Calvary Lutheran High School supporters celebrated the school's first decade with prayer, song, memories and food Sunday afternoon.
"We really hope we can just continue to grow, continue to serve the Lord and continue to serve the community," Executive Director John Engelbrecht said. "That's our purpose."
The school started in 2005 in the basement of Lincoln University's Damel Hall. By the time that first class of five students had graduated four years later, the school had moved to a bigger - but still cramped - location on the LU campus at the location of the former Missouri State Employees Retirement System (MOSERS).
By then, it had also already bought 23 acres of property just south of town toward Wardsville. By 2010, it had moved into its new home after completing the first phase of building.
"We thought we had moved into the biggest building in the world," Engelbrecht said.
Since then, they've completed one expansion, and already are looking toward the next, which would include a soccer field and track.
Nineteen seniors are expected to graduate from the school on Saturday. The current school can comfortably hold about 150 students, and it expects an incoming freshman class of at least 29 - and as many as 40.
The school had an open house from 1-4 p.m., with an hour-long celebration at 2:30 p.m. that drew about 150 people.
PowerPoint presentations chronicled the growth of the school, with close-knit students in the classroom, athletic fields and extracurricular events.
Lance and Chance Summerer, twins who graduated from Calvary in 2011, said the biggest difference between Calvary and other schools is the family-oriented nature and the one-on-one interactions with teachers.
And when a teacher needed to talk to a parent, they said, the teacher wouldn't necessarily need to call or email - they'd probably see the parent before the day was over anyway.
"You get to know everyone's family and hang out with them," Chance said. "Everyone is just like your brother and sister. And the teachers, they take care of you and look after you with everything you need."
The coursework is demanding, but encourages good study habits, Lance said. Both are now mechanical engineering majors at the University of Missouri-Columbia.
"It makes college a lot easier after going here four years, and then going off to college," Chance said. "They definitely prepare you for what you need to succeed in college and later on in life."
The school, Lance added, "builds Christian leaders."