LAMPLIGHTER Fall 2021
Reflections of a First-Year Principal by Dan Markgraf Many have asked about my first year at St. John’s. I’ve been able to truthfully say that it was an incredible year — so much better than it could have been! God has been very good to us at St. John’s. It’s not that we didn’t have challenges this year. Mask mandates, distancing suggestions, virtual learning for some, and all of the extra cleaning did add to the stress level this year. But our teachers, staff, students, and families were cooperative, patient, and understanding! God is good! Getting to know people this year has probably been the most difficult part of changing ministries during a pandemic. It was great to meet faculty in person in June 2020 and to meet the Board of Ed and Council by Zoom that month. It was early August before I really started to meet parents at registration and orientation. Although time was limited and masks were everywhere, people were very welcoming. God is good! Seeing over 200 kids enter the building in August was a very special time. Since March 2020, nobody was quite certain that we would be able to open school again in the fall. Would the state or city allow it? Would parents even send their kids? How different would it be, and how long would those changes need to last? Would we make it to Thanksgiving? Christmas? Easter? To the end of the year without having to shut down again? God is good!
Learning names and faces of 215 kids was (and still is!) a challenge. Getting to know them has been a joy. Seeing the gifts that God has given to them has been awesome. St. John’s has so many who are gifted in music, athletics, academics, and so many other things! I’m looking forward to knowing them even better in years to come! God is good! It was a little more difficult to form relationships with parents. My contact with most of the parents was through their windshields as they dropped off or picked up their children. Sometimes I felt my effort to get to know parents was like a match game – trying to match the masked person that I saw in church or in the building to the unmasked parent that drove through the parking lot! God is good! The fact that the year went well doesn’t surprise me. St. John’s Lutheran Church and School is a place where the Gospel is preached. God’s promises of love and forgiveness, and his promise to be with his people is also reflected by those people. Thanks, St. John’s, for your welcome and support! God is good! All the time!