FROM DREAM TO REALITY

Called to Serve: Daniel And Olga Nicholls

“Our path to HIS started in 2012 when Olga first learned about the school while serving as a missionary in Cambodia. She was finishing her service as a music teacher there and praying about her next step. That was when she found the Holbrook Indian School website. She was very excited about what the school was doing and started thinking and dreaming about how awesome it would be to be a music teacher at HIS, but it wasn’t God’s time.

Two years Later, after serving as a teacher in South Korea, Olga decided to contact HIS and send her resume. But it still was not God’s time and, after moving back to the US, she pursued other callings. Years passed and she forgot about HIS.

While Olga was serving as a missionary, I was learning about gardening in California. I was not a Christian and I had a large marijuana garden that I took care of. In early 2012, I had several experiences that led me to get out of that life and move to Oregon with my cousins. They were Seventh Day Adventists, and it was there that I learned the Truth of the Bible and was converted. By 2014, God had led me to another type of farm–one where I learned how to grow vegetables. It was there where I first got to work for Him with fellow believers, united in mission.

Olga and I met later that year. She went to the Arise discipleship program and was a classmate of my cousin’s. Neither of us knew we had met our future spouse at that time and it took us several years to start courting. In the meantime, she continued pursuing her career and calling as a music teacher and I served with a few ministries learning how agriculture and mission can work together; I even had the opportunity to serve overseas in a closed country helping a ministry start a small farm.

Not long after my return to the US, Olga and I finally started courting and I got a job as a truck driver to support my future family. In early 2020, we were engaged and planning for our life together. At that time, Olga was a music teacher at a school in Michigan and I had moved there to be closer to her. I was working for another trucking company but I knew that I did not want to do that for much longer. I missed farming. My plan was to drive trucks long enough to save up a down payment and buy a farm someday. But God had other plans.

Olga called me one day and let me know that her school needed to make some changes for the following school year and that they could only offer her a part time position moving forward. After praying, we decided to see what other opportunities were available for her. She pulled up the NAD Education website and noticed that Holbrook Indian School was looking for an agriculture director. She could not contain the excitement in her voice. She knew this was for me. I asked if they had any open teaching positions that she could fill but there were none. After I parked my truck for the night, I looked at the website and re-read the job posting. A littleknown fact about me is that I wanted to be a science teacher when I graduated high school. I couldn’t help but think of that and think of the amazing ways God works that a college drop out would be able to fulfill his long-forgotten dream of being a teacher and his new dream of farming.

Still, I was slow to pursue this opportunity.

After my first phone call with Pedro Ojeda, the principal at HIS, I did not think that this would be a good choice for our family as there were no positions open for Olga. But she told me about how she had wanted to work here 6 years ago, and it was true that the job description was a great fit for me in many ways. So, with my small faith, I took small steps forward since it really did seem that God was in it. I told Him “I am not sure about this. I want to make responsible decisions for our future family. It would be so much more obvious to me if there was a music teaching position open for Olga.”

A week later, I wrote up a resume and sent it in. Two days after that, Pedro emailed and let me know that the music teaching position had just opened up. From that point on, I had no misgivings or reservations. The rest of the application process was just a formality for me; God called so we went. And it has been the best choice we could have made for our new family.

We love calling HIS home. We love the students, the staff, and even the desert (most of the time). Having both served as missionaries overseas, we feel that God gave us some preparation for living and working in such a remote location. While any occupation can be a mission, we feel especially strongly about our mission here and we feel blessed and privileged that we get to serve together as a family. Though we want to always remain open to God’s calling, we look forward to serving here for many years to come. And with our first child on the way, we feel blessed that we get to open this new chapter of our lives in such an amazing place.”