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Navajo Immanuel Chapel at Immanuel Mission began as a regularly meeting assembly in the early 1970s. The principal people involved in starting the assembly were Eugene Nataches and James Nataches, Navajo brothers. Leadership has been shared by these and Willy Howe, Wesley Begay, Donald Perrault, and Greg Staley. About 90 adults and children attend Navajo Immanuel Chapel, which is now usually called Immanuel Navajo Chapel.
→Immanuel Mission
===Immanuel Mission===
For a time, there were three missions in Arizona that went by the name of Immanuel Mission. The work at Valentine was called the Immanuel Mission to the Hualapais. The work at Winslow, 200 miles east of Valentine, also went by the name Immanuel Mission. This work was initiated principally by Carl Armerding and his daughter Minnie. They labored among the Indians at Winslow and vicinity for more than 25 years. Mr. Armerding built a chapel at Winslow in 1934, which had Gospel meetings, Bible studies, and Sunday schools, attended largely by Indians of the Laguna, Hopi, and Navajo tribes. Mr. Armerding was still active in the work in his 91st year in 1952.
Those two ‘Immanuel Missions’ have evolved into other works. Still going strong is the Immanuel Mission to the Navajos, near Teec Nos Pos in the northeast corner of Arizona. Though these three missions were separated each from the other by about 200 miles, their aims and interests were the same: the winning of precious souls from among the Indian tribes of the Southwest.
Horace and Clara continued to have a burden for the Navajo people and worked and prayed about establishing a mission. Finally, in 1920 the Holcombs felt the Lord’s timing had arrived and they traveled to Oakcreek Canyon to visit their daughter Marie, who had lived with the Girdner family to attend school and now was teaching there.
Mary Holcomb was ill and stayed with the Girdners while Horace and Clara returned to Flagstaff. There they bought a wagon and team and supplies and headed out across the uncharted desert for Chinle, AZ, 200 miles away. In July 1921, they met up with Carl Armerding at Ganado and traveled on together towards Chinle. There the Holcombs and Carl stayed with a Christian Navajo family the Gormans for a time.
Mr. Armerding returned to Albuquerque while the Holcombs stayed on at Chinle throughout the fall. They heard of an abandoned trading post, Peter Martin’s Trading Store, sixty miles or so to the North. Clara and her father drove the wagon up to take a look. The abandoned trading post was situated on a small rise in a wide treeless valley. The building was solidly built of sandstone and adobe, approximately 10\' x 30\' with two rooms and with a flat roof. It did have one important amenity: Upper Saltbush Spring was located about 200 hundred feet to the north. In December 1921, Horace sought help from the Department of the Interior for petitioning for the property.
The Holcomb family then returned to Flagstaff to outfit an expedition back to Peter Martin’s store. Sometime in the late spring of 1922, Horace, Mary, and Clara Holcomb set off in a covered wagon from Flagstaff for Peter Martin’s store, the future site of Immanuel Mission. Horace had just turned 70. Their privations were many, including some days without water.
Soon after arriving at Peter Martin’s store, Horace attempted to get a land petition signed by the local Navajos. Carl Armerding came to help, and he and Horace built a shade house and invited the community over for a ‘big feed.’ After the meal, they brought up the idea of starting a mission. Things seemed to go well until ‘Brown Hat,’ a local Headman, refused to give his permission. The meeting soon broke up a failure, much to the disappointment of the Holcombs. Thus in 1922, the local Navajos had not given the missionaries permission to establish a mission on the reservation, though the missionaries were able to live there.
In 1957, the laborers included Mr. and Mrs. Howard Montgomery, Miss Evelyn Varder, Mr. and Mrs. Donald Perrault, Miss Alice Huff, and Miss Lois Jean Delaney. Robert Staley has served as principal of the school. In 1971, Don and Nona Perrault cared for over thirty girls. Delbert and June Dyck looked after nearly the same number of boys in the large, two-winged dormitory building. These children live at the mission for the nine-month school term and are under the complete care of the dormitory parents, so the responsibility is great not only for their spiritual well-being, but also for their physical needs.
The physical facilities of the mission have grown to several major buildings, a power plant, a shop building, and two house trailers. The compound is located fourteen miles from the nearest hard-surfaced road and twenty miles from the nearest power lines, so all electricity is generated on the grounds. The nearest town of any business importance is Farmington, NM, ninety miles away, and it is from there that practically all supplies must be brought in.
Sources:
*A Brief History of Immanuel Mission, by Greg Staley; Issue 7, Winter 1995; Issue 8, Spring 1995; Issue 10, Spring 1996; Issue 11, Fall 1996; Issue 12, Spring 1997; Issue 13, Fall 1997*Letters of Interest, August 1943, p. 23; March 1946, p. 21; December 1947 p. 26; December 1948, p. 10; May 1952, p. 19; August 1952, p. 8; September 1952, p. 4; February 1957, p. 11; February 1962, p. 11; March 1971 p. 4?