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Dear NCS family,
Permit me, if you will, to kick-off the brand new school year with a thoroughly uninspiring and unimpressive recollection from my own years in elementary school. I don't exactly recall my age but I was playing pee-wee baseball and I'll never forget that season. It was the only season that I ever played baseball because the Lord used that season to reveal to me (and to anyone with the misfortune of watching me) that my talents must lie elsewhere, far and away, outside the sport of baseball. He revealed this to me repeatedly through countless unforced errors, bungled catches in the outfield, and a never-ending series of strike-outs. In fact, I struck out every time I stepped up to the plate. Every time but once.
It was late in the game (3rd inning is "late in the game" in pee-wee sports), we were down by one run, and there were two outs. The team realized where we were in the batting rotation as I picked up the bat and I heard the collective groans throughout our dugout. Kids started packing up their gear--realizing my time at the plate would quickly move us towards the inevitable post-game popsicles. As the pitch came screaming (or so it felt) towards the plate, I swung the bat, and hit the ball. But, it wasn't my fault--I don't think I even had my eyes open. It had to have been that pitcher's fault. Nonetheless, I felt the smack of ball on bat, heard the crack I had never heard before, and my arms reverberated from the impact all the way up to my elbows. Incredulous, I watched the ball bounce off my bat and pop deep, deep into the infield, landing at the feet of the pitcher. The crowd was shocked into silence. Regaining my composure, I started off towards first base as fast as little legs would carry me. As I prepared to pioneer heretofore unexplored lands where my feet had never trod (a.k.a. first base), I saw the ball cross into my field of vision, landing with a soft smack in the first baseman's glove. With impossible loudness and a thunderous voice that still echoes in my ears to this day, the ump let loose a deafening "Out!" that I am confident was heard in the next county. Standing there, realizing this was as close to the big leagues as I would ever venture, I did the one thing that the code of boys forbids us ever to do. In front of God and all mankind, adding shame to my failure, I cried.
So why the sudden transparency from the superintendent of a school renowned for a strong athletic program? Because of what came next. What came next forever frameshifted my understanding of who I am and it is the basis for how I'm praying for your family this school year. I was in the car, on the way home with my dad. (Poor guy--can you imagine the unending parade of Saturday mornings watching his son strike-out, standing shoulder to shoulder at the fence with the other dads of kids who could actually play?) Sitting beside him in the front seat, he understood what my little noggin would not grasp for many years: that the words he next spoke would forever be etched in my gray matter, never to be forgotten. Suppressing the chagrin and embarrassment he must have felt, he used that precious moment to speak life. He told me that I was loved and nothing I could ever do or not do (or not hit) would ever allow me to escape his love for me. He reminded me that my value did not draw down from achievement or accomplishment--but from who I was and in Whose image I was made.
As we look at the upcoming school year, I suppose I could pray that your student aced every spelling test, won every state championship, never broke a single rule, got the big part in the play, and had more friends in the class than anyone else. But, I love your kids too much to ever pray that way. Instead, I'm praying that the Lord would love us all enough to allow our kids to fail and fall every once in a while--to permit us as parents a few of those precious moments wherein we can speak life into the hearts and minds of our kids. I'm praying that we use those moments--putting aside our parental pride--to allow His word and His love to forever shape our students. I hope you would be brave enough to join me in that prayer.
Grateful for the opportunity to serve this school and your family,
Geoff Brown
Superintendent
Northwest Christian School
(623)225-5573 (cell)
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| Student Council Chooses Spiritual Emphasis Theme for the New School Year |
Student body leaders engage the scripture that is destined to become campus rally cry
As part of a longstanding tradition, Northwest Christian's high school student council annually chooses the spiritual emphasis theme for the entire school. The process begins late in the spring, after student body elections, and continues into early summer as students prayerfully consider what they feel the Lord has collectively placed on their hearts for the school. Part of the process is selection of a scripture that helps to steer this focus. For the 2016/2017 school year, the theme that has been selected is "Together for One", based on I Peter 3:8 which reads, "Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind." Student leaders have expressed that their desire is to see students, faculty, and families unify in the coming year, like never before. But, as the theme suggests, that unity is not rooted in earthly pursuits but, rather, a desire to serve and glorify Christ. The theme and verse will become the focus of high school camp messages, chapel messages, and lessons within the Bible classes. Additionally, the theme is expressed around campus on the traditional t-shirts and campus banners.
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| Celebrating the Accomplishments of Principal's List and Honor Roll Recipients |
Students recognized for hard work and diligence in the spring semester
Congratulations to those students in the secondary who have worked hard to earn a spot on the Principal's List and the Honor Roll!
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Generous Sponsors of Northwest Christian Athletes
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Sixty Crusaders Help to Turn Hunger to Hope at Feed My Starving Children's Convention Center Packing Event
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Crusaders turned out in force to the Phoenix Convention Center on Friday, July 29th at the first packing session for Feed My Starving Children's annual "Turn Hunger in Hope" weekend event. Northwest Christian School was one of the sponsors that helped to support a full weekend of meal-packing sessions which produced over one million meals for starving children across the globe.
Feed My Starving Children, a Christian non-profit relief and development organization, has been a long term ministry partner for Northwest Christian. As part of the school's "missions learning" program, FMSC has been a forum of annual ministry opportunities for the fourth and seventh grades. In the seventh grade, for example, Bible teacher Tyler Collins leads two expressions of partnership in addition to the field trips to the packing site in Mesa. In the first semester, students are encouraged to pursue sacrifice as a means of helping FMSC help needy children. The seventh graders give up something for a time--snacks, a daily meal, Starbucks, etc.--and commit the money they save to FMSC. In the second semester, the school does something a bit more surprising: Mr. Collins gives each student in the seventh grade an allotment of cash--generally $10 each. The students are then challenged to take this "micro-loan" and multiply it in some way, using their unique gifts, talents, abilities, and interests to grow the little investment into a larger gift for FMSC. In this fashion, over the last several years, the seventh graders have raised nearly $40,000.
In addition to the annual grade-level partnerships with FMSC, the school has several other expressions of partnership lined up for the coming school year. On October 1, 2016, FMSC VP Andy Carr will be on hand at the 2nd annual "Wild About NCS" Dinner and Auction to reveal how much of a difference Crusaders have made in the global war on poverty. On October 7, 2016, the football and cross country teams will work together to host the 4th annual "3K Race for 3K Meals" race during halftime of a football game with an eye towards raising enough to provide 3,000 meals for needy children. On November 10th, as part of the premier of the school's third annual student film (at Harkins Norterra), school families will see that this year's film features FMSC. In March 2017, the annual Jog-a-thon event will take a new turn as it will include a meal packing event in the Don Sanderson Gymnasium--an opportunity for Crusader families to pack meals together. Finally, during the summer of 2017, high school students will have the opportunity to travel to Haiti with Feed My Starving Children and Praying Pelican Missions to participate in relief efforts there. "I recall during the summer of 2013," says superintendent Geoff Brown, "when we took a group of students to Haiti. We were in an orphanage, getting ready to serve a meal, when our hosts pulled out a box of Manna Pack meals from Feed My Starving Children. Our students were stunned to see meals just like those that they had packed for years, on the service side of the equation--on the missions field, actually being prepared and served to kids. The impact to our students was amazing."
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Summer Represents a Busy Time for Crews Working to Improve the Campus
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As soon as the final school bell rang in May, teams of Crusaders hit the ground running as part of the annual march in the campaign towards campus improvements. Of course, this summer's efforts are all a prelude to the establishment of the new food service building (see update below), lunch area improvements, and new classrooms, but, nonetheless, each individual effort makes a significant difference on the campus.
This summer's efforts included: installation of LED lighting throughout the campus to improve lighting while also reducing energy costs, new carpet in ten classrooms (part of a multi-year effort to re-carpet the entire campus), pavers were laid in high traffic areas to reduce dust, drainage improvements (over the past two summers) will mean less standing water, repaving and repainting the parking lot, new shrubs and greenery, and a face-lift of the the Don Sanderson gymnasium and the multipurpose building's foyer. The school extends its appreciation to all of the crews and vendors who worked so hard to improve the campus. Special appreciation is expressed to Kortman Electric, CBJ Contractors, and SGX2 Spectrum Graphics for sacrificial support which made significant improvements affordable for the school.
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Tickets will go on sale mid August, so keep an eye out for the email. We currently have both individual and corporate sponsorship tables available. More information here.
Early registration starts August 14 - August 22. $45/ticket
General registration August 22. $50/ticket
You can see photos of last year's dinner
here
in anticipation for another great year!
We're now accepting donations of game memorabilia, art, unique experiences and more. If you're interested in contributing an item, please contact Amber Perona -
[email protected]. We're looking to have all items by September 1st.
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| Middle School Yearbook Students Honored for Exemplary Work |
2015/2016 yearbook's "Bucket List" page included as example for yearbook student staffs throughout the nation
Each year, Jostens, a publisher primarily known for working with schools to print yearbook annuals, recognizes a number of yearbooks for features and designs which they consider exemplary. These model yearbooks are then made available online and in print for other schools' students to use for inspiration. Northwest Christian School is excited to celebrate the efforts of the middle school yearbook staff for having their 2015/2016 annual recognized by Jostens in this fashion.
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Generous Sponsors of Northwest Christian Athletes
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Spotlight on Students: What did Crusaders do this summer?
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Northwest Christian's high school cross country team has been training in Flagstaff for the upcoming season. During a training run at Buffalo Park, they were excited to meet four-time Olympic runner Abdihakem Abdirahman. Abdi recognized NC alumni Caleb Mucklow from a year ago. Having just graduated, Caleb is looking forward to running cross country at Nyack College in New York this fall. Also pictured: Tanner Webb and Kody Dehart.
Middle schooler Jonathon Qin entered the top 10 in the nation in his age group for table tennis after numerous tournaments and a strong showing at a tournament in Las Vegas (pictured above).
In middle school, students move from the elementary Accelerated Reader program to a new reading regimen. This past year, sixth grader Connor Hartigan eclipsed every reading goal put in front of him, reading a total of 105 books.
High schooler and avid wakesurfer Connor Burns became the #1 ranked mens amateur wakesurfer through the Competitive Wakesurf Association this summer after taking the gold at numerous competitions this past spring and summer. These events included the Supreme Wakesurf Championships in Florida, the Arizona Wakesurf Open, the Wake Shredder Throwdown in California, and the Lake Anna Wakesurf Open in Virginia.
This summer, sophomore Victoria Hendrix, fifth grader Stephen Hendrix (both pictured above) and freshman Kenton Fogle (pictured below) had the privilege of representing the state of Arizona and the Ben Avery Clay Crushers Shooting Team at the 2016 Scholastic Clay Target Program (SCTP) National Championships in Marengo, Ohio. The eight day event encompassed seven different Skeet, Trap and Sporting Clay disciplines with over 4,500 athlete/event entries. Stephen was the Rookie National Runner up in skeet. Additionally, his squad had a 2nd and 3rd place finish in two events Kenton's squad had three 3rd place finishes and a 5th place. Victoria had a 4th place individually in Handicap Trap and her squad had two 3rd place titles.
Victoria is 1 of 24 student athletes and 1 of 3 girls chosen in the U.S. for the 2016 Junior Olympic Development camp at Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs on August 10-14th.
Victoria is currently the 2nd High Over All SCTP Lady Shooter in Arizona behind a Senior at the University of Arizona.
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Generous Sponsors of Northwest Christian Athletes
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| Progress Report: New Kitchen and Lunch Area Improvements |
Though progress is slow, the project has been covered entirely by donations
Northwest Christian School continues to work towards improving its lunch area, a historic effort that has seen significant support and generosity from the Northwest Christian family.
"The project has gone more slowly than I would have liked," explains superintendent Geoff Brown, "but prudence has really demanded that. Patience has allowed us to proceed through the project with zero debt acquisition. In the long term, that will mean that our families won't see an impact to tuition as a result of the improvements. Instead, donors have stepped forward to help make the project a reality. It has also afforded us the time to do this correctly, improving our ability to serve lunches while also improving the student experience." The first phase of the campaign, titled "Growing and Going", pulled in enough financial support to ultimately construct a new kitchen, a building that will replace the existing, older cinder block structure on the north side of campus. "The plans are being reviewed and revised by the city and health department but those approvals are coming in," says Geoff. "Once we have the final approvals and permits, we'll have a better idea of timeline but, obviously, fall 2016 is out of the question. At the latest, this will be a summer 2017 project--we'll know that shortly."
Phase 2 of the "Growing and Going" campus improvement effort will also address the lunch area with an eye to improve the area where students sit for lunch as well as some of the outdoor practice areas for basketball and volleyball. "This will be our chief focus for fundraising in 2016/2017," says Geoff. "We have acquired plans that range from $250,000 to $1.2 million. Where we go and what we do will all depend on what the Lord provides this year. I am committed to seeing this accomplished without debt and without increasing expense for our families."
The time has also come to begin looking forward to other projects and improvements on the campus as the school prepares to begin rolling out Phase 3 and beyond. "I maintain that the single biggest need on our campus," says Geoff, "is our elementary classrooms. We've started drafting plans for a new elementary classroom building and in the coming year, we are going to begin communicating that vision to our families." This communication will kick off this fall at the 2nd annual "Wild About NCS" auction and dinner at the Phoenix Zoo. "We'll use that moment to show our families the 'big picture'," continues Geoff, "painting a picture that will truly speak to the sustainability of this school and its ministry well into the future."
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| Generous Sponsors of Northwest Christian Athletes |
| Generous Sponsors of Northwest Christian Athletes |
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