The Wild West Days of KA

Originally posted June 3, 2020

Koinonia Academy (KA) just graduated its 35^th class. It’s hard to believe. It brings me back to the early days of KA, which were pretty exciting…everything was new. We were really flying by the seat of our pants and by the Holy Spirit. There are so many memories. Many teachers taught 7 or 8 periods. It  started with “HD” (Hall Duty) in the morning and ended with “Cleanup” after school. CCF (Christian Character Formation) was always the first class, with a talk on our faith and then a time of prayer and sharing. Teaching the sciences was my specialty. One criteria I had for success was getting the entire school’s attention by conducting an experiment that would get responses like “uuuggghhhh, what’s that smell”. I would calmly reply “don’t worry, don’t worry , it’s nothing…nothing to worry about…whispering under my breath, “go back to your boring English and History classes”. 

There was a cast of thousands in those early days…everyone wanted to be part of the action at KA. Paul and Bruce and Tom and Sr. Julia, leading the charge. 

We enticed the Brotherhood of Hope to come teach (of course they had to fundraise their own salaries). While their time at KA was the “pinnacle” of their career, Bob Oliver, Ken Apuzzo, and Christian Brugger did manage to find work later on. Oh, did I mention the making of the original KA Video with Announcer – Bob Oliver, Producer- Pete Mackert, and Director- yours truly…. now that was a story….but for a later time. Wow, those were the days. For 35 years Jesus has been proclaimed as Lord Of KA. May this continue until He comes again.