Saxony Lutheran pays off mortgage

Saxony Lutheran High School officials recently announced that construction of a permanent campus is one step closer now that donors have paid off the mortgage for a 40-acre parcel in Fruitland ahead of schedule.

The site, near the southeast corner of the Interstate 55/Fruitland interchange, was purchased in January 2000 for $320,000. The school had started classes only four months earlier with a handful of students in rented facilities at St. Andrew Lutheran Church in Cape Girardeau.

The Saxony Board of Regents recently recognized this milestone with a mortgage-burning "service of celebration" held at the beginning of the board's regular January meeting, which was attended by area clergy, volunteers and donors.

"This major milestone is proof that miracles still happen and that God is blessing the mission and vision of Saxony Lutheran High School," said Don Roth of Farrar, Mo., board of regents chairman, during the ceremony.

Roth said the the school's goal was to pay the mortgage off before construction started. A starting date for construction has not yet been set.

More than 50 families contributed gifts in support of the land purchase, and many of them adopted an acre or more at $8,000 each, according to Rhonda Zacharias, director of development. Two gifts totaling $612,000 given to the high school in late 2002 by Gerhardt Birk of Tilsit was not used to pay off the mortgage but will be used once construction starts.

Zacharias also said that plans for the new campus are being finalized and fund-raising efforts to construct a permanent facility are well under way.

"We are blessed to have supportive congregations and hundreds of generous donors," said Zacharias. "Our enrollment is climbing as is our reputation for academic, spiritual and athletic excellence. This is nothing short of extraordinary."

Saxony Lutheran High School is a fully accredited high school with an enrollment of 30. It is an educational ministry sponsored by Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod congregations from throughout Southeast Missouri.