Mongoose Scholarship

Scholarship Criteria: This scholarship is not endowed. Annual donations fund this scholarship. One scholarship is intended for a graduate student in either the Master of Divinity program or the Master of Arts in Theological Studies program. Additional scholarships are intended for an undergraduate Nursing major and an undergraduate student in Biblical and Theological Studies. Both new and continuing students are eligible, and awards may be renewed if the criteria are met in subsequent years.

Scholarship Story:

The Mongoose Scholarship was inspired by a short story written by Rudyard Kipling in the late 19th century. “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi” takes place in India and is about a young, fierce mongoose named Rikki-Tikki. He knows that a mongoose’s job is to fight snakes. It is a tale of “the great war that Rikki-Tikki-Tavi fought” against Nag and Nagaina, husband and wife cobras who want to have a family’s home and yard to themselves. They plot to kill the family. In this war Rikki uses various strategies and also goes on the offensive (see Matthew 16:18). Rikki succeeds in killing the cobras who had threatened a young boy and his parents.

This metaphor speaks to one of the Christian’s tasks in the world. In desiring to spread the Good News of the Gospel, we also need to understand the spiritual warfare in which we are engaged, which started way back in the Garden (see Genesis 3:15), where Satan makes his first appearance as a serpent. Thus began the titanic struggle between God and His followers, and Satan and his minions. We also need to remember that we are well-equipped for the battle, as we have the Holy Spirit and the various “weapons” God has provided us (see Ephesians 6:10-18 and 1 John 4:4).

The Mongoose Scholarship is for the student who sees the big picture of Christian ministry and desires to be on the “front lines” of this noble war, being willing to take on the snake.