From Crisis to Character – Reflecting on Five Years of Pandemic Impact

By Dr. Jason Koppen (President)

It’s hard to believe that it has been a full five years since the world was turned upside down by the COVID-19 pandemic. For the IBC community, 2020 was a year characterized by uncertainty, prayer, lament, and hope. The loss of community and connection on our small campus was a source of grief as classes went online, many students returned home, most prospective students decided not to come, and families celebrated commencement from their cars. The volunteers who usually enliven and revitalize our campus over the summer months were absent. Some of these painful outcomes lasted for several years. From the outside, IBC looked like a tree that had lost its leaves and gone dormant for the long winter months. But much like the bare trees that surround many of us at this time of year in the Northern Hemisphere, a hidden flourishing was taking place despite all appearances.

I am an avid journaler; it is a fundamental part of my devotional and prayer life. I just finished—and re-read—the journal that I began writing in February 2020—just before the beginning of the pandemic. On August 1, 2020 I wrote: “LORD, COVID makes it difficult to see, which makes it difficult to lead. I feel like the blind leading the blind. Help me understand these matters. Help me think, pray, feel deeply so that I can lead…”

Alongside the uncertainty and grief of that year, hope and action also took root in our community. IBC became a host site for the Navajo Nation food outreach, facilitated by multiple ministries. The IBC Hope Team was launched, which later became the RezRootz podcast (see bottom of page 3). Our staff weathered significant disagreements about how to respond, praying through conflict to greater humility and unity. We learned how to better encourage and exhort our students and alumni in the midst of crisis, uncertainty, and pain. God’s people were EXTRA generous, so much so that we were able to pay off the only debt we had (a purchase loan on the administrative building).

On March 30, 2021, after my wife, my kids, and I recovered from COVID, my journal reads: “LORD, you’re in control over all aspects of my life, the beginning and the end. Thank you for seeing us through COVID. Your faithfulness is so steady. YOU are my rock. You are my hope.”

At IBC we are celebrating that our enrollment has returned to pre-COVID levels—that ten brand new students, two students returning after a hiatus, and all of last year’s eligible students being back this school year has resulted in 28 full-time students! And we are celebrating the full recovery of our summer work team volunteers. Romans 5:3-4 says “We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope”—even the suffering of a pandemic can produce Christlike character and hope! Rejoice with us at all that God has done through His people to strengthen IBC through the pandemic.