International Student Scholarships

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Funds raised will help provide tuition assistance to international students studying at DIU.

Questions? Need help? Call us at 972-708-7552.


According to a Chinese proverb, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” For some students, one step along the journey to bring God’s word to their own people is to study at DIU. Katena (Tim) Tarakabu is Kiribas, but he grew up in the Solomon Islands. He taught mathematics and worked in school administration for many years before pursuing Bible school in the Philippines. His wife, Altruicia, is Siau from Indonesia, and she studied law before moving to the Philippines, also for Bible school. As the Lord’s will would have it, Tim and Altruicia met in the Philippines, where they decided to pursue the Lord’s call on their lives together, following wherever He led them. They moved to Tim’s Solomon Island home and began work in a Bible school run by Islands Bible Ministries.

According to a Chinese proverb, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” For some students, one step along the journey to bring God’s word to their own people is to study at DIU. Katena (Tim) Tarakabu is Kiribas, but he grew up in the Solomon Islands. He taught mathematics and worked in school administration for many years before pursuing Bible school in the Philippines. His wife, Altruicia, is Siau from Indonesia, and she studied law before moving to the Philippines, also for Bible school. As the Lord’s will would have it, Tim and Altruicia met in the Philippines, where they decided to pursue the Lord’s call on their lives together, following wherever He led them. They moved to Tim’s Solomon Island home and began work in a Bible school run by Islands Bible Ministries.

After several years working in the Bible school, Tim and Altruicia partnered with the Seed Company. They came to DIU in 2017 to pursue studies in Bible Translation through our cooperative program with Dallas Theological Seminary (DTS). They studied Applied Linguistics at DIU and Biblical Languages at DTS. They discovered that Tim is naturally gifted in analysis, while Altruicia is gifted in language acquisition, so they make an excellent team. Altruicia, a gifted musician and artist, also studied Scripture Engagement to learn how to share God’s word with people in meaningful, applicable ways.

In 2020, Tim and Altruicia completed their studies at DIU, and they returned home to the Solomon Islands. Now, Tim is serving as assistant director of the Islands Christian College, and Altruicia is teaching Biblical Stories for the College’s Biblical Exegesis program. She is also teaching English grammar and Koine Greek. They hope to provide an education to their students that will enable them to engage more deeply with scripture and begin to facilitate more Bible translation among the languages in the Solomon Islands that still do not have God’s Word.

If He could bring two people from opposite sides of an ocean together and then send them to the opposite side of the world to learn together, we know He will deliver His Word to those who need it.