Dear Friend of Unity Christian High School,

Merry Christmas! I have really gotten into the Christmas season this year. Have you? Maybe it is the new surroundings. People in Northwest Iowa really seem to know how to celebrate the season. I look back over the last three weeks, and I have been to 3 Christmas parties and 2 concerts, with number 3, Unity’s concert, tomorrow night. It is all good my friends, all good.

All this singing and partying has helped me focus and reflect on the amazing gift of Jesus Christ. I love the following verses from Luke 2: 10-11:

But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.


A baby lying in a
feeding trough.
Good news
and great joy.
Born to you
for all the people.

A fulfilled prophecy.
The way
the truth
and the life.
No one comes
to the father
except through me.

The temple curtain
Torn in two
It is finished.

Merry Christmas
and welcome to a party
that will never end!

Dear Parents,

What would it look like if every student at Unity brought a laptop to school? We don’t have to look far to find schools where this is a reality. This Fall Sibley Ocheydan High School and Spirit Lake High School went to this model of learning. At a recent principal meeting I attended, every conference school is considering going to this model, often called 1:1. In the state of Iowa there are currently 11% of high schools, currently 1:1. Projections are that as many as 30% will be going to a 1:1 model in the next 1-2 years. I believe it is not a matter of if, but when we at Unity go 1:1.

Next Monday night, we are hosting a parent forum to discuss this possibility. Who pays for this massive change? Why are we looking at this now? What are the steps prior to implementation? Is this a for-sure-going-to-happen for Unity? How will we as a Christian school handle this technology differently? Will this mean that the way we teach will change? Is technology driving education? Should it? How can parents help?

Mr. Karl Kaemingk and I will be leading the discussion. I encourage you to attend. We are meeting at 7PM in the chapel / gym balcony area.

Any change we make at the Board level goes through both our mission and our vision. Our mission identifies who are are, and our vision answers the question – where are we going? These are exciting times to bring captive every area of life under the domain of Jesus Christ. May this conversation and future decisions regarding laptops be done for the glory of God.

Sincerely,

Wayne Dykstra

Dear Friend of Unity,

We have created a Facebook group for Unity Alumni and Friends. This is an attempt to become more accessible to friends of Unity all over the world. If you get a chance, please join the group.

We live in a new and exciting age where we can communicate at so many different levels. What an opportunity we have before us.

Dear Unity Friends,

Are we bored with God? That question was posed at a recent lecture series event held at Dordt College. We of the faith, from church to home to school, would we admit that at times we're bored with our Christianity? If so, how might we spark complacent kids and adults to move from boredom in the faith to being alive?

Dr. David Naugle’s answer to the boredom question was that we need to appeal to the imagination of the bored Christian. Imagining what could be, is where we will see teenagers and adults spiritually engage.

When I think of the word imagine, I think of two completely different songs, I Can Only Imagine, by Mercy Me, and John Lennon’s Imagine. Imagine there is no Heaven. John Lennon sang this anti- God song in the 70’s and it ranks as one of the most anti-God songs out there.. In the late 90’s Bart Millard, of Mercy Me, wrote a song, “ I Can Only Imagine”. This song spoke about how wonderful Heaven is going to be, especially when Millard envisions himself worshipping God alongside his father, who died too early in this life. Both songs sparked our imaginations, one towards God and one away from God.

In dealing with Christian teenagers, our job is to spark imagination and I think that is best done focusing on Jesus Christ. Jesus has overcome, he is our roaring lion victorious and he is the quiet still voice in our hearts when we are anxious. He is the Alpha and the Omega. He is our Redeemer.

What might this school, this town, county and world look like if we started to imagine of what could be. Jesus died for us, redeemed us and now sends out your teenagers, and you, to do what he physically could not do in the body of one man walking around Galilee. He tells us he is in us, and can do amazing things through us.

John 14:11-13

I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.

Imagine what Jesus would do if he walked the halls of Unity, and then understand that through each of us he is. Imagine the restoration, the reaching out to the least among us. Parents, pray for your child to imagine what God is already doing, is willing to do and waiting to do through us in this place.


Mr. Dykstra

Mark Your Calendars!

Dear Parents,

I would like to have you mark four dates on your calendar. We are calling these nights, Focus Nights or Focus Groups. The name is not important, but what is important is having you join us. Our goal is to have you feel connected to the future of Unity. It is your opportunity to meet the staff, have a voice, hear our plans and ask questions.

October 25 - Back to School Night – Sponsored by The Promotion Committee
The focus of this night is to give the parents a chance to meet the teachers, tour the building. We will build a simulated bell schedule and parents will in effect, go to class. Each class will last approximately 8-10 minutes. Teachers will introduce themselves and what they teach. This fits our vision of becoming more inviting and engaging.

November 22 - One to One Initiative – Sponsored by W. Dykstra / K. Kaemingk
What is the rationale behind local school districts going one to one? Where is Unity Christian High School at in the area of one-to-one? What might it look like to have a laptop in the hands of every student? What needs to happen before that becomes a reality?

January 10 - Social Networking: the Opportunities /Dangers – Sponsor TBA
Face-book and texting are more than a temporary trend. The rules of social interaction have changed. How do we educate and parent in this new landscape? Come join us as we highlight some successful solutions. If all of life belongs to Christ, how might we partner together to train our children to be conquerors with these new realities?

March 28 - A Shared Vision for the Future of Unity Christian High School – Sponsored by the SIAC – School Improvement Advisory Committee
Come share what you want Unity Christian High School to look like 5,10 or 20 years from now. “ I sure wish Unity had a program for _____” “ Has Unity ever tried _______?” This Focus event will be largely a listening session. You will have a chance to speak or write your thoughts.

Again, I recommend you go to the school website and click on the Principal’s Blog. You can leave comments, and you can sign up to follow this blog. Anytime I post to the blog you will get an email alert. The blog is a place for you to leave comments and ask questions.

W. Dykstra

September 8, 2010

Dear Parents and Friends,

Inviting. I want Unity to be more inviting. It is part of my vision for the school.

It sounds like an oxymoron for me to write about Unity not being inviting. For my family and I, we have been blown away with how inviting the Unity family has been to us. It has been 51 days since we arrived and we are still receiving meals! This school family has redefined inviting!

So what do I mean when I say I would like Unity to be more inviting? Like any other high school, Unity could do more to be more inviting to high school parents. Parents are often the neglected part of the learning equation. We could spend hours probing this relationship. How can Unity become more inviting to its’ parents?

How inviting is Unity to the general community. Unity could also take a look at itself from a fresh outside perspective and ask the question, are we inviting to the general public? Are we a school that serves a specific segment of the community? How inviting are we to the broader evangelical Christian community? Is there room for improvement?

Imagine what we would keep and what we would address if the Unity family collectively decided to excel at being inviting.

What are your thoughts? Go to the school website, click on Principal’s Blog and type in your response. Here are some examples of what I am looking for from you:

• I think clearly marked handicapped parking spaces would make Unity more inviting.
• I think having a parent pictorial directory would make Unity more inviting.
• I think hosting more community events at Unity would make the school more inviting.
• I think office staff should wear name badges so strangers can know who they are talking to……

Let me know what you are thinking. All suggestions on becoming more inviting, will be taken to the Promotion / Ambassador Committee.

The goal for being inviting is to bring more and more people into our educational program, a program that seeks to be in relationship with God in all of His curriculum.

We invite others to join us in discovering that Jesus Christ is in all things.


Wayne Dykstra

As a staff, we read Acts 9 for staff devotions the other day. Buried in this chapter, we read about a few anonymous people who helped Saul escape from being killed. In this chapter Saul has just become a convert to Christianity, the believers still feared him, and his former bosses now hated him.

Yet a few of the believers felt led by God to help him. It took a few people, with nothing to gain, and a lot to lose to risk holding a rope for Saul and lowering him through an opening in the wall in the middle of the night.

We never do hear the names of these people. Yet, the guy they helped escape went on to write a majority of the new Testament and plant the church in many places. If only they knew.

Today, I ask you to be a rope holder for Unity. We will likely never get any accolades for our prayers, and it may seem like the response to our prayers will test our patience. But we also know that God is going to use our kids, in amazing and unlikely ways to build His Kingdom.

We need you to hold the rope four our students and our staff. Partner with us; pray with us and pray for us.

Will you hold the rope?



( credit and thank you goes to Kurt Collison – for teaching me about holding the rope – a message he gave at a retreat I attended in 2009)

What a friend we have in Facebook?

Dear Parents,

Last night I read an article entitled Virtual Friendship. The article written by John Muether compared friendships in our virtual world to the traditionally defined face to face friendships we grew up with. Here are some excerpts and some of my thoughts for parents and students to ponder on the topics of friendship.

I recognize as a school leader that friendship is the number one factor to a student’s success in high school. If a student is or feels isolated, lonely, or troubled over friendship issues, good luck getting much out of him / her academically. Flipping that around, if a student has great school friends who know him/ her, friends who encourage, listen and laugh with you, school is a great place to be.

So where does Facebook fit in? Does your child Facebook? Does he have 8 friends or 800 friends? How much time does she spend on Facebook? Have you accepted Facebook as the new reality for friendship, or does the whole social network site annoy you?

I have a facebook page and I spend all my time confirming friends. Occasionally when I do read posts, it disturbs me to see adults making comments on the quality of their morning coffee, or the fact that they cannot seem to get their kids out of bed. Does Facebook focus on exhibitionism? As Mueller puts it, “ Your colonoscopy this morning is really not my business.”

Does Facebook lack genuine attempts at friendship? Parents, consider that hundreds of Facebook friends in your child’s life might just create a false illusion of friendship.
As Maggie Johnson says, “ Facebook friends do not increase the number of folk to whom one is prepared to donate a kidney.” Does Facebook enhance your child’s social life or is it your child’s social life?

I would encourage you to talk about friendship with your teen, when they are ready to talk. Try to define together what a quality friendship these days might look like. Consider that classic hymn title, “ What a friend we have in Jesus”. Could it be that a friend who is willing to make sacrifices for you, for no personal gain, a friend who forgives you for ignoring him, a friend who loves like a brother might be more deserving of our time than the time we spend updating our profile, our status and our photo albums on Facebook?

Mr. Dykstra

The Road of Life

At first, I saw God as my observer, my judge,
keeping track of the things I did wrong,
So as to know whether I merited heaven or hell when
I die.
He was out there sort of like a president,
I recognized his picture when I saw it,
but really did not know Him.

But later on
when I met Christ,
it seemed as if life were rather like a bike ride,
but it was a tandem bike,
and I noticed that Christ
was in the back helping me pedal.

I don’t know just when it was
that He suggested we change places,
but life has not been the same ever since.

When I had control,
I knew the way.
it was rather boring,
but predictable….
It was the shortest distance between two points.
But when he took the lead,
He knew delightful long cuts,
up mountains
and through rocky places
at breakneck speeds,
it was all I could do to hang on!
even though it looked like madness,
He said, “Pedal!”

I worried and was anxious
and asked,
“Where are you taking me?”
He laughed and didn’t answer,
and I started to learn to trust.
I forgot my boring life
and entered into the adventure.
And when I’d say, “I’m scared, “ He’d lean back and touch my hand.



He took me to people with gifts that I needed,
gifts of healing
acceptance
and joy.
They gave me gifts to take on my journey,
my Lord’s and mine.

And we were off again,
He said, “ Give the gifts away;
they are extra baggage, too much weight.”
so I did,
to the people we met,
and I found that in giving, I received,
and still our burden was light.

I did not trust Him,
at first,
in control of my life.
I’d thought he would wreck it;
but he knows bike secrets,
knows how to make it bend to
take sharp corners,
knows how to jump to clear high rocks
knows how to fly to shorten scary passages.

And I am learning to shut up
and pedal
in the strangest places,
and I am beginning to enjoy the view
and the cool breeze on my face
with my delightful constant companion, Jesus Christ.

And when I’m sure I can’t just do anymore,
He just smiles and says,“Pedal.”


-Author Unknown


Dear Parents,

I hope you read the poem above. I found it this weekend. From the home to the school, I sure hope we are encouraging our students, our kids to pedal with Christ as our companion.

Mr. Dykstra