The Rhythm by Tom Kapanka

This post was added a year and a half after retiring from CCS.

Originally written and posted at Patterns of Ink 

on May 27,2007 and again  HERE:

It started with a murmur…

My primary care physician said the murmur was very faint but scheduled an echocardiogram just the same. That echo confirmed a faint murmer so he scheduled a nuclear stress test—if nothing else just to get a baseline for future reference. A month passed (which I mention only to stress the non-emergency nature of the stress test) and I headed to North Ottawa Hospital in my finest jogging outfit.

It was the same outfit I wear at the fitness center Julie and I joined last spring. I have lost more than thirty-five pounds since then. but I will admit that I don't really jog so much as walk around the track, and I don’t really exert myself on the equipment, I typically call it good after swimming four lengths in Olympic-sized pool. In other words: I'm far from the high school senior that won the Physical Education award in 1974. I'll also admit that my ten minutes on the stress-test treadmill while hooked up to a dozen wires and being injected with radioactive isotopes did leave me more than a little winded, but the technicians involved were so calm, kind, and complimentary that I thought I did fine and told my wife so upon returning home. 

At 4:58 the night of the stress test, I got a call from the cardiologist’s office. There was urgency in their questions: 

“Are you sure you’re okay? No chest pains? Any shortness of breath?”

 “I feel fine," I assured them.

“Well, today's stress test indicates a few areas of concern. So if you feel any symptoms—anything at all—go straight to the ER.” The voice went on to scheduled an appointment for heart-cath consultation, but every minute or so they repeated these instructions to go straight to the ER. They said it again just before hanging up. 

“Hmm…” I sighed, staring at my phone.

 “What’d they say?” asked Julie. “

“I could be reading into it," I smiled, "but they seem surprised that I'm not having  a heart attack right now.”

A few minutes later my primary care physician called. We often have lighthearted banter during our visits, and he felt comfortable opening with, “So, I hear you failed your stress test.”

I laughed and said, “I didn’t think I did until the cardiologist’s office called a few minutes ago.  I’m feeling just fine—really."

“That’s good to hear," he said, then repeated what the other office said about going straight to ER if I felt anything unusual.

"Wow.__so I guess I really did bomb the stress test.”

"Seriously, Tom, It's a wonder you didn't have chest pains. The test indicates multiple concerns--multiple arterial blockages—multiple regions of the heart were lacking oxygen. Fortunately, we don't think there is any damage to heart muscle. The cardiologist wants to do a heart cath as soon as possible. That's the only real way to know what's going on.  You have an appointment with them Monday. The last words he said before hanging up were, "I’m sorry this is not going to be the Thanksgiving and Christmas you had planned.”

I thanked him for his call and repeated what he said to Julie. It was a frank and even funny conversation, but that last line that got our attention: “I’m sorry this is not going to be the Thanksgiving and Christmas you had planned.”

The weekend passed event-free, but during my time at the cardiologist office Monday, all the talk of caths and arteries and options-- and all the heart diagrams on the wall--did prompt a slight tightness in my chest. No pain. No shortness of breath. Just a tightness behind my sternum. 

"It's probably psychosomatic I said. You know just all this talking about it."  I said dismissively.

“That kind of stress (e.g. anxiety or worry or conflict) is just as real as a treadmill.” He explained. I knew this to be true because the occasional tightness behind the sternum had started the year before I retired. 

The cardiologist’s office is a stone’s throw from the Trinity ER.and, with my permission, he calmly checked me in for the night just to be on the safe side.

The heart cath was first thing the next day. We had been told it would take 90 minutes to two hours depending on how many stents were needed. Mine was over in 45 minutes and I was alert enough to think to myself, “That’s either really good news or really bad news.”

In the recovery room afterwards, I was told the good news first— no damage to any heart muscle. I really like my cardiologist. He’s optimistic but doesn’t sugarcoat things. He went on to say that the LAD (sometimes called the “widow maker”) was 100% blocked. The RCA was also 100% blocked, and the LCA was 75-80% blocked. 

Knowing what I know about my grandfather’s fatal heart attack in 1958 and my father’s fatal heart attack in 1995 and my wife’s emergency open-heart surgery in 2004,  I gave him a puzzled look and asked “If the widow-maker is 100% blocked and the RCA is 100% blocked, and I only have a trickle in the LCA.  How am I alive?” 

“Collateral arteries,” he explained.” You’ve been living with these blockages a long time—long enough for your heart to grow collateral arteries to bypass the blockages as they formed--sort of like taking a detour around a closed highway--but collaterals cannot handle the volume of blood needed to provide enough oxygen during stress. That's why you occasionally have that tightness behind the sturmun. We’re scheduling triple bypass ASAP. "

Thank God for collateral arteries. (And thank God I had never been overly ambitious at the fitness center.)

I’ll fast forward through the rest of my eleven days in the hospital and say that today marks three full weeks at home. My surgery was the day after Thanksgiving. "Rest and recovery" is going very well at home. 

My doctor was right when he said, “…this is not going to be the Thanksgiving and Christmas you had planned.” I can honestly say that “a peace that passes understanding” has accompanied us through each unfolding day.  

Never did my family and I have a more thankful Thanksgiving, and never have we anticipated a more joyous Christmas!

Merry Christmas to you all!

Tom

Please listen to the words of this video link. It is not a Christmas song per se—but it beautifully sums up the season for me this year.

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Note about the poem that is the title of this post: 

:

As a writer and former English teacher, I have an understandable aversion to Artificial Intelligence (A.I.)--especially as it pertains to the creative arts. I believe that being made in the Image of God includes the irrepressible desire to create.  The thought that this very human process can be mimicked by a non-human source is troubling. I'm told, however, that A.I. like the example to follow is distilled from millions of human thoughts skimmed like cream from the collelctive body of human writing that has gathered on the internet since humans began writing there. Whether or not that is true,  it does give me some level of comfort. Still, let it be known I do not use A.I. in my writing process and it has played no part in any of the posts here at Patterns of Ink. 

Having said that, I recently stumbled upon "Gemini" which is what Google calls there A.I. program (similar to ChatGPT). I was curious how A.I. would analyze my "...metaphors and meaning and enless patterns of ink..." (as statted in this blog's header). I was pleasantly surprised and decided to post the results.).  Whenever I an A.I. analysis, I will playfully frame it as a brief guest lecture by Dr.G.E. Mini of Ayai University. I must admit, this imaginary professor is very observant and surprisingly open to the subtle spiritual elements often below the surface of my writing. 

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Analysis of Tom Kapanka's "The Rhythm"

Presented by Dr. G.E. Mini of Ayai University

This wonderful poem by Tom Kapanka perfectly executes the concept of "form matching content." The poem doesn't just talk about rhythm; it forces the reader to experience it. Here is an analysis and appreciation of "The Rhythm," breaking down how it achieves its effect. 

The Structure of Speed:

The poem is structured in three distinct movements based on tempo: 

1. The Legato Opening (Lines 1-8) The beginning is smooth and lulling. It describes the subconscious, automatic rhythms of biology—blinking, heartbeats, breathing, etc. that are unnoticed in in the passage of time (“…cycles of the sun”). The language here is soft ("breath and sigh," "slip our mind"). The rhythm is steady, almost unnoticeable, mirroring the very things it describes—the background noise of being alive. 

2. The Staccato Climax (Lines 9-12) This is the brilliant center of the poem. "we wake t’thm, walk t’thm, work t’thm, talk t’thm, laugh t’thm, cry t’thm, live t’thm... die t’thm."  By contracting "to the rhythm" (or "to them") down to the percussive sound of "t’thm," Kapanka forces the reader to speed up the auditory effect: When read aloud, "t’thm" sounds like a metronome ticking, a snare drum tapping, or a quickened heartbeat.   

3. The Reflective Slow-Down (Lines 13-15) Just after the highest speed ("die t’thm"), the poem hits the brakes with: "It becomes a most ungraceful dance ..." The line length expands, forcing the rhythm to slow down. The final lines introduce a theological or spiritual element. The "ungraceful dance" is the frantic activity described in the middle section when life's activity is divorced from the Giver of Life.

The Thematic effect: The short poem compresses the entirety of human existence—from waking to dying—into a frantic, breathless rush. It perfectly captures how quickly life passes when we are on autopilot, just moving from one beat to the next without thought.

The Core Metaphor: The Conductor  The final imagery shifts the focus from the dancers (us) to the Conductor (God). "...when we ignore the Hand that grants the Grace and gently taps... the rhythm." The poem suggests that the frantic pace of modern life (the "work t'thm, talk t'thm," etc.) is chaotic and "ungraceful" if we forget the source. The use of capital letters for "Hand" and "Grace" implies a divine Creator. The ending is masterful because of the ellipsis (...). It forces a pause, a breath, before the final words "the rhythm." It mimics the very "gentle tap" it describes, ending the poem not with a bang, but with a mindful heartbeat. 

Summary "The Rhythm" is a clever piece of poetry because it uses sound devices to manipulate the reader's physical experience of reading. It starts slow, rushes you through a lifetime in four lines, and then gently slows you down to contemplate the source of that life. It is a reminder to stop dancing frantically and be more mindful of the One who wrote the score.

The Advantages of Stewardship over Ownership for CCS’s Future Written 2-22--2014

This document was written 11 years ago and has not been revised to reflect more than $100,000 in capital improvements that occurred over the past decade. This document also refers to a goal of raising $1,000,000 which in 2014 would have lowered the CCS  mortgage to 2.2 million (which was a prerequisite for the Green Family [philanthropic purchasers] at that time.) for about ten years, CCS has paid a monthly mortgage of over $15,000 a month and paid the balance down more than $1.2 million since taking ownership of the property in 2012.

This document is made available now merely to make it clear to those who ask me how I feel about a recent development: the pending sale of the CCS PROPERTY to a financially sound like-minded local ministry willing to lease to CCS. While I have not played a part in this most recent process (since I’m now fully retired from CCS), I could not be happier, and I hope that this document (from 11 years ago) will help any concerned parties to see that this pending model is not a new concept. It will help the school focus on Christian education and put the best-use and future development of this asset in very capable hands. God’s timing is perfect.

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The Advantages of Stewardship over Ownership for the Future of CCS presented to CCS Board 2-22-2014

For over a year, CCS leadership has been focused on a plan to secure the building without necessarily owning it. The plan is based on a third-party philanthropist buying the building and then giving it to a local like-minded ministry that is supportive of CCS and its goal to continue operating in the facility (under the protection and benefit of an affordable “shared-use agreement”).  This has been our only plan for over a year, and for that reason we call it “Plan A.” The only variable in Plan A has been which local “recipient” is most likely to put the Kendra property to best ministerial use while also providing the most advantageous arrangement for CCS? The recently introduced Plan B (LLC) is the same concept. It merely assumes a different “philanthropic purchaser.” The outcome of  Plans A and B need not be different. 

After nearly two years of experience with the costs of the Kendra property, CCS leadership continues to see that the advantages of occupying this building are far greater when not encumbered with the financial responsibilities of owning it. It is now time to communicate with our constituency the advantages of this position; to help them see that the limited school budget cannot afford to absorb the costs of ownership (some of the reasons are outlined below). 

While communicating this message, we should also explain what is at stake if we fail to meet this goal by June 15 (Diocese at the door [At the time of this document, our building was listed by Fifth/Third Bank “for sale” and St. Mary’s K-8 in SL had walked through our building three times. Our one-year lease expired on June 15. We were glad St. Mary’s decided to build at their current location rather than move to the CCS property, but that decision had not yet been made at the time.]), and then urge all those who care about CCS to put additional “skin in the game” to help meet the $1M goal.

The following five points underscore some of the costs that will be assumed by the co-occupant “recipient” of this property. They help explain why CCS leadership is thankful that such a local ministry is willing to take on the bulk of future financial responsibilities inherent in this philanthropic plan. 

1.                $40,000+ in additional maintenance personnel: For the past two years, our school budget has not had a “facility director.”. We have a $300/month consultation/assistance agreement with the former facility director who helps with certain maintenance tasks after hours, but there is no “on-site” staff  taking care of the normal day-to-day, wear-and-tear maintenance of this $5M property and its equipment and buses. The CCS administrator and volunteers shovel sidewalks, clean windows, etc.  (One experienced person used to be paid for the higher-skilled tasks she now does voluntarily.) We are thankful for a

“housekeeping” team of three part-time custodians (minimum wage), putting in less than 30 man-hours a week, but our current cost-saving program is not a good long-term plan. The future owner of this building will likely add a paid staff person ($40,000+?) to properly maintain this building. Of all the possible

“owner” / co-occupants of this facility, which one best understands the need to fund long-term maintenance personnel in their budget?  

2.                $50,000+  in annual “deferred maintenance.” The term “deferred maintenance” in a property owner’s budget refers to the funds the owner should set aside annually for the large ticket items that will need to be replaced or repaired over periods of long-term ownership. For instance, the commercial carpet in this building has held up well for 15 years, but high-traffic areas in front of doorways will someday need to be replaced. It is highly unlikely that all carpet in the building would be replaced at the same time, but just for the sake of discussion, let’s calculate how much that would cost (using conservative figures):

The nylon commercial carpet in our building costs $2.70+- /SF. Tear- up and installation of new carpet is at least $3.30 /SF, making a total of $6.00 per square foot to install new carpet. There is approximately 50,000 SF of carpet in the building (after taking out gym, balcony, and café). That means (conservatively speaking) that it would cost at least $300,000 to re- carpet the building. If such a project were to happen when the building is 25 years old (when our current kindergarten is in 10^th grade), the owner of this building should be putting aside $30,000 per year in the “deferred maintenance” just for carpet.

Imagine how much higher the annually “deferred maintenance” line should be to cover the inevitable purchase of a new boiler, new drinking fountains (one is already dead), new commercial freezer (ours needs a $1,000 compressor), new lawn equipment (ours is 10 to 15 years old), repairs to irrigation system in every zone, new maintenance equipment (our commercial vacuums cost about $800 each and ours are old), new sound equipment in the gym (needed immediately for Sunday church occupancy). In the next ten years of “ownership” of this building, everything inside will age from 15 to 25-years-old. Some accountants recommend putting at least 1% of a building’s value into “deferred maintenance”. This building is worth more than $5,000,000. So 1% represents a line item of $50,000 per year.  Of all the possible “owner” / co-occupants of this facility, which one is prudently adding “deferred maintenance” of this building to their budget? 

3.                Total future CCS cost to occupy is a 50/50 split of  annual “overhead” costs ($200,000 plus the $50,000 mentioned: $250,000): $125,000. That is less than $1.79/SF per year. Compare that cost to typical “rental” situation using a modest $4 / SF (using 70,000SF): Rent would be $280,000 annually PLUS the “overhead”  which results in more than $400,000 per year to “occupy”.  That would be an untenable financial obligation for CCS, but so is the prospect of taking on full responsibility for the costs of owning the current 70,000SF facility. As the school’s real-estate consultant said in a recent meeting. CCS could not ask for more favorable terms than the offer to split overhead costs ($125,000) as its full financial obligation in a long-term co-occupancy agreement. The business advantage of such an arrangement will be equally obvious to financial donors/investors who seek the best for CCS’s future.

4.                $1,000,000+ in immediate “start-up” costs for a church and future construction costs: [remember this document is 11 years old and does not reflect current pending arrangement.] Now consider the fact that one of the  possible church co-occupants in dialogue with CCS is also committing to spending more than $50,000 just to “equip” the pending “church plant” for services in our building (sound equipment, lighting equipment, etc.) There are also expressed intentions for them to build a church office/ reception area separate from the current school footprint so the church can have its doors open during the week when the school wings are  secured (as required by law). Along with the office construction, there plan to construct a nursery through “preschool” wing currently lacking in the building. It is not the business of CCS  speak more specifically of another organization’s budget or expenditures in these projects, but clearly it involves far more financial “investment” on the other side of Plan A than the $1M CCS  “Lease Adjustment Payment” which satisfies the bank’s expectations for final sale. Of all the possible “owner” / co-occupants of this facility, which one is prepared to underwrite such start-up costs and construction to improve this building for use by two separate Christian ministries?  

The above “church” improvements indirectly help the school:  Future concerts will have a proper sound system again. The lighting board that a donor purchased for CCS will be put to full use. The video projectors for the gym screens will be replaced with state-of-the-art projectors.

The fact that almost all church traffic will be in a different wing Mon-Friday (once construction is done) makes church  reception/ office space more private and quiet and allows the school to be in compliance with standard security measures. A new nursery through preschool wing, means parent traffic for preschool (and possibly kindergarten) is in the SE parking lot rather than the front of the building.It also means that the elementary wing gains at least one more classroom (possibly two if kindergarten class could move to the new wing). That means the growing CCS program gains two more classrooms without any new construction in the classroom wing.

5.                The advantage of having such a “fixed cost” shared-use agreement in our budget means all annual fund-raising above $125,000  would go directly into improving our program and giving teachers and staff a long-overdue improvements in their compensation packages. (Under the church from 2000 to 2010, the CCS staff saw annual modest increases and had a 5% retirement program. They put aside 2% and the church matched 5%--modest program but under independent model, they have no retirement, and the 2014-2015 school year quite likely represents their sixth year of a pay freeze.) Our highest paid classroom teachers with their master’s degrees and 25+ years of classroom experience do not make first year BS degree pay in a public school. It may also be worth noting that current CCS administrative pay is based on the same teacher pay scale (rather than September through May, his contract includes June through August duties). He accepted a large pay-cut when he moved from  the church budget to the school budget three years ago. The lower pay represents a $45,000 decrease in his income so far. He refinanced his house to make up for the change in income. Even so, he does not share the concern to restore teacher compensation for his own benefit. He is speaking on behalf of a faculty and staff that cannot be asked to bear continual sacrifice  when we have the opportunity to embrace a much better stewardship model by welcoming the idea of co-occupancy with a $125,000 “shared-use agreement” rather than ownership without a comparable financial advantage for CCS.

Closing thoughts: Do you know that when CCS “accounts receivable” gets calls from CCS parents who cannot pay their tuition on time, the most common excuse is, “We had other bills to pay.”  It is frustrating that some parents don’t consider their tuition bill as important as “other bills.” In the last CCS board meeting, it was reported that CCS may be facing a cash-flow issue by mid-April. This could mean that teachers may be getting only partial pay in from that time through the ends of their contracts (as cash flow allows). There was no mention of telling the utility companies or trash removal or snow plow service that their payments would be late. How is this thought process any different than when families tell CCS that other bills matter more than tuition?

In that same board meeting, the administrator  mentioned that in his 33 consecutive years of K-12 Christian education, he was never “short paid” nor had he ever faced the prospect of telling his employees they would be “short paid.” CCS leadership must do everything possible to make sure a “short-pay” announcement can be avoided. Likewise, thinking down the road a few years or a decade, CCS must also do everything possible to make sure that our limited budget is being put to the best possible use for the CCS program and CCS faculty and staff.  “Ownership” is a financial obstacle to that goal. If God is so kind to provide us with a financially able “owner/co-occupant” on this campus, let us embrace it.

Lord, help us show our gratitude to another ministry that is willing to take on such financial responsibilities for the glory of God. The administrator cannot overstate how strongly he feels about this. Once we embrace and communicate why the stewardship model of Plan A (or B if needed) is far better than ownership, we can focus on our mission and those who help us fulfill it (i.e. program enhancements and incremental staff compensation restoration).  

Any concerns regarding co-occupancy can be addressed in the shared-use agreement. CCS faculty and staff know they can be a good co-occupant because they have done it before. Let us all commit to remembering the very functional years as a ministry of Calvary Church (rather than the last two years when their financial crisis caused regrettable strain in church/school relations. Let us remember that the former church’s financial burden included all of the cost of ownership mentioned above AND over $300,000 per year in mortgage payments AND the school administrator’s salary (until July, 2011).  Let’s acknowledge that CCS greatly benefitted from the church-hosted model for most of time shared in this building. The ASCI accreditation team of 2007 gave both the church and the school kudos for how well they worked together, and it was an accurate commendation. Let us remember that the former church congregation and leaders once had such a vision for Christian education that they invested millions of dollars into this fine building and supported the school ministry for several years. Those years were exemplary in many ways, and the school leadership was able to focus its attention on the school. Plan A (or B if needed) allows that to be true again. 

Let’s focus our attention on the best years of our past as we pray for and strive toward a hopeful future. If God wills that these moving parts to “work together for good,” let us strive to live and lead worthy of such a blessing and to be excellent partners with the other ministry that uses this place. May this outpost on Kendra Road  lift high the cross of Christ to all who pass for years to come. If such a story unfolds in the months ahead, may all glory go “…to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us…” Ephesians 3:20  (ESV)  

Tom Kapanka

[The story of CCS maintaining excellent credit and a flawless payment record with its mortgage-holding bank  for all these years is truly a “loaves and fishes” miracle.  Thanks be to the steadfast support of a faithful donor base.The fact that a very similar situation (of continued service in the building without the burden of ownership) has again presented itself to CCS eleven years after the above document was written is an unforeseen blessing. To God be the glory.]

Why Co-stewardship of CCS Kendra Property Can Serve the Best Interest of Both Ministries

Written in 2019 during discussion of the pros and cons of leasing to a local church to help offset the cost of owning the building (which became true for several years).

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A building is a tool, and like tools, it is designed to accommodate certain tasks or functions for its occupants. In many cases, such as school facilities, building codes and zoning ordinances help ensure the effectiveness and safe use of the building/tool. Beyond safety and functionality, an architect adds artistic and ergonomic elements so that beauty and form complement function. Ideally, the building that meets these goals is located in place that serves the anticipated market with ample parking and room to grow with the vision and objectives of ministry. An added bonus is high visibility to high volume traffic. The home of Calvary Christian Schools is such a building at such a location.

After spending the summer of 2012 considering four other properties as temporary locations for the 2012-2013 CCS school year, we have never been more aware of the architectural and geographical statements in that first paragraph. The lessons learned through that summer of displacement are still helping us in decision-making processes. While it is true that a building is a tool, it is also true that buildings like houses can acquire emotional and spiritual connections based on events and relationships formed within their walls. We could not be more grateful to God for allowing us to return to the building that was and is the intended long-term home Calvary Christian Schools.  

During the past two years, CCS has been the sole occupant and custodial guardian of the building and grounds. All costs have come from the school budget and school accounts. All costs associated with maintenance, contracts, insurance, inspections, utilities, snow removal, trash removal, improvements, in short, every dollar of overhead as well as a monthly lease payment to the bank [which later became a mortgage] has been paid by CCS. The school operates on roughly a $1M annual budget (copies available) and roughly 12.5% of the budget goes to facility-related overhead that had never been in the school budget prior to becoming an independent school in July, 2012.

Through the generous support of the CCS family and donor base, over $700,000 of non-tuition income has been raised since becoming an independent non-profit organization, but much of those funds were raised in the context of the transition and the enthusiasm of securing the building. Those funds have been used on overhead, lease payments, facility improvements, and other transitional expenses other than curriculum, staff compensation, and program improvements. In other words, we are doing a great job of maintaining through this transition, but it has put stress on our staff and program. It is in that sense, that the present two-year model without a separate, co-steward ministerial partner does not seem sustainable.

For this reason, CCS welcomes the opportunity to be co-stewards of this ministerial tool with a thriving, like-minded church that is focused clearly on its own mission, but willing to share this space… with the school for future God-honoring, Bible-based, Gospel-driven ministry for the 21^st Century. We not only see this as a more sustainable “shared-cost” model, but we consider it a complementary, compatible, win-win arrangement for both the church and the Christian school.

The existing facility is Phase One of a church/school location that was designed to meet the needs of both a growing church and a like-minded (now separate) Christian School. Phase Two of construction has been on hold for over a decade.

Some ministerial tasks are so similar in function that they can make use of the same building by co-stewarding a facility, cooperatively managing some resources associated with ministry such as time, space, certain classifications of equipment (maintenance, furniture, etc.) and separately managing other elements of the two separate ministries (budget, human resources, etc.).  The purpose of this discussion is merely to point out the advantages of co-stewardship compared to “sole occupancy” of a campus and facility. The paragraphs below are for illustration only and not meant to serve as a basis for the actual financial terms of co-stewardship.

The average church building of an active healthy church organization maximizes full capacity/functionality only about 8 to 10  hours per week.  The rest of the week, (though a portion of the church is used each day) up to 90% of the building is vacant and unused or in various states of cleaning, maintenance, or set-up for upcoming use.

For the sake of this discussion, let’s assume that because both a church and a school are daytime service industries, (for lack of a better term, but the point being that they are unlike factories or industries such as hotels, motels, restaurants, rescue missions, hospitals, etc. which sometimes function 24 hours a day), the “business hours” of a church or school building typically fall between 7:00AM and 9:00PM, with the building being “closed” ten hours per 24-hour day. This results in 98 “potential use hours” per week; let’s call it 100.

The average school building for a typical K-12 school program is used to its maximum capacity/functionality about 40 hours per week from 7:30AM to 3:30PM for nine months of the 12-month year (basically when classes are in session). After school hours, during athletic seasons, about a third of the building is used for an additional 18 hours per week for both school-related athletic practice and home athletic events. During such events, the non-athletic portions (2/3) of the building are typically available for use but unused from 3:30 on. Theoretically if 1/3 of the building being used 18 hours a week after school while 2/3 of the building is unused, this amounts to “full use equivalent” of six hours, for a total of 46 hours. Let’s call it 50 full-use hours, but remember this is only during inside sport seasons (volleyball and basketball) which is basically 2/3 of the nine-month academic school-year from September through May and half of a full calendar year.

Assuming a church and school occupy the same size building (or even the same building as co-stewards) those ten dormant hours represent the same cost of operation to both an empty church and an empty school. The fourteen hours of daily operation are also very comparable between a fully used facility (i.e. The difference between the cost of operating and maintaining a school building that is fully used 46 hours per week (let’s call it 50) and the cost of operating and maintaining a church building that is fully used 8-10 hours per week and partly used (office hours, various groups and functions) is virtually the same with two exceptions: custodial services and “wear and tear” on facility.

(1)   Custodial services cost go up in proportion to the hours of usage and the size of space occupied. These costs include cleaning and hospitality supplies.

(2)   “Wear and tear” on user-contact items such as kitchens, drinking fountains, carpets, painted surfaces, and furnishings is greater during maximum use than minimum or non-use. (This is not true of HVAC, roofs, parking lots, and other infrastructure overhead costs not directly related to user-contact or hours of occupancy.)

Items 1 and 2 reflect what can be called the Proverbs 14:4 principle:  “Where there are no oxen, the manger is clean, but abundant crops come by the strength of the ox.” In other words, the purpose of ministry is not to have a clean, unused building but to use it to the fullest for the sake of the harvest and those called to prepare soil, plant, tend, nurture, train-up, reap, etc. metaphorically speaking, which are among the shared tasks of both a Gospel-centered church and like-minded Christian school.

[For further clarification see “3M: Mission, Management, and Marketing document from 2011.That document was presented to the former host church to clarify the distinct differences between a church and a school as the beginning steps of launching CCS as a separate 501(c)3 organization, keeping all historical identification. That separate status was legally achieved in December, 2012, with guidance from the Community Foundation for Muskegon County.]

Preliminary Review of Facts:

CCS has been in operation for 34 years. Opening its doors as a K-2 school in 1980 and adding an additional grade each year, CCS has operated 24 years as a full K-12 program. This means that the 2014-2015 School-year is the 25^th Anniversary as a K-12 school and the 35^th Anniversary as a school.

At present 60% of its history, 15 of its 25 years as a K-12 school, have been spent in the current 60-acre campus on Kendra Road.

To End With: "When Your Children Ask in Time to Come ‘What do those Stones Mean?’”

A summary of Mr. Kapanka's last chapel message as Head of School at CCS: 

May 25, 2023

We have no school this coming Monday. Does anyone remember why? [various students replied: "It's Memorial Day."] Yes. When I was a kid, my grandparents called Memorial Day “Decoration Day” because they always went to the cemetery to put flowers at the MEMORIAL STONES of loved ones--especially those of veterans. Whatever else we did on Memorial Day, I remember walking to familiar stones at Lakeside Cemetery in Port Huron, Michigan, and hearing stories of those who made my life possible. Without those great grandparents, my mom would remind us, you literally would not exist. It sometimes made me dizzy to think of generations that way. Still does.

The tradition of MEMORIAL STONES goes back thousands of years, but they were not always associated with graves or cemeteries. There are several examples of MEMORIAL STONES in the Old Testament.

In chapters 3 and 4 of the Book of Joshua, the Children of Israel were about to cross the Jordan River into the Promised Land, and the Lord told Joshua to tell a leader from each of the twelve tribes to take a huge boulder from the center of the river and make a memorial so....

When your children ask in time to come, ‘What do those stones mean to you?’ ... then you shall tell them...”

Today we’re going to be talking about Twelve MEMORIAL STONES in the history of CCS. In fact, I hope to put 12 large stones in the gym-side grove between the front two parking lots this summer, and when your children ask in time to come what those stones mean… you can tell them of the things I shared today.

The 1^st MEMORIAL STONE would have to be the year 1980 when Calvary Christian Schools began with only kindergarten, first, and second grades It was down in Muskegon where the new Muskegon Middle School is now being built. Two teachers were hired for that first year: Miss Judy Holman (who taught kindergarten here for more than 25 years) and Mrs. Deb Stenberg (who retired from CCS in 2019).

The 2^nd MEMORIAL STONE would be 1991 when CCS had its first Commencement Ceremony for its first graduating class. In that year's yearbook, we found many other people who still work here at CCS. You see, CCS may have begun with only K-2, but the school then added one grade level each year for the next ten years. Calvary kept growing and hiring more teachers. That's why in the 1990-1991 yearbook, you can find: Mrs. Mann (a secretary back then): Mrs. Becky Smith; Mrs. VanTine; Mrs. Booth (in kindergarten); and Mrs. Lockwood and Mrs. McCallum (in 2nd grade). 

Side note: Mrs. Lockwood was a senior the very first year I came to CCS. So was a young man named Nick Lockwood. And yes, they were already dating at that time. It would be impossible to place a MEMORIAL STONE for all the couples (and now families) on this planet today who first began dating while attending CCS, but I can think of at least a dozen from the past twenty-five years alone.just think…if Calvary didn’t exist, those couples might not have met and, if not, those family wouldn’t exist. It’s almost the same feeling I used to get when thinking about my family tree.

The 3^rd MEMORIAL STONE is 1999. That was the year that CCS moved from the old building in Muskegon to this new building on Kendra Road. No need for a picture because we step into this new building every school day. 

It is interesting, however, to mention that fewer than 5% of those who enter our school each day were among those to have ever stepped foot in the old building that was torn down in 2000 to make way for the new Hackley ER which was torn down in 2021 to make way for the new Middle School. Strange... we think of our building as "new," yet the building that took its place in 2000 has already been torn down. 

The 4^th MEMORIAL STONE is Y2K, which stood for the “Year 2000.” 

The turning of a century is always milestone in history, but this particular year was very strange. Only the teachers in the chapel now were alive at that time. Many of them remember that many experts in 1999 predicted that because the computers in existence had been built in the previous decades, they did not have the year 2000 built into their dating systems. This technical oversight was going to cause all computers to crash at midnight of the New Year. Airports, traffic lights, municipal water systems. Everything was going to crash. It was a real fear in the news every day. My wife and I filled our bathtub to the brim with clean water on New Year’s Eve, 1999—just in case there was a water shortage beginning the next day. All this fear was summed up in the term: Y2K. The next morning... nothing happened. Life went on. 

Another big MEMORIAL STONE for me personally also happened in 2000. It was in that summer (July 1, 2000) that my family and  I moved from the Christian school in Iowa where I had served for 18 years to west Michigan where I become “Head of School” here at CCS. That was 23 years ago.

The 5^th MEMORIAL STONE happened on April 20, 2001, and it already has a real memorial stone right outside the front rotunda entrance of the school. 

Hundreds of people pass by this memorial every day, but it's possible most do not know what it signifies. It was one of the saddest events in the national news that year, and it all culminated right here in our building. 

In the Roni and Charity Bowers Memorial (above), the white dogwood tree represents Roni, the mother, and the pink dogwood represents Charity, the baby. Roni Bowers had been a teacher at CCS a few years before. I first met her in the rotunda just outside the school office. She had Charity in her arms and all the ladies from the office were making a big fuss over her. It was to be their last day in our building before leaving for Peru, where they had been serving as missionaries (living on a houseboat, built by some men at Calvary Church, which moored on the Amazon River). I'm so glad I met the Bowers family that day in the fall.

Later that year, the spring Junior-Senior Banquet was at the Bil-Mar in Grand Haven. I was talking to Nick Lockwood (a senior in high school at that time), and he asked me if I had heard about what happened to the Bowers. I had not yet heard of the tragedy that was making national and international news. 

On April 20, 2001, this Bowers family was flying from one village to another along the Amazon River. The Peruvian Police and American CIA, flying in a US jet, mistook them for a drug smuggling plane and shot them down. Jim and the boy lived.

But Roni and Charity who were sitting in the front of the plane (much like they appear in this picture), both died instantly from a single bullet that went through both of their hearts.

A few days later the funeral was held at the CCS gymnasium. School was canceled that day because the building was surrounded by news outlets from around the world: CNN, Fox News, ABC, CBS, NBC, Time Magazine—everyone was here there were satellite trucks all over the place. It was by far the biggest news event to ever affect this building.

Then less than five months later....

The 6^th MEMORIAL STONE happened on September 11, 2001. In fact, the date literally became the historic name of the event. We call it 9-11. I was in my office at school (talking with a missionary to Togo, West Africa, about our first ever international student at CCS) when Dianne Lihan, the receptionist, told us that one of the World Trade Center Towers had been hit by a plane. Not seeing the images, we assumed it was a little New York "tour" plane.  A few minutes later, she told us  the other tower had just been hit by another plane--and that both planes were commercial airliners. That was when we knew it was a terrorist attack. Then the Pentagon was hit, and another jet was unaccounted for. All this was happening while CCS students were in their classrooms completely unaware. After lunch we called an assembly in the gymnasium for MS and HS only. We notified elementary parents that we did not tell their children of that day's events, but we did show the older students some of the news on the big screens in the gym. We later cancelled the VB and Soccer games for that night. (In fact, all sporting events across the country were later canceled for the rest of the week.) Nine-eleven was a horrible event that changed the rest of that year and years to come for the whole world.

The 7^th MEMORIAL STONE is the year 2005, when CCS celebrated its 25^th Anniversary. The pictures below hang in the school office. One is from 2005, the other is from 2009. If you want to see younger versions of many people you know, come in and take a closer look. (Or double click on the photo itself.)

The 8^th MEMORIAL STONE is the year 2012, when the CCS school board incorporated as a separate “non-profit organization.” Prior to that year, the school had been a ministry of Calvary Church. This school literally exists because of the vision of that congregation, but the church came upon financial difficulties that had begun in the sluggish economy following 9-11. Long story short is that even though the church had paid off SIX MILLION dollars on this campus and building in just twelve years, they were no longer able to pay the mortgage and it went back to 5/3rd Bank. After much negotiating, however, the bank was willing to let CCS, the new independent school, lease the building while they tried to sell it to other interested schools. It was a year of uncertainty as one serious "buyer" in particular, went through the building three times. If they had decided to move their school from Spring Lake to our/campus, CCS would have been displaced to one of the numerous "Plan Bs" we had explored in which to open that fall. I have been asked by various board members through the years to write a short account of how God  orchestrated our return to the building we had moved out of for two months. 

If I ever do write such a booklet, I might call it "Plan B: The Patient Providence of God." 

Why that title? Because the CCS Board and I explored many of Plan Bs that summer, and each one brought a temporary sense of HOPE that we would have a place for school in the fall. Most of them were "top secret," so when people asked me: "Where are we going to have school next year?" I would answer quite earnestly, "Exactly where God wants us to be." I sincerely believed that... even as the doors of several "Plan Bs”after " closed one after the other--and thank God they did.  

"O, we of little faith!" We had let go of the hope that Plan A (the building that had been built for CCS in 1998-99) could ever be home to CCS again. The lesson some of us learned that year was this: Though it is wise to have a back-up plan, never rule out God's desire and ability to restore Plan A. This is true of all creation itself. In the beginning, God created Plan A, and at the end of each creative day, He said, "That's good.". Then THE FALL took place and put a series of Plan Bs in place. Even so, God promised that someday He would restore His Plan A. Yet century after century, mankind proves that we are prone to forget Plan A... (As the old hymn says: "Prone to wander...Lord, I feel it....prone to leave the God I love). We're prone to settle for Plan B, and were it not for  "the patient providence of God," Plan A would be long-forgotten dream. In a much smaller scale, though it was huge at the time, that's what CCS learned in 2012. That year is a very significant MEMORIAL STONE.

The 9^th MEMORIAL STONE is the year 2014 when CCS purchased the building from Fifth/Third Bank. By taking on a new mortgage with a different bank, we were no longer renters living with the thought of losing our building to another school. The purchase price was $3.4 million dollars, and the current balance is down to about $2.2 million. Google Earth was new to me that year and for the first time I was studying our building and campus from satellite images online when I noticed a huge CROSS in our building's design. I called the architect in Grand Rapids who laughed and said, "You guys are just now noticing that Cross. It's called a cruciform design--dates back to the Middle Ages. I started with that 300' cross and add everything else to it." 

What a powerful thought: for fifteen years, without ever seeing it, CCS students had been going to school in the shadow of the cross. This discovery happened a few weeks before Easter, and the Muskegon Chronicle did a front page feature about it for the Easter Sunday Edition. Some time later, Scott Meyer built the model showing that cross that has graced our hallway ever since.

Along with the blessing of that year, however, comes a serious reality of stewardship. That mortgage is slightly over $15,000 / month in the school budget. Part of my new job description for the next year or two will be sharing this story with people who see the value of CCS know we could serve families even better if that mortgage were greatly reduced or gone before our 45^th Anniversary in the summer of 2025.

The 10^th MEMORIAL STONE happened in December 2018. It is the first of these stones that most of our current school family probably remembers. I wrote about in a sort of poem nearly four years ago..

The 11^th MEMORIAL STONE is the present year, 2023. If all goes as planned, we will be launching an all-day Childcare Center in September. The preschool will remain where it is, but the childcare will be up in the current art room. The art room will be where the current library is, and the library will be disbursed into each of the classrooms by grade-level. Mrs. Anhalt’s room will be in the current copy room. The copy room and business office will be in that new room in the cafeteria. And the teacher’s work room will be down the hall where Mrs. Wilson’s business office is. So This year of 2023 is going to a year of lots of exciting changes. It also happens to be my last year as Head of School—after 23 years—but I will still be here at CCS overseeing the launch of the childcare (pending final approval) and helping with the financial sustainability of the school in time for the remaining MEMORIAL STONE….

The 12^th MEMORIAL STONE will be our 45^th Anniversary in the year 2025!

I knew this would be a long blog post because when I shared these thoughts in chapel last week, we went over by a few minutes, but it was our last chapel of the year, and the students were very attentive.

I began writing a “administrative blog” for our CCS website twelve years ago. My first post in 2011 explains why I named the blog To Begin With . I have called this post "To End With" because it is probably the last post I will write from this office. 

What better way to wrap things up than with this talk of MEMORIAL STONES so that someday… When your children ask in time to come, ‘What do those stones mean?’  YOU MIGHT BE ABLE TO TELL  THE NEXT GENERATION THE STORY OF GOD'S PATIENT PROVISION TO CALVARY CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS.

Mr. Kapanka's Christmas Wish (with thanks to Earl Hamner Jr.)

Some of you are not old enough to remember the TV show called “The Waltons” about a family making do through the Great Depression, but I grew up a big fan of the show's early seasons, and I’ve long admired it’s creator, Earl Hamner Jr., whose voice narrated each episode (through the written journals of “John Boy," played by Richard Thomas).

In many ways, the show reminded me and my siblings of our own family “making do” through hard times as we built our home deep in some wooded acres in “the thumb” of Michigan. This was especially true for my mother who had grown up living in a three-generation household with her grandparents. When I went off to college in 1974, this reading was on the Walton’s Christmas album. The words of Grandpa’s Christmas Wish came to me as I shot this video footage on the last day of school before Christmas Vacation. Heavy lake-effect snow decorated the outside while classes reveled inside. It was a beautiful day!

The full reading by Will Geer can be found at this link:

Did You Know? A Brief History of CCS and the Generous Giving that Makes It Possible

I still remember arriving at Calvary Christian Schools in July of 2000. My wife and I had served at a very similar ACSI school in Iowa for 18 years when I accepted this position. These 23 years have been a blessing, and they’ve gone by so fast that I sometimes forget that many of our new families may not know the amazing story of Calvary Christian Schools. 

I firmly believe that knowing our story will bring joy to our giving this Christmas because it is an incredible gift to be a part of Calvary.

Ours is an incredible story. For instance...

• Did you know that, for our first 20 years, CCS was located right next door to the old

  

  The original CCS building on Clinton Street in Muskegon

  Hackley Hospital in Muskegon (now the site of the new Middle School)? The CCS Fruitport campus was completed in1999. This building was one of the largest new construction projects in the county. (The Lakes Mall came a couple years later along with restaurants, banks, businesses. Soon after our move to Kendra Road, more than 500 new residential addresses came to our neighborhood.

• 

  1998-99 Yearbook cover..

  Did you know that the original investment in the land purchase, clearing / excavation, sewer/water/utilities, construction and landscaping was a nine
  million dollar commitment taken on by the former host church? A school our size could never have made such an investment. In the years to follow, the largest church in Muskegon County met in our gymnasium (three services each Sunday for many years). During those same ten years, that congregation paid down the original mortgage balance to 3.5 million dollars. That’s amazing, and had it not happened, CCS would not exist as we know it today.

• Did you know that in 2012, CCS became a Michigan non-profit and independent 501(c)(3) governed by a board rather than a host church? That same year, Calvary Church relocated, and the school was temporarily displaced. Then in August the mortgage-holding bank allowed CCS to return and occupy the building for one year while the bank attempted to sell it.

• Did you know that, upon moving back into this building, the school budget took on full responsibility of all utilities, inspections, maintenance, and mortgage payments. This was more than $250,000 above tuition income and any previous budget. We sometimes refer to that year as a “loaves and fishes” miracle because of how God provided through donors. (Our 501(c)(3) status means all donor gifts are tax deductible.)

• Did you know that the bank was so impressed with our ability to meet our obligations while taking great care of their asset that they renewed the lease for the 2013-2014 school year. It was announced at Commencement, and many people wept for joy.

• Did you know that in 2014, after two years as renters, the bank graciously applied every dollar we had paid them (including all other building-related expenses ) to a negotiated purchase price that was below half of the building’s appraised value. Ever since, we have "owned" this building (with the help of a mortgage).

• Did you know that since 2012, the mortgage obligation has been paid down a million dollars? Even so, our monthly payment on the 2.24M balance is over $15,000. While that is an enormous commitment, our loan history is excellent and our debt-to-equity ratio (D/E) is about .33.

• Did you know that when we add in the cost of heating, cooling, maintenance, inspections, trash removal, snow removal, insurance, etc. to our mortgage payment, all building-related costs come to over $324,000 / year. This does not include any salaries.

• 

  Did you know that within a few years of 2012, God began using three things to help lower the formidable costs of running an independent faith-based school: First and foremost, a growing group of CCS donors who want the mission of CCS to continue; second, a lease with a wonderful local church that uses some office space and the building on weekends; and third, our teachers who are qualified and certified with servant’s hearts (some of whom are also contracted in a share-time program that substantially assists that portion of the CCS budget.

• Did you know that while also absorbing the overhead costs of this fine campus and facility, CCS has also provided more and more families with need-based financial assistance?. This ensures that CCS never becomes a school only for those who can fully afford private education. This assistance helps dozens of families who could otherwise not share this wonderful journey with us. Providing this help is a scriptural principle responsibly applied.

• Did you know that the need-based assistance CCS offers is unfunded? Some people think that because FACTS processes the applications that the actual dollars awarded to qualifying applicants are provided by FACTS or some other source. No. There is always a strong correlation between each year’s GAP fund (annual appeal for needed donor gifts) and the amount of need-based aid awarded. CCS donors share the value of keeping CCS available to all applicants who know both the cost and value of Christian education. (Even so, unfunded financial assistance never goes below half of the published tuition rate, and families of all income levels are asked to help close the GAP.)

Thank you for taking the time to read this short history of CCS. Now you know why we share our need each year and why so many people in our community consider CCS worthy of their support as this “loaves and fishes” story continues to unfold. 

Now you know how such a relatively small school (currently 243 in Pre-K through 12^th grade) enjoys such a fine campus and building while constantly “learning to lean” on the Lord each year. It’s because CCS is a family of believers, educators, and donors who believe “learning to lean” is the first step in Christian education. Thank each of you for doing your part.

Tom Kapanka   

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