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FROM THE HEADMASTER AND THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES
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HAT A YEAR! This time last summer, five different committees and dozens of people were working tirelessly to plan for the 2020-21 school year, praying we would be able to provide on-campus learning and activities the whole year, and GOD PROVIDED! It certainly was the most challenging year for most of us—teachers, administrators, trustees, staff, parents and students—but we began the year with our TCA Together theme, and by His grace, we did it! Thank you to so many who made it happen.
In the midst of a difficult year, there were so many accomplishments. Here are just a few: • We served 1,344 students either on campus or at home. • Through our amazing Tech Department and talented and dedicated teachers, we live streamed lessons from each classroom when students were at home by choice or due to COVID protocols. • We competed athletically in every sport, claiming another state championship in boys golf and qualifying for the playoffs in almost every other sport. • Our Upper School team won the TAPPS 6A State Academic Competition. • We graduated 128 seniors, whose average GPA was 4.011. Sixty-five have been at TCA since kindergarten or first grade. • Our Visual and Performing Arts programs once again received numerous awards amid a challenging year to compete. • Families provided $1.9 million (the most ever) for Student Tuition Aid. • We’ve begun building a new Middle School building to be completed by August 2022. • Our enrollment for next year will be more than this past year, thanks to our amazing Admissions team and parents sharing with friends the great things happening at TCA.
Again, it was an amazing team effort to accomplish so much in the midst of COVID as protocols changed almost weekly. Flexibility, selflessness, ingenuity, empathy, resilience and prayer helped us succeed. In my blessing to the 2021 graduates, I reminded them (and all of us who trust in Him) of the truth that God wants us to dwell on in good or difficult times . . .
I am the Creator, and you are My creation (Genesis 2:7). I created you in My own image (Genesis 1:27). I knitted you together in your mother’s womb (Psalm 139:13). I know the number of hairs on your head, and before a word is on your tongue I know it (Matthew 10:30; Psalm 139:4). You are fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14). I have crowned you with glory and honor as the pinnacle and final act of the six days of creation (Psalm 8:5; Genesis 1:26). However, you have sinned and fallen short of My glory (Romans 3:23). You turned aside from Me (Psalm 14:2–3). While you were still enemies of Me, Jesus died for you (Romans 5:8, 10). Sin doesn’t have the last word; grace does (Romans 5:20). So, now you are My children, My heirs (1 John 3:2; Romans 8:16–17). You are no longer orphans. You belong to Me (John 14:18; 1 Corinthians 6:19). And I love you as a perfect Father (1 John 3:1; Luke 15:20–24). In My eyes, you are a brand new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). All your sins are forgiven (1 John 1:9). You are now righteous in My sight with the very righteousness of My perfect Son (Romans 4:5). Nothing will be able to separate you from My love in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:39). No one is able to snatch you out of My hand (John 10:29). And I will never leave you nor forsake you (Hebrews 13:5). Remember, I have given you the Holy Spirit to be with you and in you (Romans 5:5; John 14:17). The Spirit will guide you into all truth, help you to obey Me and empower you to do My work (John 16:7, 13; Acts 1:8; Galatians 5:16). You will enter My rest, inherit the kingdom I’ve prepared for you and step into fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore (Hebrews 4:9–11; Matthew 25:34; Psalm 16:11). But most of all, you will see My face and be with Me where I am (Revelation 22:4; John 14:3). I have chosen you (Revelation 17:14). I have called you (2 Peter 1:3). So, walk in a manner worthy of your calling (Ephesians 4:1).
You are now a saint, a servant, a steward and a soldier (Romans 1:7; Acts 26:16; 1 Peter 4:10; 2 Timothy 2:3). You have a glorious future (Romans 8:18). You are a citizen of heaven (Philippians 3:20). And you are an ambassador for My Son (2 Corinthians 5:20). Thank you for your prayerful support of our mission, and may God continue to bless His school for His glory in good and difficult times!
DAVE DELPH, HEADMASTER
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APPY SUMMER! As I write this, I am praying that our entire TCA community—students, alumni, families, faculty and staff— is enjoying a restful and rejuvenating summer after what was undoubtedly one of the most challenging school years any of us has experienced. With challenge always comes opportunity, especially for followers of Christ. In the midst of an academic year marked by cancellations, delays and closures all around us, TCA not only began the school year on time and in person but also remained in person for the entire year. And even more remarkably, we broke ground on a brand new Middle School building, which you can read about in more detail in the pages of this issue. Your Board of Trustees has prayed for many years for the Middle School project to come to fruition, and we are thankful for God’s provision to begin construction on His timeline.
In Psalm 1, the psalmist writes that a person who delights himself in God’s Word and who meditates on it day and night “is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers” (Psalm 1:3, ESV). At TCA, we are blessed to have an administration and faculty who delight themselves in God’s Word and meditate on it day and night and who teach our children to do likewise. The Lord blesses that commitment in numerous ways, including by prospering our school.
There are three points of interest in Psalm 1:3 that might be applied both to individuals seeking to delight in God’s Word and to communities like our TCA family, seeking to build our mission on God’s truth: • The tree (i.e., the person who delights himself in God’s Word) is “planted,” denoting an affirmative act of God in placing the tree by streams of water, not an accident or coincidence. As Charles Spurgeon notes, it is “not a wild tree but one chosen, considered as property, cultivated and secured.” Similarly, God has “planted” TCA and our new Middle School in our precise location and at this precise time so that TCA can continue to be a beacon of light in our fallen world. • Spurgeon also notes that the tree in Psalm 1:3 is planted near multiple rivers, not just one, “so that even if one river should fail, he hath another. The rivers of pardon and the rivers of grace, the rivers of promise and the rivers of communication with Christ, are never failing sources of supply.” God has supplied the source of funds to start our new Middle School, and He will continue supplying our needs to finish the Middle School successfully. • The tree in Psalm 1:3 will yield fruit “in season.” Fruit does not always come forth immediately after planting, but it is always produced in God’s perfect timing for those who follow Christ. Similarly, though we started the capital campaign for the Middle School more than five years ago and have been eager to begin construction, God made sure that we waited for the right season to begin. That season is now.
When our family came to TCA in 2013, our kids were in the Lower School, and the following year was our first year in the Middle School. That year, we were asked to consider giving to a new capital campaign to build a Middle School building. Dave Delph, Becky Lewis and others recounted the rich history of TCA parents and alumni “paying it forward” by contributing to the cause of constructing new buildings in which their kids would never attend class. In 2015, with prayer and thanksgiving, our family was humbled and delighted to become one of many families paying it forward by participating in the Pursuing Excellence Campaign.
Now, with a sophomore in the Upper School, our family could not be more excited to be able to see the fruit of that campaign come to life. Because of the Lord’s provision for TCA, our beautiful new facility will provide an innovative and collaborative space for the critical learning and development that takes place during the middle school years, and it will do so for many generations to come. The Board of Trustees is immensely grateful for the Lord’s provision for this new project.
