DEAR GUESTS, LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT...

MY AA TRUST FUND

When I was but a few days or weeks old back in 1942, my grandparents, Alfred and Bessie (Bergit) Stadem of Plain View Farm, Bryant, South Dakota, gave me an official trust fund for monies to be set aside for my future enrollment at Augustana Academy in Canton, South Dakota. This dedicated Christian school, founded by pioneering Scandinavians in 1860, was the school that my grandparents supported with prayers, financial support, and the attendance of their nine children (seven daughters and two sons). They began my infant's A.A. trust fund with $1.00--surely a small amount even then, but, nevertheless, it represented a seed of faith that fifteen years later resulted in my enrolling at Augustana Academy!

A WONDERFUL, DIVINE ENCOUNTER OUR SECULAR HUMANIST SOCIETY AND THE THEORY OF EVOUTION COMPLETELY MISSES!

Attendance at the Academy transformed my life. I was found by the Savior, Jesus Christ, in the old boys' dormitory on campus. Whatever my childish faith thought of Him then, He surpassed what I had heard could happen to people when I asked for forgiveness and invited Him into my heart as I sat alone in my room, disgruntled because I had not been invited to a student prayer group on the floor above me. In divine response, I was suddenly flooded with God's warming presence, and I felt it physically, centered in my upper torso, or, to be more specific, in my heart region and extending up into my throat. This presence lasted a week or even two weeks, gradually fading. There was no way I could say I was mistaken, that it hadn't really happened, or my prayer hadn't been answered! It was GOD Almighty taking up residence in me. Of course, I hadn't asked Him to become my Lord in every aspect of my life, to be my Everything, for Whom I would endure every sacrifice of my selfish desires and even offer up my will gladly on every point of conflict between my will and His. All that was unknown to me. I had no idea He had commissioned me as a a heaven-bound pilgrim instead of just being a church-attender (this took me some years to discover).

AN UNFORGETTABLE, LIVING LEGACY

Meanwhile, in the extremely favorable Academy environment, this teen-ager's greenwood talents were recognized in various fields and encouraged to blossom. I gained lifelong friends I would never have known. I enjoyed Christian life and was blessed with many good memories of Christian fellowship. I learned from mistakes, and was forgiven, and was able to profit from some lessons that came outside the covers of my books. The examples of Christian teachers and administrators were not only encouraging but unforgettable. They still remain my role models of what Christian educators should be like. Indeed, I can go on and on. Though I failed at points to be as good a role model in turn, though I proved myself a sinner saved by grace alone, yet I carried away a legacy that no one could take from me, though they might have no idea that I gained anything of worth. This school and the spirit of Christ that was so strong in it touched my life in such a way that I was never the same afterward. My grandparents knew it would, and so they never begrudged a cent offered to its support. They established, when blessed financially to do so, a larger trust fund for the Stadem descendants, so that each descendant could enter the Academy, providing money for each year that would enable us to go, though not covering the total expense.

A FEW FLIES IN THE OINTMENT, BUT MOSTLY ANGELS

I had to work hard all three years I attended until graduation, laboring in the sweaty, hot, sticky, deafening dishwashing room of the cafeteria. I earned $20 a month, twenty cents an hour, working three hours a day or more, and all of it went toward my tuition not covered by my grandparents' fund. I had no spending money, not even for haircuts. It was not easy for me, particularly at an age when a boy is so conscious of his appearance. I would have liked to go to the campus canteen and buy ice cream and candy with the other students, but that was out of the question on my non-existent budget. Somehow, I was blessed richly without the advantages given by pocket spending money, and I can look back on having had a lot of fun, fellowship, and good times that don't leave a bad taste in your mouth. I recall the almost unendurably long winters, the acute loneliness suffered at times when the choir was touring, which left the school and its remaining students like myself in a kind of morgue, the meanness of a few school bullies who were so bored with themselves they ganged up upon other students and thought that was fun, but the price never equalled what good I received. A cook who knew my mother at A.A. when she attended volunteered to do all my wash (I could not afford to do it myself). I always had plenty of clean clothes because of this helping angel. My dear friend and buddy Paul, a son of missionaries in Columbia, South America who today is a most remarkable sculptor, gave me a whole closet of shirts. Friends invited me to their homes at vacation times, which meant a lot because I couldn't afford to go home between terms, it was too far to Washington State. I was allowed to participate on "extensions," journeying with teams from the school to give programs to churches and youth groups all over the state and even neighboring states. My world expanded enormously by attending A.A., for students came from all over the country and from Alaska and from even Africa. We shared life and experiences together, and they enriched my understanding. The instructors, too, encouraged me to write, and held out to me the examples of C.S. Lewis, and Ole Rolvaag (who attended this school), and other Christian writers of world-class renown. I was encouraged in every way to cultivate my God-given potential and then to launch forth. What I gave to Augustana Academy was no doubt small, yet she gave her tremendous, golden legacy, in return, to me. It truely was worth many time over the cost and inconvenience of attending so far away a school from my home in Washington!

Incidentally, the following picture of Old Main was taken by my beloved aunt, Mrs. Bernice Stadem Schaefer, in 1960 at my graduation. Due to constraints of time and money, she was the only Stadem able to be with me at that event--Sincerely, in the love of Christ the Savior, Ronald Ginther, Class of 1960, the "Centennial Class"

OLD MAIN BUILDING IN 1960

Photo taken by Bernice Stadem- Schaefer.

OUR HISTORIC ACADEMY MUSIC! AUGUSTANA'S SCHOOL SONG, "WE WOULD SEE JESUS," AND CLASS OF 1960'S SONG, "MAKE ME A CAPTIVE, LORD". BOTH SONGS ARE FEATURED AS TEXT IN THE BUTTERFLY PRODUCTIONS ACADEMY CALENDAR!

"Make Me a Captive, Lord"

"We Would See Jesus"

TO GO ONTO PART TWO OF A SPECIAL TRIBUTE TO AUGUSTANA ACADEMY, CANTON, SOUTH DAKOTA:

AUGUSTANA ACADEMY PART TWO

A VERY SPECIAL RELATED LINK TO MY MOTHER'S:

TRIBUTE TO CHRISTIAN EDUCATION