From the desk of the superintendent...
Dear NCS family,

As we approach the celebration of Christ's advent, I would like to take a moment to assure you that, despite what you may be reading in the papers or watching on CNN, the Good News that Jesus brought is still good.

In fact, the Good News is very, very good.

Of his own Christian testimony, C.S. Lewis wrote, "My conversion involved as yet no belief in a future life. I now number it among my greatest mercies that I was permitted for several months, perhaps for a year, to know God and to attempt obedience without even raising that question." Lewis' mentioned "mercies" represent the very point I hope to make here: Christ came to earth that He might, in His own words, usher in the Kingdom Come. Sticking a proverbial pin in the hope of heaven and setting it aside for a moment, the scope of the transformational power of the Good News here on earth, the impact crater left by the collision of God-made-flesh into human history, is hard to fathom.

Allow me to illustrate. Despite the poor press being heaped upon the Church in 2022, the brutality of the contemporary culture wars, and the criticisms of critical theory, please permit me a moment to present a truncated treatise of the very good things that Christianity's "Good News" has produced in the history of our culture: Healthcare for the masses including the invention of hospitals, the formation of modern languages and grammar, prison reform and humane treatment of prisoners, fair wages and employment laws for common working men and women, the introduction of universal public education, the foundations of modern foster care, the roots of abolitionism with the end of legalized slavery, the impetus and invention of the American civil rights movement, the fulfillment of the women's suffrage movement, the origin of the university and post-secondary education, development of fiduciary responsibility within economic institutions, and the healthy aspects of work ethic and contemporary capitalism.

Further, the list of scientists, mathematicians, and inventors who have shaped our understanding of the world is too vast to be comprehensive within this space. This list--my sources are all secular--includes Robert Boyle and Antoine Lavoisier (the architects of chemistry), Leonhard Euler (the most published mathematician in history), Michael Faraday and James Clerk Maxwell (Evangelical electrical engineers you should thank for your iphone), Gregor Mendel (the father of modern genetics), Arthur Compton (a true luminary in every sense of the word), Ronald Fisher (the guy I wish Darwin could have spent a bit more time reading), Bernard Rieman (a primary reference for Einstein's theory of general relativity), Isaac Newton (Gravity, telescopes, and Calculus), George Washington Carver (modern agricultural theory), Francis Collins (headed the Human Genome Project), Charles Babbage (invented the computer), and so many others!

As well, those holding to the Good News are flat-out doing more good in the world than those that do not. The Pew Research Center recently found that among Americans who attend church weekly, 45% had done volunteer work during the previous week. Among all other Americans, only 27% had volunteered somewhere. 65% of church attenders regularly donate either money or goods to the poor vs. 41% of the general public. In fact, the Panel Study for Income Dynamics juxtaposed Americans who do not attend church with those that do, finding that church attenders donate an annual average of $2,935 as opposed to the average of $704 for the unchurched. And, Christian giving is not limited to Christian charities: believers outpace the giving of non-believers to secular charities by 15%.

So, if the Good News is still so good, why all the heat in contemporary culture? In 1821, Sydney Smith said it best when he said of Christian prison reformer Elizabeth Fry, "We long to burn her alive. Examples of living virtue disturb our repose and give birth to distressing comparisons."

This Christmas, as a school community, let's double-down on our commitment to living out the Good News. Let's set aside our fears of young people deconstructing their faith and commit afresh to reconstructing the admirable and courageous faith of those Christians and Good News-bearers that have gone before us.
Grateful for the opportunity to serve your family,

Geoff Brown
Superintendent
Northwest Christian School
(623)225-5573 (cell)
Annual Grandparents Days. The Don Sanderson Gymnasium was packed out for each of the three days leading into the Thanksgiving holiday as Northwest Christian students hosted their grandparents on campus, celebrating the legacy of Christian families within the school. Click on the video above to watch one of the Grandparents Day programs.
Phase One of the "Build Here, Build There" Plan Breaks Ground of February 4th. During Northwest Christian's annual fundraising dinner and auction of February 4th, the school will be breaking ground on the first twelve classrooms in what will ultimately become a twenty-four classroom building. This new building will be the first of three recently announced phases of campus improvements. To learn more about each, please click on the videos both above and beneath. One of the most exciting aspects of the three-phase, $6M project is that over half of the money required to fund the phases has already been raised! To help cross the finish line, Northwest Christian is inviting all families and alumni to consider buying a Legacy Brick that will be included in the expanding Crusader Legacy Plaza.
Click on the videos above and below for more information on Northwest Christian's exciting Build Here, Build There campus improvement campaign.
Elementary Classroom Building
Cafeteria/Multi-Purpose Building
Crusader Creation Commons
The Sutton Project's Christmas-To-Go. On Thursday, December 15th, Northwest Christian enjoyed one of the high points of its annual Sutton Project campaign as Saint Nick (played by Mr. G) led a group of merry elves (read as: students and teachers) to provide Christmas celebrations and gifts for students within schools all across the Isaac School District. Now in its thirteenth year, the 2022 Sutton Project pulled in an amazing $70,000.00 towards Thanksgiving and Christmas-themed ministry opportunities. This included the money raised during an out-of-control No-Shave November (see picture, left).
Perhaps the most exciting element of the campaign is that every meal, gift, and event included personalized invitations for these needy families to attend upcoming Spanish-speaking Christmas services at CCV Avondale, a Christ's Church of the Valley campus pastored by Northwest Christian alumni parent Nolberto Machiche.
Calling all aspiring film-makers! Northwest Christian's 9th annual NXNW High School Film Festival is coming to the Harkins Norterra theaters on Thursday, February 16th. With the debut of the school's latest movie ("The Next Shot") comes the chance for student film-makers to submit digital shorts for competition. To learn more about submitting a film and the prizes available, please click here.
A Musical Month. No doubt about it, December may be the high-water month for musical performances by Northwest Christian. This month, students of all ages gave Christmas-themed performances. To enjoy the outstanding concert given by NCS Secondary Choirs, click on the picture above.

Northwest Christian also had the chance to celebrate junior LexiBella Krymow (pictured right) this month. Within the incredibly competitive Arizona All State Jazz Choir contest, Krymow's near perfect score landed her in a three-way tie for Alto Second Chair. From all the choral contestants across the state, only twenty finalists are chosen, five for each vocal part.
Hitting the Mark. On Saturday, December 17th, the Crusader Archery team will enjoy the culmination of their inaugural season by participating in the Candy Cane Crunch archery tournament at the Ben Avery Shooting Facility. The team will be represented by ten "varsity" archers who have been part of a season which included a total of twenty archers who practiced regularly at the Arizona Archery Club. A new season of Crusader Archery will kick off in late January 2023.
Be among the first to buy tickets! This year's annual fundraising dinner and auction will take place on the new turf field where we will enjoy a barnyard social with square dancing, lawn games, and tons of games...as well as the live auction, a silent auction, and the ground-breaking for the the newly announced 12-classroom building.

A Christmas tradition. The annual all-school Christmas chapel took place on Wednesday, December 7th. The chapel--one of just three annual events that pull all grade-levels together--has a number of traditional trappings: Christmas-themed worship, elementary students reading the Christmas story, the singing of "The 12 Days of Christmas", and others. Perhaps the most cherished tradition, however, is when Mr. Rafael Garcia joins the band for "Feliz Navidad".
Crusader Christmas came early (and spicy!) this year! In keeping with the annual tradition to theme faculty and staff Christmas celebrations around different televised Christmas specials, Christmas this year was based on "Hot Ones", the net-based program in which celebrities are interviewed while eating hot wings. The Crusader twist was that it was teachers that were interviewed and viewers voted for their favorite teams via their phones. In so doing, they gave the high school team the win and all of the teachers and staff within the high school won an extra $50 within their Christmas bonus. Click on the videos below to watch how each team did handling the heat!
Early Education
Elementary
Middle School
High School
Student's learning that God's word is its own treat. Twenty students enjoyed a trip to the Scoopwells Cookie Dough Bar on Tuesday, December 13th as part of the Red Letter Challenge for Fall 2022. The twice-a-year challenge invites students into a four Gospels-centered Bible reading plan through which they read through Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John over the course of three months, one chapter per day. During this iteration of the challenge, 97 K-12 students participated, earning "pizookie" treats for every one of their elementary friends on Friday, December 16th. Then, of those nearly one hundred students that finished it, twenty students names were chosen to go to Scoopwells with Mr. G, Mrs. Underwood, and Mr. Brown.
Christmas at Kids Kingdom. At 5:15am on Saturday, December 10th, sixty Northwest Christian students, faculty, and alumni loaded into five vans and started a day-long trip to Imuris, Sonora, the home of the Kids Kingdom orphanage and church. Once they arrived, they hosted a huge Christmas party during which they prepared a meal for the families that live in the community and distributed Christmas gifts and treats that were collected by Northwest Christian's National Elementary Honor Society and National Junior Honor Society.
SAVE THE DATE: FOUR EVENTS SCHEDULED FOR JANUARY 12, 2023

Current NCS families and prospective new families that are seeking to learn more about tuition assistance (including the Universal ESA), and Kindergarten, Middle School, or High School in 2023-2024 are encouraged to sign-up for the following events by selecting the appropriate link below.

5:00 pm -6:25 pm, Choir Room #105 (40 max.)

6:30 pm-7:30 pm, Room #431 (40 max., for parents of current PreK students)

6:30 pm-7:30 pm, Rooms 421-425 (for parents of current 5th graders)

6:30 pm-7:30 pm, Gym (for 8th grade students and their parents and
prospective new 9-12th grade families)

NCS will also host a Curriculum Showcase and Open House on February 7th, 2023 for all current and prospective new families and an Open House on March 30th for new families.
Let's make a movie! In late November, Northwest Christian kicked off the production of its ninth annual student film with a read-through of the script. The film's production will pull students into roles both in front of and behind the camera. The film, titled "The Next Shot", will premiere at the Harkins Norterra theater on Thursday, February 16th. For more information on the Northwest Christian film program, follow this link.
An FCA Christmas. This past weekend, the biggest and busiest club on campus--the Fellowship of Christian Athletes--held its annual White Elephant Christmas party. The event was hosted at the home of Northwest Christian's Athletic Director, David Inness and wife Doris Inness, the NCS High School Technology teacher.
RightNow Media is your chance to enjoy the Northwest Christian community -- in your living room!

All free of charge and via your phone, smart television, desktop computer, or tablet. RightNow Media is the Netflix of Bible studies and family-friendly movies and children's programming. It's also the home to a huge amount of video-based Northwest Christian content. On Northwest Christian School's RightNow Media page, available at this link, you can enjoy chapels, concerts, senior graduation, eighth grade promotion, Crusader's Got Talent, missions trips, and so much more.

The NCS RightNow Media page is also providing access to the NXNW 2021 student film, "Do-Gooders", as well as all of the other NXNW student films!

Registration takes just a few minutes and is absolutely free!
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