Board "Retreat"

Usually when you think of a Retreat, you picture a quiet setting by the lake spending the day reading and relaxing as you refresh from the strain of normal day-to-day demands. Well, our Retreat is part of that. The Board spends the day at Lake Quivira. However, we didn't do much relaxing. We had a full agenda, and thanks to our Lord and to the hearts of the Board for action and unity, we accomplished much.

First up was a devotional emphasizing the right perspective on leadership. 1) Think rightly about ourselves. Paul emphasizes in I Corinthians 4:1-2 that we are a galley slave to our Lord. We are broken vessels designed for service to Him and others. 2) In John 15:1-8, we are reminded that our only source of strength is through the vine as long as we are grafted in. 3) That the office of leadership is a weighty responsibility not to be entered into lightly as James 3:1-2 reminds us.

Our first order of business was to look at our Board structure in light of recent resignations from the Board including mine. Since I have become an employee of the school I can no longer serve on the Board. So I am delighted to report that Blake Welch was named Chairman and will also serve in the office of Treasurer. Sean Slattery will continue as Vice Chairman where he served as an invaluable partner for me as we considered actions and plans for the Board. Brandyn West assumed the role of Secretary. As the Board continues to mature and adapt to the changing environment, we spent some time talking about the right structure of the school including whether the committee structure we currently operate under is the right one for the future. After some discussion, this was tabled for the next Board meeting and members were asked to pray, review By-Laws and an ad hoc committee was commissioned to come back with a recommendation for changes. Any additions of new members to the Board will be postponed until that recommendation is dealt with.

Next up on the agenda, was clarification of the priorities for the superintendents for this year and beyond. This list of key themes will serve the bases for the strategic plan for the school. The top 3 things for this year are: 1) Accreditation renewal, 2) Attract/Retain students (develop a plan and action steps to ensure we are doing everything we can to encourage families to stay and new families to choose Maranatha) and 3) Personnel - evaluate whether culture,activities and people are positioned and enabled to bring the most success to the ministry. Other things on the list in lower priority (you can't put in-depth focus on everything at once) but also very important: Plans for facilities (especially North Campus), Web site, Top Line Revenue(outside of students), outbound communications, academic initiatives, environment evaluation for trends and risks, technology(both ease of doing business with Maranatha and integrating tech in classroom) and ensuring the success of the preschool.

Finally we devoted time to discussing various situations that may arise and how the superintendents will respond and what their responsibilities are. Then we sought clarity for what the Board's role was in each of these situations so that as a group we are consistent and unified.

So a very productive day, and we are so grateful for the Lord's presence in this meeting and for His guidance in all our actions and planning. Thank you for your prayers as we continue to work on these plans for leading the school.

Administration and Board Roles

Periodically, the school faces a difficult challenge that has many facets, perspectives and impacts on our family. We are in the midst of one of those situations now. I am not going to discuss that situation's details here. The facts are that our elementary music teacher handed in his resignation this past Monday. It would not be appropriate or fair to anyone to do discuss any further details. I am praying that our whole family would not be discussing this situation either unless you are specifically going to those directly involved who must make the decisions about what to do. Satan would love nothing better than to create division and strife in our school. Please do not allow him to do so.

From a chairman's perspective, as well as the superintendent-elect, I wanted to also remind you that we do have a process that administration consistently follows. They are doing so in this case as well. In every step, they are prayerful, thoughtful and seeking fairness and desire to administer justice with compassion.

In addition, the Board's role in this process is that they are not involved. The decision of the administration, and specifically the superintendent, is final. The Board does not serve as a Supreme Court hearing appeals. Our role is to evaluate the effectiveness of the superintendent. We may share some perspective with the administration with the intent to inform, but we must leave that portion of information in their hands to synthesize with all other factors and trust them to make the right decision. If we can't trust them, then we must engage in our role of evaluating effectiveness. The Board does not pressure the administration into acting a certain way or we are overstepping our boundaries. The Board sets policies and reviews the superintendent for performance. The administration runs the school.

I pray that you will help the school by allowing this process to be handled confidentially, fairly and effectively by not spreading rumors with the risk of dividing our family. If you have facts to share, please get them to the administration. Then trust the Lord and the administration to take all factors - and trust me there are many factors some of which can not be made public in consideration of all parties' confidentiality concerns - into consideration and deal with this situation in a Biblical, fair and appropriate manner.

And in all things pray fervently for unity of the body and glory to God.

Board Retreat

Well, we call it a Retreat, but it is a 7 hour working session that is held at Lake Quivira. We have a full agenda for this Saturday, and we are set up now with 2 main things to cover: 1) Board structure (with me stepping down from Board Chair and recent losses of Board members we have to select a new Chair and make some Committee reassignments), 2) Board Expectations - the desire is to be crystal clear what the Board desires to be accomplished over the next 10 months of both Dr. Daugherty and I. We also want to review the relationship of the Board with the Superintendents to clarify roles and responsibilities.

I ask for your prayer as we invest this time in these critical discussions. We want the Lord's will not our own.

God's Sign Posts for Me

God knew my faith needed to have clear, unmistakable sign posts when He called me to such a significant change in careers. He also knew that the process would need to be smooth and not sudden. I give Him such praise that He stooped to gently meet my level of faith so that I would not miss this opportunity. Through this experience, my faith has grown significantly and my perspective on events in life are viewed with a different perspective. Nothing occurs due to chance. God, in His sovereignty, ordains all and yet He asks us to choose to follow Him and bring glory to Him in all that we do.

My story is really broken into two stages: 1) cultivation and 2) harvesting. Cultivation started as the Lord prepared me for such a time as this when He placed me in an educator's home. My godly father is an educator teaching math for 49 years and woodworking for about 25 years. Hearing how he impacted students and families through seeing teaching as much more than just math but about life, shaped my desire to be in and around education. So within just a few short years of graduating college I was a high school basketball coach and serving as a school board member. Additionally, I was often called on to serve as a Sunday School, small group or youth group teacher. I found much joy in seeing students not only grasp the knowledge, but seeing them make practical application of anything from the logic of a math equation to the ability to lead a team to rise to a challenge.

My father also had a profound impact on my life when I was in junior high and I just finished working with a group of high school and junior high kids to organize them in a game of softball. He pulled me aside and said, "After watching you organize all those older kids into a game of softball, I think God is going to use you as a leader throughout life." Those words have been a real encouragement to me throughout all the ups and downs of leadership over the years.

Harvesting began much more recently. There are two threads of harvesting the Lord worked out in His perfect timing. One was through my almost 21 years at American Century Investments. He had them invest countless thousands of dollars in leadership training on me, gave me countless coaching opportunities to deal with multiple personalities and situations and increasing responsibilities to prove character qualities. But the real story was the ending. The first 11 years at ACI, they were growing and never had a layoff. Over the course of the next decade we had 4 layoffs that I was impacted by. The first three I helped decide how to reduce staff. In the last 2 of those, I went to my boss and recommended that my position be eliminated. But God worked through that godly man to say no. It wasn't God's timing. However, this past April, God orchestrated that godly man to leave ACI and I guessed I would soon follow.

I interrupt that story to pick up the other thread. When Kevin McCracken and Kevin Bergerhofer first suggested I consider Maranatha Board membership, I deflected. The second time Kevin M nominated me, I accepted. What has followed has been a rapid working of God grabbing my heart and mind to invest myself in His ministry at Maranatha. Although Kevin said it for years, I didn't think Board chair was in my future, but obviously God did. And I have LOVED serving in that capacity. He knew I would. By serving as chairman, I had the privilege to walk alongside Dr. Daugherty to get a taste of what he knows and the breadth of experience he has. I heard his heart as we discussed the possibilities of the future and gained some appreciation for what he does on a daily basis. So when I went to the ISM training for Board presidents, God used that time to convince me He wanted me to be open to becoming the new superintendent. Throughout all the steps of the process that followed, and at each step I asked the Lord to shut the door when I should stop going forward, He kept giving me green lights when I expected the opposite.

So now the two threads merge in August as ACI eliminated my position and gave me a wonderful severance package and the Board began considering my candidacy. Throughout all the prayers, discussions and considerations, God's hand was very evident culminating in the unanimous vote by the Board. Add Dr. Daugherty's very important support of the process and my selection, and I could not be more excited and confident. But those emotions are not based on me or these events, but on the God who has guided me to this time, place and position.

I want to thank each teacher, staff person, parent and student who have given me words of encouragement and advice. I look forward to serving God together in this ministry and anxious to see how He will grow His ministry.

Enrollment

As I mentioned in my August 26th post, our enrollment is down. In fact, it is below 500 students in K-12 for the first time in over a decade. We are hovering just below 470 students. First of all, God is not surprised by this, and He gave us a best-in-a-long-time financial year last year that should help us weather this situation. We are continuing to evaluate all of our methods for attracting families to Maranatha, and will be doing whatever we can to do so.

When I attended Independent School Management's (ISM) training for Board Presidents in June, we discussed marketing at some length. It was reiterated that the 2 strongest tools that need to be deployed with purpose are word of mouth and our website. We have made strides with our web site, but we will continue to work on it to make the best introduction to Maranatha that it can be.

Secondly, we need everyone in our current Maranatha family to become evangelists for the school. That includes teachers doing everything they can to make their students recommend that other students take their class. They also should take every opportunity to convince the parents that they would find it difficult to find a better teacher for their subject. Make parents ask for your class, teachers! That means parents, you need to be talking up Maranatha to your Christian friends. Students, you need to do the same. Staff and other servants of the school, we need to make sure we are doing everything we can to make Maranatha a welcoming place and the best it can be.

Now I know there are issues that you have encountered that might make you hesitate to recommend the school. Have you taken those issues to those who can do something about it? Have they done anything? Have you followed a good path for escalating it? Have you been as much a part of the solution as you can be? Board, Administration, faculty, staff, are we do everything we can to make the school attractive by raising the bar and responding to these detracting issues? I think these are all questions that we need to ask ourselves. This is God's ministry and we are part of it. And if we are part of it, we need to be invested in making it the best it can be. Then we must go share the good news with others so that an increasing number of families can have us as a partner to preparing their children for making an impact for our Lord in this fallen world.

Well, there is my heart. I pray that it finds a empathetic ear, and that we will all pray to our Sovereign Lord and then choose to do our part in His ministry.

Preschool Makeover

Last Spring we hired a consultant, Christy Smith, to come look over our preschool from top to bottom: operations, marketing, personnel, etc. and give us an idea of what an outsider and an expert in the field thought we were doing well and what we could improve. Her SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats) analysis showed us a formula that would help us raise the preschool to a new level and help us attract additional families.

The Finance Committee was the sponsor for seeking this investigation and we met with Christy this past week to have her report on how she has helped the leadership and faculty in the preschool to take her SWOT analysis and convert it into action. We were delighted with the work that has been done and the structure that has been added. As Christy said, the level of caring and commitment to loving the kids is a wonderful strength that was evident and great foundation to build upon. We believe that as Mrs. Daughtery and Beth Fuller lead the preschool team to carry out and live the action plan set forth, we will continue to raise the quality and the attractiveness of the preschool. This will take the commitment of everyone involved with the preschool, and from Christy's report, the team is all in and enthusiastically striving to enact the plan.

The Board is very interested in this work as the preschool is the only place where we have open enrollment and therefore have the opportunity to minister to families that do not sign a like-faith agreement. In addition, the preschool serves as a major feeder into our kindergarten and an introduction to Maranatha to many families. Finally, the preschool is a significant profit generator which helps relieve upward pressure on tuition costs.

So when you have the opportunity, pray for, thank and encourage all those involved for their work on this important action plan. Also, stop by and see the visible changes that have been made to the classrooms. They look great - engaging, fun, and inspiring.

A quick sample of other focus areas:
* Implement additional structure for introducing new families to the school
* New ideas for marketing the school
* A structured process for following up on prospective families
* New plan for making the curriculum more visible and engaging
* Training for teachers in the new culture

Board Members

God is sovereign and many times works in and around our lives in ways we don't understand. I will admit that I don't know why he has chosen to allow events and circumstances to cause all the change to our Board membership that has happened over the past three months. But I am confident that He will work all of this to His glory and to the furthering of His ministry at Maranatha.

As you will recall, Andy Hageman left the Board as he took a job opportunity in Nebraska in the Spring of this year. Last night we had two more gentlemen leave the Board for two different reasons. Shawn Stewart felt led by the Lord to home school his children this year and felt like that would present a difficult position to serve on the Board. Dennis Wiley resigned in light of being in a season of time where his business needs his undivided attention.

Both of these men expressed their fervent ongoing support of Maranatha and our mission. We will keep them in our prayers as they work through these transitions and challenges, and they have promised to keep us in their prayers asking God to do a mighty work through the ministry of Maranatha.

Upon Andy's departure, we were blessed to find a wonderful new member in Chris Lyon. Chris has already made his presence felt with his legal and HR background as we continue to work on succession plans.

We are considering a few paths of how we will respond to the absence of these men in light of the extremely heavy work year for the Board. Please pray for guidance in our deliberations and unity in our decisions.

Facilities Improvement

Wanted to give you a quick update on what the Facilities Committee has been doing. Last year we agreed on a 5 year plan of action for the Board that included specific actions/goals for each committee for each year. Last year, the Facilities Committee's goal was to finish upgrading the roof situation at the North Campus and to install the signage at the North Campus. Both were accomplished by the end of July. Praise the Lord!

We have a list of significant improvements we will continue to work on over the course of the next few years. Such things as a security system at the North Campus, improve the rest rooms in the gym, team rooms/showers in the gym, etc.

This year we are planning to install the security/communication system at the North Campus. We have prioritized this investment for the following reasons:
* The safety of our children is a preeminent concern for our school and we want to do whatever we can to make sure parents (especially prospective parents) are comfortable with our efforts to provide a safe environment for their child(ren).
* We need better control of the use of our facilities. There are many (probably too many) people with keys to our facilities and we often cannot know who all uses our facilities and when they do so.
* Better situation for insurance and liability perspective. Since we are planning on installing a few cameras, we will be able to better recall what occurred in the event of accidents, vandalism, etc.

We are currently evaluating vendors and our options. We will keep you informed of our progress and timeline.

What's Happening with the Board

Well the Board does not have scheduled meetings from the end of June through most of August, so we are now re-starting our committee meetings.

Facilities - the big focus is in examining options for purchasing and installing a security and communication system for the North Campus. We need to gain control of who has access to each part of our facilities. Protecting the children and our assets is very important to us and installing mechanisms to know who has entered the facilities and when as well as restricting what access they have will go a long way to improving that situation.

Finance - first we must make sure we are adjusting to the lower enrollment and secondly we will evaluate the results and response to the consultant's study of our pre-school operations. Note that since we have prepared appropriately, we will still be able to fund the pay increases that we had planned for the faculty and we will look for means to balance the budget in other areas.

Development - with the anticipation that the money designated to engage someone to help us with development will be cut to help deal with lower enrollment, we need to adjust plans and determine a new course of action.

Planning - per the plan that has been in the works for some time, we will continue to work on the succession plans for our leadership. In addition, we will focus on planning for the day long work session the Board will have on October 1st.

Our next Board meeting is September 1st, so look for an update on our work after that meeting. Please pray for us as we work on these important matters.

Update on Financials

A couple of posts ago I mentioned how it looked like the Lord had shown great favor to Maranatha by blessing our financial situation. Well that is confirmed for the last school year as we were able to do some wonderful things such as giving a special stipend to the teachers, purchasing new bleachers, and installing the signage at the North Campus. All of this and we made it through the summer without having to borrow from ourselves(designated funds) to make payroll. That is a first! In addition we entered this year in the black and those funds will be needed since enrollment is down. The Lord is always gracious and good, but sometimes He demonstrates that in such awesome ways that we can't miss it. Thank you Lord!

Your Help is Needed

The start of school is almost upon us. Enrollment numbers are lower than what we ended the last school year. We have been busy getting the name out in the community through bill boards, radio ads, newspaper postings, booths at events and by redesigning our web site. While doing all of this we have been petitioning our Lord to provide those students and families that would join us here and allow us to serve.

We have known for a long time that the most effective promotion method for the school is you...parents, students, teachers and other associated with the school. Word of mouth is by far the most effective means of getting others to consider the school. Would you do your part? As you are mingling with other Christian parents, would you tell them why you chose Maranatha and how it has impacted your child(ren)?

The best way to manage cost and fund growth is through increased enrollment. So help us help you by being active recruiters for the school. Lives will be touched for His kingdom, the ministry of Maranatha will expand and we will be best able to manage the costs of the school that are passed on to each individual.

So pray, share, and recruit! You will reap the rewards for eternity.

Financial Praise

June's has revealed that we are moving up the financial health meter as we have placed enough cash in reserves that we may not have to borrow from ourselves to cover summer expenses. If that truly holds in the July - end of fiscal year - numbers, then it will be the first time ever. Isn't that cause for praise! We did this by setting appropriate tuition amounts, rigorous management of expenses, and careful planning. All of that under the sheltering wing of our Father leads us to give Him praise. Now our prayer is that enrollment stays above 500 - should we dare pray for an increase in enrollment??

I pray you are ready and even excited for this upcoming school year.

Country Bible & Basketball Camp

Well, it has been a few weeks since my last post and that has been due to me being immersed in basketball. And the big time investment was in our first ever Country Bible & Basketball Camp in Waverly, KS. Waverly is where I grew up and my parents still live. We hosted the girls and the coaches at Peniel Bible Church & Campgrounds where my parents attend church. We then got access to the very nice high school gym for the basketball portion of the Camp.

We had a wonderful time. I keep telling everyone who asks, that the week was everything I hoped for...
- Gain a better understanding of God. My Dad taught daily bible lessons.
- Establish and strengthen bonds between girls.
- Increase our basketball abilities and knowledge. 17 hours of basketball surely did that.
- Have fun! With trampolines, water slides (highlight for the girsl!), movie nights, horses, pool party and a carnival, I think we did this well.

Throw in some wonderful meals provided by my wife Cindy, my Mom and my sisters (Donna and Becky) plus very minor injuries and I am not sure how we could have achieved more. The weather of course was a challenge, but we kept the girls supplied with a lot of water and kept the fans blowing.

I had wonderful help from my family as I have mentioned, but I also had superlative help from my assistant coach Diane Metcalf who besides helping coach during the gym sessions, conducted a warm up session each morning with the girls teaching them how to stretch and develop their core, taught them some simple but effective strengthening plans and was dorm mom to the upper classmen. Missy Grote was coach, medic, cabin mom, counselor, stat recorder and all around great help. I had several dads drive down to help out with the basketball portion: Greg Smith, Blake Welch, Troy Evans and John Adams. A good friend of mine also came down to help out Matt Schoenfeld. The Camp would not have gone nearly as well without all of this great help.

Let me finish by saying how wonderful your daughters were. Even in the heat they pushed themselves, they found the focus and energy to encourage others and there was very little drama. Each girl has found a place in my heart and it was so fun to see them grow and find success in basketball. When we had competitions - and we had a lot of them - I found myself cheering strongly for each of them to win. But even when they didn't, I found joy in seeing them improve and win on that all important battlefield of personal challenge. There will be challenges and victories, peaks and valleys this year, but I am going to love linking arms with these girls and enjoying the journey. Only 119 days until we start our season!

June Annual Board Meeting

Our last meeting of the school's fiscal year was held last night. This meeting is two-fold in purpose: 1) conduct the annual members' meeting to elect Board members and renew terms, and 2) conduct the annual directors' meeting to
* Re-commit to our Statement of Faith and Letter of Commitment to service on the Board
* Make Committee assignments
* Appoint Committee chairs
* Set our meeting calendar for the year

Highlights for the evening were:
* Chris Lyon was elected to join our Board and serve on the Planning Committee. We enthusiastically welcome Chris to the Board. He will bring experience and knowledge that will serve us well in our efforts to develop succession plans.
* We are going into the summer months with a reasonable chance to not have to borrow from ourselves (designated funds) to make it through summer payroll. This would be the first time ever we would be in this strong of financial position in the summer. Praise the Lord!
* We celebrated Dr. Daugherty's continued recovery from his surgery last month. He is working full days again. Can I get another Praise the Lord!
* The monument sign - including an LED messaging board - is expected to be finished before school starts. The stone and masonry work is complete. In addition there will be more signs on the west end of the North Campus with our school name on them.
* I reviewed some of the training I received at the ISM session on Board Presidency this week. I see two tools that will have immediate impact on our Board: 1) Stability Markers (based on research, what things about a school indicate it stability to continue and flourish) and 2) Board Strategic Self Evaluation. The components of this evaluation will help shape how we conduct ourselves and provide the right leadership for the school.
* Maranatha had a strong presence at Old Shawnee Days as Mr. Gordon rallied his band for a large, quality presence. We also had a booth and an ad in their program.
* Also check out our radio ads on Bott radio 92.3. Professionally done and on target.

So a productive close to a wonderful school year that, yes, had turbulence, but we saw God do amazing things. With open anticipation, we look forward to how God will lead us into the next year.

Summer Activities

Wow! Almost a month has flown by since I have last posted to this blog. Well that is to be expected as school is out and our focus shifts to family and outdoor activities. It has been a busy June for me as I have been coaching a wonderful group of girls in the game of basketball. We are busy 2 nights a week with open gym time and league games. The girls are showing some remarkable improvement and have been a joy to coach. We have had record turnouts for open gyms and for participation in league games. We are holding our own with teams from 4 and 5A schools.

I am excited to have our first annual Country Bible & Basketball Camp in my hometown of Waverly, Kansas July 11-15. Waverly is about 1 hour south of KC on I-35. We will be using the church camp where I attended in my youth for housing and other country activities and using the high school gym for the basketball portion. A real treat will be introducing my high school coaches to the girls. I will be leading the basketball portion along with my assistant Diane Metcalf and several other volunteers. My wife and mom will be doing the cooking(enough reason to attend!). My sister has helped with artwork and will be a dorm mom, and my Dad will be leading the Bible studies. So it is a family affair and should be a great time of learning and bonding.

I also attended some wonderful training in Wilmington, Delaware on how to be a Board Chairman. So I told the Board last night that I think we have some opportunities that can make us a stronger Board which in turn should make us a stronger school. More on these opportunities in another post.

And to wrap up my other activities for the school this summer is my pursuit of getting my CDL license to drive a bus. The girls should be highly encouraging of me passing this test. The back up plan for transporting them from the Camp to the High School will be in the back of a horse trailer. Just kidding!

Hope everyone has a great summer! Don't stop praying for the school. We need kids to enroll!

The Heart of Maranatha

I started this school year with the blessing of attending the teachers first meeting of the year. They shared how the Lord used the summer to recharge their energy and mind for the school year ahead. They also experienced God's instruction during that time that helped them continue to mature in the Lord so that they are even better models for our students.

Well, to wrap up the school year, I was again blessed by our teachers as I attended their year end event. We started out with a beautiful rendition of "His Eye is on the Sparrow" by 5 moms from the school. Then were thrilled to hear from Dr. Daugherty on his first trip back to the school after his stay in the hospital. He challenged us all to remember the passion for why we are involved in Christian education and to wake up each day asking "what do you have for me to do today, Lord?"

The heart of the time was in the worship: first in singing led by Mrs. Smith and Mr. Gordon and then in testimonies from many. It was comforting to hear how God continues to work through adversity and triumphs to help us all grow. There were many tremendous challenges: finances, surgeries, tough kids, danger to family, etc, but through it all we realized that God was still in control and shaping us for His service.

There were many awards given out for longevity. We had several teachers cross thresholds of 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and even 30 years of service at Maranatha. Thank God for their service and impact on young lives. We also honored Doris Boster as she is retiring after serving Maranatha full time for 19 years. She received several nice gifts and many kind words for her time invested here.

Thank the Lord for this year, and we look forward to the next.

Graduation

Highlight of the year. That is what I told several people as I anticipated the start of the proceedings. I was certainly not disappointed. A wonderful blend of memories, performances, speeches, fun, family and honoring our young people as they completed this step in the journey of life. It is wonderful to be able to honor our Lord and our country throughout the event. I look forward to hearing stories of how these graduates impact our world for our Lord.

We certainly missed having Dr. Daugherty there, but he will get to review the video. When I visited him in the hospital I asked him if he had any special handshakes I should practice in anticipation of me filling in for him. I was trying to be humorous. Little did I realize he had about 5 or 6 pointers for me as it was more involved than I thought. Good thing I heard those pointers as I had to grab the robe of a couple graduates to keep them from running off the stage too quickly. What fun! And what a blessing for me as several of these young people I have had considerable amount of interaction with such as Brady Bergerhofer, Kelsey Davidson, Drew Swank and Devante Williams. In fact the Bergerhofers are real close friends, so I have witnessed Brady's growth from newborn to graduate. What a joy!

Well, we will be praying for you graduates. Keep seeking the Lord.

Dr Daugherty

As I trust you are aware Dr Daugherty was taken to the hospital on Friday and had surgery. I saw him Wednesday afternoon and he was ready to go home! The Lord's hand was certainly on Dr Daugherty as things could have turned out much differently, but we are grateful that he is on the road to recovery and anxious to get back in the middle of things.

I wanted to share that the Board was made aware of the situation fairly early on and immediately went to a time of prayer. We have since been discussing possible scenarios based on Dr. Daugherty's availability, personal preferences and health. These conversations were theoretical concerning possible situations so that we could respond more thoughtfully should any of them develop into reality. The good news is that we believe we are decently prepared for most situations. I say decently, because Dr Daugherty's responsibilities and impact on the school would take considerable measures from several people to ensure smooth operation of the school in his absence.

In addition, I have offered to Mr. Beck and Mrs. Burch the services of the Board and my time to do what we can to keep things running smoothly. As a very tangible example of that is that I will be planning to meet with them on a weekly basis and be available by phone to keep the Board aware of where we can help and be another resource to resolving questions and issues where Dr Daugherty normally provided that function.

Please keep Dr Daugherty in your prayers and for the leadership of the school as we wrap up this school year and transition into planning for the next.

April's Board Meeting

We had just enough Board members to conduct the meeting last night as work and activities kept a few away. However, that did not prevent some significant and positive action to be conducted and completed.

We opened the meeting in an extended time of prayer after reviewing the blessing of the National Day of Prayer coordinated by Laura Burch. It was a well attended event that did an excellent job of expressing our thankfulness to God and petitioning Him for His protection and guidance for our families, school, state and nation.

This is also the time of year when we consider Board nominations. Andy Hageman has taken a job opportunity in Nebraska and will be moving there this summer. That means he has resigned from the Board, so we are considering filling the role he served on the Facilities Committee as well as finding people with talent and experience in the areas of finance and human resources. We have 3 candidates that we will start the process with and ask them to consider serving with us on the Board. We plan to work through that process and have them on Board before the next school year starts.

We reviewed activities of the Facilities Committee which included progress on the monument sign at the North Campus (the foundation has been poured), upcoming review of options for security and communication systems for the North Campus, the planned installation of the bleachers in October, and various other maintenance items such as parking lot repair, shingles missing, mulch containment and other such fun things.

Finally we spent time reaching a consensus on the important matter of what is our point of differentiation (our market stance) in the marketplace recognizing that our target audience is Christian families. I am delighted to say that we quickly came to agreement on the matter and I have asked the Development Committee to create a statement that summarizes that agreement. We will use that market stance as the guiding and most prominent feature that should attract families to Maranatha. More to come on this topic soon.

Look forward to seeing you at one of the many school activities this month.

Help - Need helper for basketball camp

July 11-15 of this year we are going to have our first Country Basketball & Bible Camp in Waverly, KS. I am very excited about this event. It should provide the opportunity for our girls to bond closer to God and to each other as well as take their game up a notch or two. We have 34 girls that will be at the camp - which is awesome! - but that means I need at least 5 assistants during the basketball portion of the camp - approximately 9-4 - Tuesday through Friday. I am also looking for someone - preferably a young lady - that would be interested in being the strength, stretching and conditioning coach for the week.

I have several people who have volunteered to come down a couple days and help coach during the camp. Since it is difficult to have people commit to being available the whole week, I need a few more people who know some basketball to come be my assistant on a day or two. So if you are interested in helping or know someone who is, please let me know.

Waverly is 65 minutes from the school. Straight down I-35, halfway between Ottawa and Emporia. Waverly is where I grew up so we will be using a church camp ground to have the girls stay, eat, study God's Word and have some country fun. We will be using my high school's gym for the basketball portion.

National Day of Prayer

I really appreciate Laura Burch's leadership in setting up an event in support of our National Day of Prayer. There is much we need to go to our Father for:
- Worship - recognize Him for who He is
- Thanksgiving - He has given us so much and all we have is His. Specifically for the school he has provided a wonderful committed, loving staff, facilities and tools to instruct, finances to run the school and plan for the future, and a wonderful Maranatha Family that we can walk this journey together.
- Requests - for our world and all those that are called to respond to Him. Our nation that it would turn back to God and let Him be our sovereign ruler. For our State and its leaders as they deal with financial challenges and key human rights and privileges issues. For our school as we seek to provide means to arm our children with a Christian worldview that prepares them to defend their faith.

I trust you will devote some time today before the Lord - hopefully in community with others - in lifting our worship, thanksgiving and requests to Him.

Call to Prayer

I have heard recently from two different speakers that all meaningful spiritual, godly movements or accomplishments at a organizational, local, state or national level were all preceded by intense, specific, purposeful times of prayer.

That statement is powerful in that it is Biblical. It is challenging in that it is personal. It brings hope because it reminds us of God's sovereignty, love and power.

So what are you praying about? Are you intense, consistent, specific and strategic in your prayers?

The Board has made a commitment to be much in prayer for our school. For example, the Planning Committee devoted their committee meeting times all summer just to pray for wisdom for the school and the leadership as we prepare for transitions. I know Mrs. Burch is planning activities around the National Day of Prayer on May 5th. I hope you will join in those activities and/or other organized activities that call on our Lord and that you will include Maranatha in those prayers. The Board meeting was moved to May 5th due to conflicts, so we are going to spend some extended time in the meeting praying for Maranatha.

Be specific:
* Students that are growing in their relationship and knowledge of God
* Faculty that are daily re-energized to invest in the lives of students and modeling godly character
* Leadership that is practical, forward-thinking, loving and leaning on God
* Facilities and tools are available and functioning well to maximize our ability to reach current and future students
* That we are effective in getting the word out about why Maranatha is a great place for parents to entrust the teaching and care of their children
* That we are wise stewards of the resources that God has entrusted us with so that we can expand the ministry as God would have us do so

Personal Ministry

I hope you will oblige me a moment as I ask you for your help in a personal matter not connected to Maranatha.

The Lord has really been challenging me to obey Him in the area of ministring to the poor and others with desperate physical needs. He has used the book by David Platt that I gave to our basketball girls at the end of the season titled, "Radical: Taking Back the Church From the American Dream". I encourage you to read it, as I think that if enough of us respond to this level of obedience demanded by our Lord, we would greatly impact our families, school, church, community and world.

But enough preaching and to my point. Because I don't normally rub shoulders, much to my chagrin, with those that are poor and hurting, I need help in finding these people. I mean the ones that are really hurting. I met some in Mexico and my hope is that I can help them, but I am looking nearer to home first. I have some ideas about how to do a ministry, so I need contacts and or locations I can get started. I am also interested in hearing of good local ministries that I could join with. I am talking with my church to see what they do and am exploring other resources, but any advice you want to send me would be welcome. Send to my email at mschultze21@yahoo.com or give me a call or text at 913-645-8901. Thank you!

March Board Meeting

We had a very productive Board meeting last night.

The Development Committee reported that they will invite a consultant company to the April committee meeting to investigate whether they could help us evaluate and enhance our development efforts. In addition, the committee will be preparing to lead a discussion in the April Board meeting about what makes Maranatha different in the marketplace.

The Finance Committee received approval to proceed with an engagement of a consultant to do an evaluation and make recommendations for enhancing our programs and marketing for our preschool. That will start this month.

The Planning Committee facilitated a rich discussion around the feedback from the focus groups on succession planning. Now they will take all of the feedback and start building a competency model for updating/building a job description for the superintendent role for the years to come. Additionally they started the process of accepting board nominations and considering what changes in committee roles might be needed for next year. Andy Hageman is moving his family to Nebraska as he accepted a job in a ministry called One City International. Therefore he submitted a letter of resignation to the Board which was accepted and we pray many blessings to Andy and his family and they engage in this wonderful ministry and appreciate all he has done for the school.

The Facilities Committee reminded the Board of all the progress that has been made on the North Campus over the years up through this year. The momentum is not slowing as we now have over $25,000 in the Bleacher Buddy program so we will be adding those bleachers this summer. Praise the Lord! and thank you for your generosity. We still need $8-10,000 to cover all of the costs, so any amount you can make to this needed project would be appreciated. Additionally we are continuing to exam options for increasing the security at the North Campus with a new security/communication system.

Finally, the Board declared a direction for the plans for facilities for Maranatha. Please understand, this is not a building plan. However, this does provide a clear statement of intent and should remove some of the ambiguity that has been present about our facilities. So our statement is that by consensus, the Board has elected to focus all future development efforts on the North Campus and begin by examining the viability of whether we could meet current and future needs at that location. We will continue with the 5 year plan that I referenced in a previous post with specific efforts to maximize the existing buildings. This statement adds direction and authority for the Facilities Committee to examine the viability of handling current and future facility needs of the school at the North Campus.

With all that said, there are many important, significant actions underway in each committee that could very well have significant impact on the school. Please pray for wisdom and sensitivity to God's will in these matters.

Dad's Prayer Breakfast

Dad's if you were unable to make the Dad's Prayer Breakfast organized by Craig Bardsley, you missed out on some great fellowship, a gripping challenge from Cary Shiner, good food and a wonderful time of meeting in our Lord's presence to lift up Maranatha.

Cary challenged the prioritization of our time. In our American world and culture, we are encouraged to look out for old number one. That includes the time when we get home from work and think, "I just need some down time", and we flip on the TV and veg out. As Cary reminded us, our families need us each and every day, and we need to be investing in them. Turn off the TV and make the investment. And once you turn off the TV don't let other things take its place, i.e. your smartphone. I was challenged. I think if the men of Maranatha would take up this challenge, we would radically change our families, our school and our community.

Any time you meet with men of like faith and interests before the Lord, it is an incredible encouragement. This pointed out to me that I need to get back with my small group and invest time regularly in prayer with them. Are you meeting in the presence of your Saviour with other believers on a regular basis?

Committee Meetings - March

Last week was a busy week of meetings. The Lord is at work at Maranatha, and it can be seen clearly in the advancement of the ministry from the Board's perspective.

Finance - we have found a consultant that we are going to recommend to the Board for evaluating our preschool's effectiveness and future. As I mentioned in previous posts, the preschool is a key piece to our school from two main vantage points: 1) it is a primary gate to attract new families to Maranatha and 2) it serves as an essential profit generator to fund operations of the K-12 schools. So this consultant, if confirmed by the Board, will be looking at how we are perceived in the community, the strength of our programs and what we can do to better market our school among other things. Hopefully we will have items we can tackle even before the new school year starts.

Facilities - we reviewed all of the work that has occurred this year to maintain and upgrade our facilities. We then reviewed plans for the upcoming months which includes building the monument sign at the North Campus and some additional signage on the west end of the North Campus. Finally, we discussed the position of the Committee on future growth plans for our facilities that we will present to the Board this Thursday. I will share the results of the Board discussion in a later post.

Planning - reviewed the input we received from the 5 focus groups concerning succession planning for the superintendent. We received invaluable insight and gained the advantage of multiple perspectives on how this position affects the school. In the next step of preparation, we will be massaging all of that information into working documents that will help in the transition process. A reminder, there has been no announcement that Dr Daugherty is retiring, the Committee and the Board are just being proactive in planning for this momentous event when it does occur.

Development - this committee is meeting this Thursday and will tackle some important topics such as specific plans to grow our school, an evaluation of a consultant firm that could help us in our development efforts and get some updates on the effectiveness of our current development efforts.

Please pray for wisdom, unity and discernment for our Board as we discuss and decide on these important topics.

Heritage Council

On Tuesday the 15th, Dr. Daugherty and I hosted an event called the Heritage Council. This was Dr. D's idea to reconnect with past board members and administrators. The concept is that since these people invested their lives in providing leadership, time and money to the school, we should keep them plugged in so that we can learn from their wisdom and counsel. In addition, these people believe in Maranatha and hopefully will be encouraged to stay involved as they see the fruits of their labor in the students and as they hear plans for our future.

The more people I meet who have touched the ministry of Maranatha, I am reminded of God's rich blessings that He has provided through people.

High Quality Maranatha Family

I have mentioned in previous posts that our Planning Committee has looked forward and said we need to have plans in place and work underway to ensure that we have a smooth transition in leadership at that point in time when Dr Daugherty retires. Please note that he has not announced that he is going to retire, but when he does, it would be prudent for us to be already in the process and know what qualities we are looking for, have an updated job description - the needs of yesterday are different than the needs of the future - thoughtful interview process, etc.

With that in mind the Planning Committee has been doing many things to help us be ready: praying, identifying the key qualities needed, and talking to our Family to make sure we cover all our bases. I have been privileged to sit in 5 focus groups over the last couple of weeks as we talked to teachers, administrators, parents - both high school and elementary - about what we should be looking for in a candidate. What a blessing to hear the heart of each one as they talked about the ministry of Maranatha, their hopes for the future and the blessings they have already received. Many of these people have invested their lives, time and money in this ministry and what a wonderful thing to link arms with them again in this important process.

Please continue to pray for us as we move along this journey that we will be tender to God's leading, and pray even now for our future leader as God prepares them for that time of service. I am so grateful for Dr Daugherty's passion and leadership of Maranatha through all the challenges of the past and present and look forward to working with him as long as he chooses to serve here.

Clarify a Point on Finances

As I talk with different people about the school's finances, I get different reactions ranging from we are in dire straits to when are we going to build the next addition at North. Here are some facts about our finances and my take so that perhaps we can have more common ground.

We are in significantly better shape today than we were a few years ago when we were on the verge of closing the school. Here are some indicators:
- We borrow less from ourselves to make summer payroll. We use to be short all 4 payrolls in the summer and now we go into the summer with a good portion in cash reserves.
- We can give salary increases. First time in 3 years.
- We can make investment in our facilities and programs
- We are meeting our monthly budget targets by managing expenses and hitting revenue targets

However all is not rosy:
- We still don't have enough revenue to not borrow from ourselves in the summer
- We don't have a strong balance sheet when banks consider us for loans; critical for refinancing the loan on the North campus; we are working on this steadily
- We don't have an endowment which makes us a month to month, year to year organization where we have a heavy reliance on tuition to make ends meet
- We do not have a capital investment fund that can jump start a facilities investment if the Lord does bring us growth.
- We do have to say no to a lot of good to great ideas and needs because we have cut the expense side significantly over the past few years.

So, we can praise the Lord that He has brought us off the financial death bed, but as Dr Daugherty often says, we are still in a wheel chair not able to walk well yet. Through continued faithfulness in expense management and fervent prayer to a gracious Father, and diligent, wise work on our part, we believe that we are headed in the right direction.

Hope this helps.

The Best Marketing

Last year I wrote a post about the best possible marketing tool for our school...you! It is has always been a staple of marketing to rely on word of mouth to get the right customers convinced of the value of your product. How that word of mouth happens has changed. There was a time that it happened by leaning over the neighbor's fence and talking about how much you liked the new car you just bought. However, now that happens in a blink of an eye through social media, through rating products online, sending out emails, taking surveys, etc.

My question to you is how are you marketing our school? Are you a good ambassador through your life and words? What tools are you using to do that? How can the school help you be a stronger marketer?

More pointedly, when the school in the form of administration or board members, approaches your churches about vocally and visually supporting Christian elementary or high schools education, they resist. They resist because they don't want to offend the those who send their kids to public schools or choose to homeschool. We don't want to offend them either. However, we are passionately and without equivocation standing firm in the belief that the formative years of our youth should be enveloped with an environment that instructs in the way of the Lord. If they choose to do that at home, great. But we believe that we need your help in encouraging our pastors to see the great need they are avoiding when they are not standing shoulder to shoulder with Christian schools to train up our next generation to be immersed in a Christian environment.

Will you join us in that encouragement? If Maranatha is going to grow in its mission of helping Christian familes raise young men and women with a Christian worldview, Christian character and achieve academic excellence, we need our local churches to see how not encouraging parents to keep their kids in a Christian environment in their formative years is putting them at more risk.

I welcome your thoughts, wisdom and participation on this matter.

Based on Proverbs 22:6, II Timothy 3:14-15, Deut 6:7, Heb 12:9-11

Development Activities

I mentioned in a previous post that I would shed some light in more detail about what the Development Committee is overseeing and doing.

First of all, the MAP Committee, which is an offshoot of the Committee, headed by Lauren Miller and Jennifer Schneider has been doing some incredible work in building the community feeling within the Maranatha Family. That group has been generating ideas and following through on them with wonderful results.

With the Committee's focus on attracting and retaining students there are a whole host of activities that are in our regular plan that strive to deliver on this focus.
Marketing
- Billboard signs
- Visitor Days
- Print adds (Shawnee Dispatch, Shawnee Chamber magazine, KC Parent, etc)
- Banner in Lenexa Baptist's gym
- Information Stand at Upwards
- Redesigning the web site
- Radio spots on Bott, KLJC, K-LOVE
- Replacing inquiry packets with a credit card size flash drive with all the info
Fund Raising
- MJM program - merchants sending a percentage of credit card processing revenue to MA
- Raising funds for bleachers in the gym - Bleacher Buddy program
- Scrip card sales
- Donor appreciation gift books mailed
Public relations-
- Corporate Partner recognition reception
- Hosted Shawnee Chamber Coffee
- Heritage Council initiation - meeting with former board members and school administrators to share, get counsel and ask for their continued partnership in prayer and support
Near term focus-
- Evaluate our current efforts and then develop a new strategy to attract and retain students. In addition develop a plan for nurturing a donor base to help us fund our growth plans.

Hope this post helps provide a more holistic view of the activities of the school and encourages you to leverage these efforts to help us draw other Christian families to Maranatha.

5 Year Plan

Let's see if I can do this clearly and concisely:

Facilities: we are planning on being in our current facilities for the next 5 years. Therefore we will focus all capital investments in our North facility which we own and continue to minimize any investment in the south campus as we are leasing our facilities there. Specifically we have plans for improving the gym area and continue to do wise maintenance projects. A parallel effort will be to evaluate our options and develop plans for when the Lord begins to increase the number of students in our school

Development: their focus is to attract and retain students. So they will start with a near term focus on evaluating our efforts and developing a new strategy to attract and retain students. In addition we will be developing a plan for nurturing a donor base to help us fund our growth plans. The development committee needs to continue to raise $120,000 a year to help us meet our goals in facilities and program development.

Finance: Focus on getting a more competitive salary schedule, reduce the dependency on donations to fund our operations, and fund smart investments in the programs and facilities of our school which includes the start of an endowment fund. At the same time we will be looking at ways to generate income outside of tuition (i.e. profits from our preschool) to help us fund our operations and growth.

Planning: Prepare us for any transitions in leadership of our school.

That is the cliff notes version. Much more conversation about these should be had, but this provides an overview.

Elementary Parents' Coffee

What a rich blessing this morning! I got to meet with a group of parents who are committed to the Maranatha Family and demonstrate that commitment by being involved many aspects of the school.

I shared many of the things I have posted on the blog: our 5 year plan concerning our facilities, development, finances and planning. I reviewed what we have been doing in these areas in the last few months and what we are planning to do in the next few months. Many of these things I have shared in previous posts. The best part of the time was the question and answer time. Many insightful questions and comments. I was honest and open and appreciated the frankness and receptivity. We don't have all the answers and as I shared with the group, we have some things we need to give some urgent attention to: raising the bar on our development efforts and finding other sources of revenue to minimize the need to rely on tuition increases.

I really enjoyed my time and thank Laura Burch for the opportunity to talk with the parents and I hope there are more similar opportunities in the near future.

Tuition

It was brought to my attention yesterday, that it might appear that there was not a tight connection between the Board's position on the communication of tuition increases and what was communicated on my last post and the tuition letter that went out last week. So let me add some context to the timing and re-state the rationale for the increases.

The Board and the Administration have a strong desire to carefully consider tuition increases to fund operational needs and growth opportunities as a third option after generating as much income from our pre school as possible and striving to add more students to our Maranatha family. This was clarified and stated in our Board meeting last Thursday, the 17th. The tuition letter had already been drafted and was caught just in time to add a sentence of explanation for the tuition increases.

The tuition increases were primarily due to two factors. The first reason was the majority of the cause. Our teachers and staff have not had pay raises in 3 years and with our pay scale significantly under schools in our area, we are at risk of retaining and attracting teachers and staff. They are the main face and personality of the school, so we felt it was a priority to reward them for their service. Secondly, we have developed a 5 year plan for maintaining and growing the effectiveness of the Maranatha experience. That was the other main cause for the tuition increase.

Please know that the Administration and staff are diligently monitoring expenses and making adjustments to keep costs down. And as I said in my last post, we will be aggressively seeking to minimize future increases by seeking to make our pre school return to its profitability of years past.

Please let me know if you have questions or feedback

February Board Meeting

We had a productive Board meeting last night but we did not have time to get to the facilities question that I thought we would. Therefore we will carry that over to a priority discussion for our March meeting which is scheduled for March 31st.

Facilities Committee report: The focus was on planned work as most recently the air lock entrance to the gym was completed. So next up is the monument sign at the North Campus which the Committee is committed to having in place before the school year is out. Also for consideration were summer projects to install bleachers (if the funds come in) and to install more impactful signage for our gym entrance. They are also examining security/communication options for the North Campus for installation next year.

Planning Committee report: they are continuing to lead the Board in the process of having an intentional succession plan in place. After 18+ months of Board work, the next step is to gather input from representatives of the Maranatha Family as to important parts of this process. So Sean Slattery and I will be conducting focus group sessions with parents, teachers and administrators in March to gather that input.

Development Committee report: 1) Affirmed a 5 year plan for the committee (I will share more about this in a separate post). 2) They are considering some additional signage options on the west end of the North campus facing Swarner Park. 3) Developing plans for getting the right person and/or people engaged to build a strategy and have the time to carry out a funding development effort (also more in another post). 4) There are many Marketing, Fund Raising and Public Relation activities going on (more in...you guessed it...another post).

Finance Committee report: We continue to celebrate the Lord's faithfulness as our operation budget continues to be in good shape. We have a positive balance which will help us continue to invest in the school and our people so that we can maximize our efforts in accomplishing our Mission. One priority investment we are going to make is increasing the compensation for our professional and support staff. As contracts go out next month, we have built into the planned budget for next year raises for all teachers and support staff. The Board was enthusiastically in support of this action and to fund it supported a tuition increase for next year in light of the fact that salaries have been frozen for 3 years. Our last item was to ask for a focused evaluation by an industry expert on our pre school. When run at the appropriate capacity, the pre school generates a significant profit that in the future could help us restrain tuition increases while allowing for a stable operating budget and funding growth at our school. As we dive into this evaluation, I will be sharing more of our plans.

The final hour of our meeting was devoted to position statements concerning our handling the finances of the school. After much discussion, we agreed to the following in principle:
1) To fund growth and our operating budget increases, we will look to other income outside of tuition and increasing enrollment as our top priority source. For the near term future we desire that this type of income be generated from our pre school since it aligns well with our Mission, it is a business already in place, and it has in the past generated significant profits.

2) We directed the Development Committee to seek to further restrain tuition increases by intentionally and aggressively seeking to grow the number of students enrolled in Maranatha. We will need your help to reach your Christian friends and be an advocate for Maranatha to them.

3) We will continue to be very judicious concerning increasing tuition rates. Any tuition rate increases should be carefully justified and communication as to the necessities of those increases should be communicated to the Maranatha family.

I hope this information is helpful to you, and as always, I encourage your input on these matters.

Can You Be a Bleacher Buddy?

I ask about the Bleacher Buddy participation, because it is another step in our journey to provide the facilities and equipment to have the quality of educational experience we would like to offer through Maranatha. I purposely used the word step because, as any homeowner knows, you are never done with the upkeep, enhancement and modifications to our facilities. So there will be future steps, and we need everyone to carefully consider how they can be involved in each step.

I think the Lord has provided us with some nice and very usable facilities at our North campus. And since the Lord owns them and we provide stewardship, it is wise to make investments in the property to maximize its use and leave a good perception of our school on those who visit whether they be other schools or prospective families.

So I hope you will prayerfully and carefully evaluate how you are going to be involved in the upcoming plans for improving the value and usefulness of the gym area. We just added the airlock doors to the north entrance. Next up is adding bleachers which will allow us to host homecoming, league sports showcases, and other larger events in our gymnasium. Then we would like to put in some team locker rooms complete with showers, sinks, toilets and changing areas. It is not a great experience for visiting teams to change in the classrooms. We also need to seriously upgrade our bathrooms. There will be other steps, but hopefully you will share and participate in our excitement to improve those gifts the Lord has given to us.

Prepping for February Board Meetings

Tommorrow starts the committee meeting journey leading up to the February 17th Board meeting. First up is the Planning Committee chaired by Sean Slattery with Jim Cotton, Chris Wojcik and Dr Daugherty participating. I join as an ad hoc member. Our attention will be on getting some focus groups set up in the next 30 days to gather input on the succession planning work that this committee has been working on for the past 18 months.

The Development Committee will meet on the 15th with plenty to talk about: the recently announced Bleacher Buddy program, future development of the North Campus; input from the Maranatha family about future plans for the school, marketing, attracting and retaining students and families and whatever else we can fit into a hour and a half meeting. Your Dev Committee is chaired by Dr Daugherty with Brandyn West, Dennis Wiley and Shawn Stewart serving.

The Finance Committee will meet on the 17th. I chair this committee and our primary topic of discussion will be salary contracts that will need to be sent out in March. I will report from our last meeting that our financial situation allowed us to provide a small stipend to our teachers and staff. Praise the Lord! We are also diligently monitoring the budget so that we can fund future growth in salaries, development activities and programs. Blake Welch, Dr Daugherty, Bernie Zarda and Rob Metcalf (Rob and Bernie are not currently on the Board) serve on the Committee.

In the Board meeting on the 17th we will discuss motions and results from the committees as well as tackle a couple of Board position statements concerning a definition of growth and governing concepts for financial management.

A Mission Field at Maranatha

Yes, we are bringing the unchurched to our facilities on a weekly basis. We serve them and we provide a witness to the gospel by our actions and through the spoken Word. We have faithful missionaries that serve many hours a week to reach literally hundreds of children and adults each week.

What is this mission field? It is the Upwards program. Upwards is a ministry that leverages basketball and cheerleading to reach children and their parents with the gospel message. Over 300 kids come to our gymnasium at least twice a week. Once for practice and once for games on Saturday. Every Saturday the Word is presented clearly to all in attendance. Plus the wonderful volunteers headed up by Wendi and Joel Oster demonstrate servant's hearts to all that see them.

A side note: in my years at Maranatha, I am positive that I have never seen a group of people, and in particular Joel and Wendi, be more conscientious in their care and upkeep of the facilities. They leave the gym and all the areas they touch in better shape than how they found them.

So if you don't feel called to go to a mission field in another state or another country, yet would like to obey your Master in reaching the lost, volunteer to serve in Upwards and you will be blessed. I will see you there as my wife, Cindy, and I are coordinating the concessions.

Provide Feedback for Feb 17 Board Meeting

One of the topics we are going to discuss in the next Board meeting is the topic shown in the poll I have posted on the right side of the page (you will have to scroll down to find it). Please take a minute and give us your thoughts on this topic - Facilities Direction. If you choose other as your response, please feel free to clarify by adding a comment.

Answers In Genesis

Answers in Genesis - what a wonderful name for an organization. I have been a fan and supporter of this ministry for several years. They are prolific in their work to combat the devil's effort to deceive our world. AIG's primary purpose is to defend the absolute trustworthiness of God's Holy Word. They do this by starting with Genesis and defending the accuracy and literal meaning of God's account of history.

Lenexa Baptist Church recently hosted an event with Answers In Genesis's founder Ken Hamm. Dr Gary Parker was there as well and they put on a powerful educational and encouraging conference. Believe it or not, God's Word can be stood on as the foundation of our faith without shame and without fear. God said he created the world and the universe in 6 days, and that is what He did. If you don't believe that and the rest of Genesis - sin, Tower of Babel, the Flood, etc, then the rest of the Bible becomes meaningless. Therefore you better investigate the roots of your beliefs or all is in vain. Believing in a young earth is not what provides salvation, but it is impossible to tell the story why it is important without the right understanding of Genesis.

With all that said, I am so appreciative to be part of Maranatha and the fact that we teach the same beliefs - the same Word of God - that AIG is so forcefully sharing. We are training up our children to have a strong foundation that is unapologetically the Word of God that does not need to be explained away. Make sure you are doing your part to teach and reinforce the trustworthiness of God's account of history in Genesis 1-11.

Basketball - Dealing with Adversity

Basketball is just a game, however, it is also something that our kids - and we as parents - can invest a lot of time, emotions, effort and thought. When we don't measure up to the world's standards of success - winning on the scoreboard and posting impressive individual stats - it can get discouraging. I hurt with our girls as they struggle to deal with this fact.

At the same time, I rejoice as I see them dig deep into themselves and respond with godly character. They initiated and have faithfully continued having devotions before each game. They spend the time, noting on the white board before the game how they want to contribute to the team. I challenge them about making the sacrifice to improve and be the best they can be for the team, and they respond by showing up early to practice, by working on the specific areas that I challenge them on. That is winning in Christian way.

God does not guarantee worldly success if we obey Him and do the right things. However He does say that He will reward His children for that obedience in His way. Your daughters are learning that lesson through the method of a basketball season. Pray for their perseverance.

Board Update

January has proven to be a challenge pulling the Board and the Committees together. Schedules are very busy with work, sports, and other activities. So we postponed our Board meeting and several of the Committees have still to meet. The Finance Committee is meeting today, and we have a lot to cover: next year's budget, tuition schedules, salary schedules, plus the normal monthly items of reviewing this year's budget, accounts receivables, etc. In the preliminary proposals from Dr Daugherty, there are some significant positive steps that it appears we can take with the budget if enrollment holds year over year: salary increases, more reserves, better financial situation over the summer months and perhaps hiring for some key responsibilities. Praise God for His blessings. Please pray for us as we review all of these important items and prepare recommendations for the Board.

The Planning Committee continues to concentrate on developing a succession plan for key leadership positions. Being thoughtful and purposeful in having this plan in place before it is needed is critical to the sustainability and smooth operations of the school

The Facilities Committee still has several projects underway: the monument sign at the North Campus and building an airlock entrance into the gym to provide better access and manage our utilities better since a lot of cold air pours into the gym when people go in and out the northern most doors.

New Year

Welcome to a new year! I hope your holidays were centered around the real reason for celebration...God's rich gift of salvation provided through His Son. In addition, family time is important and for some families I know it was a time of loss as loved ones went home to be with their Lord. However, in everything we can be joyful because we know God is working all things out to His good purpose which in turn is the best thing for us as Christians.

Our family at Maranatha is going strong as enrollment held between semesters, and God bountifully provided a special donation to help out with operation costs. Basketball is in full swing, and I can tell you that your kids are working hard to utilize the skills and interest in this game to be the best they can be. I have watched both JH and HS girls and boys practices, and the coaches are doing a great job of helping our athletes grow in character and basketball prowess. I can specifically say that the HS girls have worked diligently, and I am looking forward to their reward for that hard work in the upcoming games.

As we start this new year, I thought I would remind you that one of the best ways you can help Maranatha, and yourself, is to be a marketing/recruitment agent for the school. January starts the true marketing season for the school as we set the tuition rate, start advertising on billboards, flyers, radio, etc, and we refresh our website (planning on a redesigned site this spring). Please be on the lookout for families (encourage your kids to be agents as well) who would be well served to partner with Maranatha in anchoring their kids in a Christian worldview and developing godly character while striving for academic excellence. The more families who join us in this endeavor, the more we can spread out the financial burden of operating the school...that helps you. More importantly, we further the kingdom of God by encouraging the spiritual growth of our children.

Board meeting coming up next week, so look for reports soon thereafter.