THE EMMAUS WALK PRESENTS:
"About Me," by Ronald Ginther
Myself as gardener/caretaker at Gladys Farquhar Estate, Sumner Heights, Washington State, in 1980s
My testimony:
THE CHRISTIAN HIGH SCHOOL I ATTENDED: I was most highly privileged to
transfer from my public high school in Washington State to go and attend a South Dakota Christian high school,
a parochial school of a then Bible-based Lutheran denomination (though the successor
is no longer Bible-based, sad to say). The name of the unique high school, called
"a school on wheels" because it was migratory, was Augustana Academy, located in Canton, South Dakota. It had been established round about 1860 back in Illinois, later moving with the pioneering, mostly Scandinavian settlers westward to various
states and locations until ending up in South Dakota. My Class of 1960
was honored to be its Centennial Class. This high school was scholastically one of the best in the nation and produced some world-class graduates such as Amundson the polar explorer and discoverer of the South Pole [and the best current reexaminations of the evidence points to his being the first to get to the
North Pole first too, by plane!] and Ole Rolvaag the famed Norwegian-American novelist, but
mostly it served ordinary people who went on to become fine Christian men and women in all sorts serving God and their families and nation in all sorts of capacities. The emphasis at the time I attended was on the Gospel for our salvation and the best quality Christian education and scholastic training they could render to us students. This school was
not financially blessed or endowed, but it was spiritually blessed in great measure. Even then the liberal-dominated denomination
leadership evidenced a declining interest in parochial (meaning it had dormitories and live-in student bodies) Christian high schools (caring more for prestigious "adult" colleges and seminaries), and it was a rather grim struggle
year to year, with much sacrifice even of salaries on the part of the Faculty and Trustees, to carry on. It is a miracle it lasted as long as it did! One hunded years on a shoestring budget! In the early 1970's the shoestring finally snapped and the doors closed, but
the golden legacy it left lives on, in countless lives affected and changed by
it. I was changed and transformed by this school. It was like heaven to me at the time, and I gained eternal life there on top of the fine education and social life I never knew back in my Washington State "hellhole". It was a hellhole too, and I am not
bad-mouthing it without justification either. You can read about it at:
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