After months of suspense and anticipation, on Wednesday, June 5th, Lucerne Dairy announced, live on FOX10 and Channel 3, that Northwest Christian High's Kayla Anderson had won the grand prize in the national "Art of Dairy" competition.  The prize package includes $20,000 for the NCS art department, $5,000 for Kayla, and $5,000 for her art teacher, Mrs. Rebecca Feight.  Under the direction of Mrs. Feight, the NCS prize money will work to move the art program forward dramatically at the school.

On January 29th, Kayla learned that her cow design had been selected as one of nine in the nation as a contest finalist.  That next week, a life-sized plaster cow was shipped to the school and Kayla had until March 2nd to paint the cow.  Then, beginning in the middle of April, the nine finalists' cows were featured on the Art of Dairy website and a flurry of voting across the nation was sparked.  In the end, during an announcement party at the Safeway at 32nd and Camelback and aired live on TV, the school learned that Kayla had clinched the top prize.

"We're so, so very proud of Kayla and Rebecca!" exclaims Superintendent Geoff Brown.  "But there is so much more to this story than a contest and prizes, as special as all that has been.   Here's my favorite part of this whole story:  when Kayla received the cow on campus, the first thing that she did, before the painting began, was to take a pencil and write her favorite Bible verses all over it and she and her family prayed that the cow and the contest would be used to glorify Christ above all else.  Through this entire journey, as Kayla has been on the news or in art galleries around town, she's done exactly that:  glorifying Jesus every time she could."

In the next few weeks, Mrs. Feight will be meeting with the facilities team and presenting her plans for improvements to the art room and the program.  "When I think about how far Rebecca has brought the program already," says Geoff, "I start to get really excited when I think about what she'll be able to accomplish with $20,000."

Congratulations to the recipients of

The 2012/2013 Honor Rolls and Principal's Lists 

Generous Sponsor of the Northwest Christian Fine Arts Department

Mike and Ronda's The Place Restaurant 

With students participating across the campus, the school learned in May that NCS students were well represented in the annual Daughters of the America Revolution Essay and Art Contest.  The theme for this year's contest was "Investing in America's Future" and students were encouraged to submit their writings and artistic efforts as a way of communicating their own unique perspectives.  Barbara Cook (pictured below), a representative from the local Arizona Chapter of DAR, visited multiple classrooms on campus and honored several individual students for their contributions.  But, two students, Jordan Huggett and Matthew Nagler did well enough to see their work place well in national and statewide DAR judging.  Jordan won 1st place in the national judging for his stamp design and Matthew place 1st place in Arizona for his poster design.

Generous Sponsor of Northwest Christian Athletes

Moore Automotive Group

"To date, we have delivered over 1,800 pounds of change to our friends at Bank of America," says Superintendent Geoff Brown of the effort to tally the total amount of money raised through April's Liquid Hope campaign.  The ambitious campaign--which was started by students and grew to pull together over twenty Christian schools--was designed to raise funds for clean water  in Haitian villages where the plight of dirty water is devastating and a summer 2013 missions trip to Haiti.  "As of right now, the total amount raised is betwee $35,000 and $40,000 with more donations still coming in," Geoff continues.  "The total raised will be split between providing clean water solutions in Haiti and sending a group of students on a mission trip to Haiti this summer."  The Liquid Hope mission trip will consist of ten Christian high school students--from Northwest Christian, Faith Christian, and Mountain Ridge--who will be travelling with a team from Hope4Kids and several NCS teachers and staff.  They will be working in the Haitian village of St. Marc.  Geoff explains:  "I had the opportunity to be in St. Marc in February.  While there, I had the opportunity to visit the orphanage where Liquid Hope students will be working, meet the Haitian pastor who oversees the Christ the King church and orphanage, and see firsthand the issues being perpetuated by the lack of access to clean drinking water and poor sanitation.  I'm excited that our students are learning to be difference-makers.  They're working to meet the physical and spiritual needs of this community.  A portion of the money raised will be used to provide water filtration systems.  Students will be working with a Hope4Kids construction foreman to make improvements and repairs within the orphanage and church. As well, our students will be presenting the gospel to the children of St. Marc by offering a Vacation Bible School."

If you are interested in supporting the Liquid Hope effort and supporting the missions team, the opportunity still exists at www.liquidhope.org.

CCU's Centennial Institute presents

Arizona Western Conservative Summit

An annual event at Northwest Christian, the American Chemistry Society sponsored a national poetry contest that encouraged students to explore the 2013 conservation theme "Our Earth, Handle with Care".  While NCS students have always done well in the contest, 2013 found that our students earned all three of the top spot for the state.  First place went to Tatum Berkwitt, second place went to Trey Sports, and third place: went to Grace Engstrom.  Tatum's entry has been sent to Washington DC to be judged as part of the national competition.

NCS students also did well in terms of honorable mentions.  The following students were chosen statewide for honorable mentions:  Hannah Barrier (Northwest Christian School, Phoenix, Arizona) Xander Sharpe (East Valley Jewish Day School, Chandler, Arizona) Angelina Conder (Northwest Christian School, Phoenix, Arizona) Nate Carroz (Northwest Christian School, Phoenix, Arizona) and Mayah Greer (Northwest Christian School, Phoenix, Arizona).

A special invitation f0r the NCS community...

Nick Vujicic and John Burley

Opportunity Jesus Heartbeat

For each of the past several years, the Northwest Christian community--staff, students, and families--has been encouraged to read a book together over the summer as a school family.  That book, in turn, is used by the Student Council to set the spiritual theme for the coming school year.  During the summer of 2012, the summer reading was "Not a Fan" by Kyle Idleman and the student leaders used that book to springboard into the theme "Insane Courage" and the verse for the year, Joshua 1:9.

Looking to the new year, during the summer of 2013, the summer reading will have a novel twist:  the book has been authored by one of our own!  Jeremy Eagan, who teaches Senior Bible this year (and several popular high school Bible electives), has written "Opportunity Jesus", a book published by Xulon Press.  The book has 52 brief chapters that work chronologically through the life of Christ pausing to present opportunities that we have as believers to serve Him and glorify Him.  The book, which will be available in Christian bookstores through Spring Arbor Distribution and is available through Amazon.com and BarnesandNobles.com, will become the springboard for the 2013/2014 school year.  Using a companion website to the book, www.OpportunityJesus.com, the NCS family will also receive monthly videos, beginning in June, that feature Jeremy as well as other members of the NCS family that will illuminate the portions of the book that the school family is reading this summer.  Then, looking towards the new school year, the life of Christ as illustrated within the book's themes will become the focus of chapels.

To enjoy the first video message, click on the image above.

Discounted copies are available in the school and you can also pick up the Kindle version of the book at:

Amazon Kindle Store

Shine Dentistry and Orthodontics

Generous sponsor of the summer 2013 reading

"Determination."  It's the word that Cassy Diamond uses to describe her attitude after being cut not once, but twice from the Northwest Christian volleyball team.  It was that determination that fueled her efforts to continue working and practicing at the sport.  Ultimately, that determination paid off as she made the high school volleyball team, went on to play volleyball at Messiah College in Pennsylvania, and now, several years later, caused her to return to NCS to serve as a high school volleyball coach.

That determination has also fueled her desire to serve Christ in whatever form she can.  Having attended Northwest Christian from the Mom's Day Out program through 12th grade, Diamond was what the NCS family calls a "lifer".  As she reflects back on those years, she recalls that while she talked the talk, her relationship with Christ was always in process while at the school.  "I never really fully understood the point of life in Christ," says Cassy.  "I saw my relationship with God as a 'get-out-of-hell free card'."  But that changed when she was asked, as part of her grandmother's dying wishes, to read Psalm 90 at her grandmother's funeral.  She describes that moment as the first time she fully understood that God's word was quite literally God's voice to her.  In that moment, she became a Christ follower.  "Now, when I lead devotions with the team," she says, "I really want the girls to understand that God's word is His voice speaking  directly to them."

After taking four years of tough Spanish from Mr. Rafael Garcia, Diamond graduated from NCS and went on to major in international business and minor in Spanish at Messiah College.  While there, she took every opportunity to study and serve abroad, spending time in Costa Rica, Latvia, Russia, Germany, Switzerland, France, Austria, England, the Netherlands, Chile, and China.  Most recently, after concluding the 2012 volleyball season, Cassy went to serve with a Christian development organization in Costa Rica where she was able to serve as a translator.  Now, having returned to Phoenix, in addition to coaching at Northwest, she has committed the next year to serving a term with AmeriCorps with Neighborhood Housing Services, capitalizing on her mastery of Spanish and doing community engagement and outreach.

Serving as coach for the freshman team, Cassy encourages as many freshman girls to come out as possible.  Pointing to the fact that she herself was cut before she fully learned the game, she wants to use the team to develop new talent.

Each year, NCS juniors and seniors head to YoungLife's Lost Canyon in Williams, Arizona for a camp experience that is meant to establish the spiritual tone and theme of the school year.  This year's speaker, Junior Bible teacher Jeremy Eagan, used three different teaching sessions to 'unpack' the theme for 2012/2013:  "Insane Courage:  What's Stopping You?"  The theme was prayerfully developed by Student Council after reading the schoolwide summer reading, Kyle Idleman's "Not a Fan". 

Through his inimitable wit and subtle humor, Mr. Eagan's message is one that resonated deeply.  In that our "Insane Courage" shirts are going home this week, we thought our families might enjoy the original messages.  You can stream or download the messages at the links below:

Message 1:  https://www.box.com/s/d6df7f273cb011af8853

Message 2:  https://www.box.com/s/9636d9050dbce4bc0fbe

Message 3:  https://www.box.com/s/c530996449e57296a519

Hebrews 9:28

Jog-a-thon 2013

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The new infant care program is underway and space is limited. A Tuesday and Thursday morning class for young three year olds has also just opened. The Mom's Day Out program for toddlers and the preschool program has several openings and spots will go quickly. We appreciate your referrals to family and friends. For more info, please contact Michelle Reddy at mreddy@ncsaz.org

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