Ministry Updates: May 2022

Dear Friends of our Divine Savior,

As another school year draws to a close, we are filled with gratitude as we reflect on God’s blessings. This year, we moved past the pandemic. Our staff, student bodies, and churches grew on every campus, and most importantly, we found more ways to connect our communities with the love of Christ. Praise, thanks, and glory to our gracious God for another year of grace.

On May 13, the Governing Board of Divine Savior Ministries met to celebrate the groundbreaking of Phase II on our Santa Rita Ranch (Austin) campus and to conduct its quarterly meeting. What follows is a summary of our discussion across our campuses.

Delray Beach

• We ran out of chairs on Easter Sunday! God blessed our worship with 307 people gathering to hear the resurrection story, including 53 prospects and first time visitors.

• Pastor Joel returned his call to serve as BHM Administrator. We are blessed to continue serving together.

• We are calling for a staff minister. This will be a welcomed addition to the DSC team.

• DSA exceeded our enrollment expectations, ending the year with nearly 130 students. More importantly, we continue to see growing interest through tours that are well ahead of last year’s pace.

• Our inaugural PTO was created this year. We are thankful for these volunteers who are helping to increase our sense of community and family in Delray.

• DSA was blessed to receive two graduates from MLC Call Day. We are excited to welcome them to the team.

Doral

• DSC voted unanimously to move forward with our Worship and Ministry Center project. This will be an awesome improvement to our Doral campus.

• We are beginning to see great results from our harvest strategy in Doral with 30 people actively engaged in our two step discipleship process - Start and Grow.

• Pastor Caleb and his wife, Elise, welcomed their second child into God’s family, a boy named Luca!

• DSA continues to be blessed with record enrollment. Next year, we anticipate nearly 1,200 students! We are very happy to see our Early Childhood numbers return to pre-pandemic levels. This is an answer to many prayers and an increased focus in this area.

• We are excited to expand our administrative teams at various levels. This added support will be a blessing to our staff and families.

• We are working on several campus renovations and improvements this summer to keep our ministry going and growing.

Santa Rita

• We are blessed with our largest Starting Point class yet! Currently, there are 14 people meeting every Wednesday night to grow in God’s grace.

• We are looking for ways to expand our DSC Kids program up to 5th grade. We are doing this in an attempt to better serve our guests and members.

• Our new Director of Worship, Zach Unke, is now serving full time in his role. This will be a tremendous blessing to our DSC.

• We recently celebrated the groundbreaking of our new addition on this campus. Phase II will include a full-size gymnasium and 14 additional classrooms to include art, STEM, and music labs. God willing construction will be complete for the 23-24 school year.

• We continued to see much interest in DSA-SRR and our community continues to expand at unprecedented levels. It is clear to see that God has placed us in the right place at the right time.

• We were blessed to receive a graduate at MLC Call Day to join our growing staff.

Sienna

• We celebrated Easter worship with 197 people! This included 16 families from our DSA family.

• On May 8th, we celebrated Confirmation Sunday. This, together with our Starting Point classes, is another visible example of how our harvest strategy between church and academy is bearing much fruit. God be praised!

• We are excited to host our annual soccer camp on June 13-17. We have 30 children registered already and anticipate many more. We are blessed to have so many staff serving alongside our church members to make this event possible.

• Our first year of High School is almost complete on this campus. A lot goes into starting a HS, and we are grateful to have had such a blessed first year.

• Elizabeth Melott and Jake Unke will begin their roles as Early Childhood Director and MS / HS Principal next year. In addition, we will be adding a Dean of Students and a College Counselor. We were also blessed to receive two graduates at MLC Call Day. These positions will bring great value to this thriving ministry.

• We continue our work on the design and development of a new 70,000 square foot facility. This will position this campus to serve over 700 students with God’s Word daily!

West Palm Beach

• DSC-WPB continues to have their vacancy served by a rotation of men from our DS campuses. We are grateful for their service to WPB.

• Vacation Bible School will be held June 20-24. Thank you to our dedicated team of lay leaders for putting this event together.

• We are requesting a graduate from this year’s Call Day. May God’s Will be done in WPB.

Divine Savior School

• We continue to be encouraged by consistent attendance of our DSS families at monthly devotions. We are also excited to have two of our staff members wrapping up Starting Point classes soon.

• New Friends and Worship at the Cross continue to grow month to month. This has proven to be a tremendous blessing to our DSS Family.

• Our prayers continue for Ms. Min, who is undergoing cancer treatments. She will be moving back to South Korea to continue treatment there amongst family and friends. God be with you Ms. Min.

• We were blessed to receive a graduate through MLC Call Day with an emphasis in Special Education to begin serving next year.

• We anticipate a full enrollment of 42 students next year! This ministry has truly met a need in our community.

Divine Savior Ministries

• There has been much conversation regarding staffing as our ministry continues to grow. As a result, we will be meeting with the Commission on Lutheran Schools to discuss and support potential alternatives to increase enrollment at MLC and find more dedicated men and women to serve across our synod. It is the desire of the Governing Board to do what we can to be part of the solution moving forward.

• We continue to focus on new ways to show our appreciation for our staff across our campuses. Currently, policies regarding tuition benefits, retirement contributions, remote work, bonuses, and more are being evaluated for the 277 dedicated men and women who will make up our DS Team next year.

• We were recently blessed with a grant to move forward with a new position at DSM, Director of Talent. This position will be tasked with growing our staff, identifying future leaders, and building up our team to better serve our families. We are currently looking for the right person to fill this very important role.

God has been so good to Divine Savior! Please continue to keep all these ministries in your prayers. Thank you for your support, effort, and continued encouragement. Every day, it becomes more clear that we can do more ministry together.

In His Service,

Pastor Carlos Leyrer - MBA, M.Div