially important as the new school opens, said Ippel, is to be aware of and consider the painful elements of the past.

“There is a lot of baggage that comes from our past, and we have to ask ‘How do we move forward with that baggage?’” he said.

Ippel was referring to such things as the issues related to the Doctrine of Discovery report discussed at Synod 2016. The Doctrine of Discovery stemmed from a 15th-century papal edict that declared any land not inhabited by Christians could be claimed by European explorers—and this was used as a justification for Western expansion in North America.

CRC missionaries began to work in New Mexico in the early 20th century, starting churches and the school at Rehoboth. The Doctrine of Discovery report criticized the church for requiring students, then living in the Rehoboth boarding school, to put aside their native traditions and become  acclimated to the white European culture.

At the same time, though, some native CRC members in New Mexico were troubled by the criticism of the church. They believe the church began its work with the best of intentions in light of the times in which they were working.

Synod 2016asked church officials to continue, in light of the past, to keep working for reconciliation between the native peoples in New Mexico and the CRC.

“Reconciliation is an important part of what is happening here,” said Ippel. “Mistakes were made. We seek to stand with our native brothers and sisters who have a vision of how Rehoboth can be a light to the community.”

Very few mission schools are even open today. But the mission at Rehoboth is alive. Despite the pain and tears, said Ippel, “God is still alive among us as we take the next step and open the new high school building.”

Teachers at Rehoboth Christian School, especially art instructor Elmer Yazzie, inspired Rebecca Begay to become an artist who, along with her husband, Darryl, is today considered among the top makers of Native jewelry in the Southwest and beyond.

In addition, she said, they work in a field in which being a Christian tends to be rare.

The faith she was taught and nurtured in at Rehoboth, she said, has endured through good times and bad. And the essentials of art she learned at Rehoboth have blossomed into a career for which she and her husband have won many awards.

They live in Gallup, N. Mex., and have sent their children to Rehoboth Christian School, a place that has meant so much to Rebecca and now to her husband, who grew up in Arizona.

“We have become like the light of God on the art scene,” said Rebecca Begay. “In our art, we give the glory to God. Even in our times of hardship, God has been with us.”