‘Geronimo, Amen’ prayer created Logos

Daily News, September 26, 2016

By Shannon Quinn, Daily News Staff Writer

Upwards of 700 people wandered a recently harvested 30-acre wheat field adjacent to Mountain View Park on Saturday afternoon, which will, as time and money allow, become Logos School’s new campus.

Babes in arms, elders with canes and all ages in between tramped over the stubbly field. Some played Frisbee, some volleyball and others examined the hills and dales of the property, marked to indicate where buildings, playfields and drives will spring up in coming years.

“This is a combination of vision and gratitude,” Doug Wilson, Christ Church pastor and Logos cofounder, said. “After 35 years of God blessing us I’m looking forward to this being the next big step up.”

For years, Logos has had a goal of expanding its ever growing school, in what previously was a roller skating rink to a campus with all of the academic, spiritual and athletic amenities for its K-12 students. Once, its creators questioned whether it would make it through its first year in a church basement with fewer than 20 students.

The past three and a half decades have seen annual growth that necessitated expansion, Wilson said.

It’s a reality that was not even imagined during the early years, which began with a quiet family conversation, he said.

“God loves that great two word prayer, ‘Geronimo, amen,’ ” Wilson said. “The creation of Logos school was along those lines.”

In telling of the school’s origins, he strove to identify where key players in the story were sitting – particularly his wife, Nancy, and daughter, Becca.

“The germ of all of this came about in our living room when Becca, who was a toddler, was toddling around,” he said. “Nancy said to me, ‘Doug, I can’t imaging handing her over to someone that we don’t know, saying here she is, teach her about everything.’ I didn’t know anything about Christian education – zero – but I knew I agreed with that.”

What began as a minute Christian academy has grown to more than 100 students.

The plot of land was dotted with signs of various colors, each noting where another campus feature will lie.

“All of the blue flags represent buildings, green represents competition fields, red the main drive,” said Gene Liechty, Logos’ development director. “We’re trying to give people an idea of what they’re walking on.”

Liechty, who first announced the property’s purchase earlier this spring, said he hopes people will get excited about the project.

“We’re trying to get people fired up,” he said.” It’s one thing to get on it, it’s another to get everything built.”

Liechty said as soon as the school has access to the property, work can truly begin, but a bridge over the creek running through it is the first order of business.

That is no small project, but Liechty said the school plans to begin work on it in the spring.

“The kids can use the property as soon as we can get the bridge in and the field in,” he said. “Phase one is just getting all the infrastructure in. It’ll be an entire year just getting the bridge and the playing fields in.”

The project has no timeline for completion, officials noted, and is dependent for the time being on the success of fundraising programs.

While funds are of importance, Wilson pointed out, it’s the people involved in the process who will make it a success.

“God does not generally act with invisible rays from the sky. He works through intermediaries, he works through his people, he works through the gifts he assigns to his people,” he said. “Isn’t God good?”

Shanon Quinn can be reached at (208) 883-4636 or by email to squinn@dnews.com.