WILDWOOD – Living Water Academy (LWA) has a lot to celebrate this year. The school is celebrating 20 years of learning at LWA and the first seniors to graduate from the high school. LWA is housed at Fellowship of Wildwood.
The celebration, Legacy and Light (“Celebrating our Past—lluminating our Future”), took place on Saturday, May 2.
Keith Ross, president of Missouri Baptist University, was the featured speaker. Cathy Lampley, preschool director, received a service award for her 20 years of serving the preschool. The graduating seniors led the music and acted as servers for the meal.
“Our school (LWA) started with a group of concerned parents,” Cindy Jenkins, head of school, said. “They were looking for a Christian school in West County, and they approached the church.”
“The school opened in the fall of 2005 with 39 students in the pre-K through 4th grade,” she said. “Now we’ve grown to 392 students with two classes per grade level. We keep the class size to 20, so we do have waiting lists. In 2022, we added a freshman high school class and each year since, we’ve added the next high school level.”
Jenkins attributes the growth to the school’s philosophy. “God is growing our school because we are not a covenant school, but a missional school,” she explained. “We’ve seen the impact on families. We’ve seen parents come to Christ because of their connection to the school.”
As you walk through the school building and visit the classrooms, it is apparent that character building and Scripture are being taught. The faculty recognizes outstanding students each week during chapel for the positive behavior that they have demonstrated in the classrooms.
“This year,” Jenkins continued, “we will graduate five seniors in May. These students have been with us since we began the high school. One student is a National Merit Scholarship finalist, and they all have made wonderful academic progress in AP classes. They are all phenomenal young men and women.”
Tammy Griggs, dean of students, shared information about some of the service projects by the seniors. “Our school recently collected shoes for the “Soles4Souls” program,” Griggs said. “The seniors won the school competition with the number of shoes that they brought in.”
“We also took our seniors to Washington D.C.” she said. “While we were in the city, the students worked at packing meals for the local D.C. food pantries.”
“They are always willing to help,” she continued, “They help with the Joy Women’s Bible Study set-up on Tuesdays, and they tear down the chapel set up each week.”
“Some of the seniors participate in a youth leadership program and two serve on the chapel team for the High School chapel,” she said.
“This first graduating group of dedicated students,” Griggs said, “has paved the way for the rest of the high school students.”
