Marty Miller doesn’t have a doubt about who was really behind a major gift that Lawrence’s Veritas Christian School received last month.

It had to be God.

“There have been so many things that have happened (at Veritas, 256 N. Mich.), the only way that I can explain that is divine providence,” says Miller, chairman of the school’s board of directors.

Miller is referring to a 13-acre piece of property southeast of the U.S. Highway 59 and Douglas County 458 (Wells Overlook Road) junction that Veritas was recently given by a now-defunct Lawrence church.

“The acquisition of the land was another step in a long trail of events. There is absolutely no question in my mind: God has his hand on the ministry of this school,” Miller says.

The donated property, handed over to Veritas Jan. 17 at the cost of $1 by the former elders of Wheatland Church of Christ, formerly located at 1449 Kasold Drive, will serve as the site of a new campus for the school in the next three to five years.

Wheatland closed its doors in October. The land south of Lawrence was originally to have served as a new home for that church. Wheatland’s former elders declined to comment on the gift, saying they preferred to focus the attention on Veritas itself.

Doug Bennett, the school’s director of development, agrees with Miller that God must have somehow been involved in Veritas receiving the property.

“The best way for me to describe it is just a huge encouragement in our mission to expand into a high school,” Bennett says.

SECOND-GRADERS AT VERITAS CHRISTIAN SCHOOL, 256 N. Mich., learn to play basketball in gym class with instructor Carol Wilson. The school has accepted a 13-acre lot of donated property near Wells Overlook as a place to eventually build a new school campus.

“Two years ago when the board stepped out in faith to add the high school (Veritas added 10th and 11th grades last fall), financially we realized things didn’t really add up, but we felt the Lord’s direction to do this, and it just seems like the gift of this land was confirmation that we are on the right path.”

Vision for future

It’s not the first time a Veritas benefactor has come forward.

The school is on a 3 1/2-acre campus that used to be home to Mustard Seed Christian Fellowship, which left that site in 1990 and moved to its present location at 700 Wakarusa Drive.

An anonymous member of that congregation purchased the old site and donated it to Veritas. The school now occupies a 13,000-square-foot main building, as well as three new, double-wide modular structures housing six additional classrooms for secondary students.

Veritas plans to add 12th grade to the school next year. Enrollment is currently 132 students, and Veritas has a staff of 22.

But the school is growing, and Bennett says it will outgrow its present campus in three to five years — the same timeline the board of Veritas has tentatively set for moving to a new campus on the donated property south of Lawrence.

“Our hand is somewhat forced in terms of that. The assumption is that we will move the entire school to that campus,” Miller says.

Through the parents of a Veritas student, the school board learned last fall about the possibility of acquiring the property from Wheatland. At that time, the student’s parents attended Wheatland and knew the church was looking to donate land.

Bennett and Marc Johnson, who oversees the school’s finances, contacted Wheatland’s former elders and, in December, presented them with a written proposal about Veritas and how it would utilize such a gift.

The gift of the property from Wheatland became official at a Jan. 17 meeting between the elders and leaders from Veritas.

“One of the biggest reasons for Wheatland’s decision was that 25 churches in the Lawrence area are represented in our student body, so they saw this as a gift to the Christian community,” Bennett says.

“They wanted to see that the school had a bright future, that it had a vision, that there was a need for a building site and that we were able to show them our growth in the last few years, as well as our projected growth rate.”

Looking to God as source

The Veritas board has to figure out how to develop the site, what facilities it will offer and, of course, where the money to actually build the campus will come from.

“It’s probably going to be around $3 million to $4 million. But we do have the equity in this property (at 256 N. Mich.) as a start,” Bennett says.

The answer will likely be to launch a capital campaign to raise the money. The donation of the land, however, already has spurred some Veritas families to commit to making matching donations — to a maximum of $40,000 — for any future gifts to Veritas of $5,000 or more. That money would go toward developing the new campus.

Bennett says the location of the property is ideal.

“It’s highly visible. It’s right on a highway (U.S. Highway 59). Accessibility is going to be great for Lawrence families, as well as for students in Baldwin and Eudora. It expands our boundaries to the number of families that could send their children to Veritas,” he says.

Miller has seen good things happen to Veritas before. He’s learning to expect the unexpected and know where to look for its source.

“At least for me, when I’ve seen the hand of God work through this school, it’s not going to surprise me,” he says.