A Voice from Mile High Academy
The Great Commission is clear in its admonition that we are to go to every nation, tongue, and people, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and that He is with us always, even to the ends of the earth. There is no better way for us to share the gospel than through our education system. Families are searching for safe places for their child to learn. If we have good schools, people in our community who desire a Christian education for their child will seek to put their student in our schools if our mission aligns with their own.
I have learned parents are willing to choose Mile High Academy (MHA) because our mission aligns with their desire to have their child in a Christian environment. MHA has always practiced an open door policy where students of any faith may attend if they are willing to support our mis- sion and core values. As a school, we are intentional in seeking out mission-minded teachers who are, first in love with Jesus and who are also Bible-believing Seventh-day Adventists. Instead of going out into all the world, we have the unique opportunity of having the world come to us. Understanding what it means to be open is much harder for us than we may realize.
Openness means we have to be inviting, inclusive, friendly, willing to live outside of our own thoughts. It also means we have to be more gracious and open to understanding another person’s perspective. It is as simple as the “golden rule”—do to others what you would have them do to you. Treat people with respect and kindness, live out our CHERISH (Christ-centered, Honor, Exploration, Responsibility, Integrity, Service, Heroism) core values and students will grow into doing the same. Our unique gift is that the nations come to us and in this opportunity, we get to share Jesus and bring our faith to life.
Every day, students of different walks of life come through our doors, sit in our classrooms, and learn from our Christ- centered teachers not just how to write, read, and subtract, but how to lead a servant life, and our teachers get to share the story of Jesus with each of them. Those experiences bring us the chance to share Jesus in very real ways. It’s within the safety of our walls that students can ask hard questions like: Why do you have faith? Who is God? Is God real? How do I find my way?
At the end of the day, if we are honest, these are the same questions we wrestle with as adults. Is God really there, does He hear me when I pray, does He still love me even though I am bad? The truth, as our students live and grow at MHA, is they are finding their way with the guiding hand of teachers who look to the Bible for answers. That’s the gift we have as an education system—safety for our kids to grow. Every child matters, each is important, and they deserve our full attention as they learn and grow.
As families explore schools for their own children, I answer questions like Why do you keep a Saturday Sabbath? Do you believe in creation? Do you believe that a world-wide flood really happened? These are all questions I am excited to answer because they lead back to why I believe, and in Whom I believe.
Students spend a little over 850,000 minutes of their waking lives in our schools. There is no mistaking the role we play in who they will become someday. It’s an unbelievable opportunity to share our faith with all those who enter our doors. As Adventists, we must be committed to being open, inclusive, loving and willing to step out of ourselves for the sake of sharing the gospel with others. We have to be the hands and feet of Jesus. The greatest challenge for me is trying to get our families to live life together. The image of the church described in the Book of Acts continues to play through my mind—the early church lived life together. They embraced the lonely and broken, shared their food with all those who needed it. We are busy living life and we don’t make time for people. Our impact as a church is greater if we do ministry together.
Our school community is growing through enrollment, through the ministry our students bring to the local, national, and international communities we are called as a church to engage and live life with today. In the last three months through our Real World Learning (taking academic content and creating or doing something that brings aware- ness or impacts the community) alone, our community has grown by more than 55 people. Not associated with the Adventist faith at all, they are getting to know who we are as a school and, in turn, as a church because our students are out there changing the world.
I hope Mountain Views readers will understand just what a great ministry Adventist education plays in the lives of so many students. It is because of the powerful partnership we play with our students that our world is being transformed by the way we are living the Great Commission!
–Toakase Vunileva is Mile High Academy principal. Email her at: [email protected]
A Voice from Campion Academy
Experiencing Christ in a learning environment is our purpose and mission at Campion Academy. No matter where our students come from or what kind of background they have, our goal is that each student experience Christ through our academics, campus jobs, sports, music, faculty and staff, and other students. Christ is the center of everything we do, and every day we do our best to let Him lead and guide us in His direction.
As a boarding and day academy, we receive a good number of students each school year who are not of our faith. We are always so excited to welcome these students with open arms and show them the love of Jesus through our words and actions before we jump right into Bible class and memorizing verses. These things come in time, but our first goal is always to help these students experience Christ’s love through the atmosphere at our school. Practicing this with intention is not always easy, but it is always worth it.
Over the past few years at Campion, we have created an International Student program where we welcome students from other countries, helping them develop their English- speaking skills by having them live in our dormitories and get to know American culture. In doing this, we can minister to them. Because these students live in the dorm, our deans and resident assistants (RAs) have the opportunity to get to know them really well and help them feel at home. Our deans will frequently check in with all of our students— especially international students—to make sure they’re doing well and to ask them if they have questions about topics covered in classes, chapel, vespers and church, specifically about Christianity and our faith. These small acts go a long way with our students in showing Jesus’ love to them.
As we continue to develop our International Student program, Pastor Paul Eagan created a Bible class that covers the basics of the Bible, Christianity, faith and our specific beliefs. Not coming from a Christian background can certainly have its challenges when attending a Christian school. This class has been wildly popular among our international students who get a concentrated, easy-to-understand-and-apply knowledge of the Bible and of Christ.
Our students are our greatest blessings here at Campion. On an average day, you can walk down the hallways of the Administration building or cafeteria and witness students praying with each other and for each other. It is such a phenomenal sight to see when our students become disciples of Christ and then begin discipling other students. This does not just happen in the Ad building. These acts of faith continue on in the dorms as well. When the deans choose new RAs for each school year, they choose students who will be good spiritual leaders for their hall of students, who will help them experience Christ in the dorms.
One amazing example of our RAs and their spiritual leadership happened last school year in the girl’s dorm as one RA in particular would make it a point to have a “bedtime prayer” with each girl on her hall at night. For Susan, one of our Chinese international students who did not believe in God, this practice was foreign to her, but she went along with it and said she enjoyed the intentionality of her RA and her nightly prayers. As Susan listened night after night to her RA’s prayer, she began to slowly open her heart to the idea of a god, and specifically our God. Susan said that both her roommate and her RA had an incredible impact on her decision to believe in God, and just recently Susan committed her life to Christ!
It is truly amazing to see how our students are becoming missionaries to other students—to their friends, and to see lives being changed and transformed right on the campus of Campion Academy. May your prayers be with Campion and for all of our students as they come to know Christ better.
–Donavan Reeder is principal of Campion Academy. Email him at: [email protected]. Kelsey Cate is director for communications at Campion Academy. Email her at: [email protected].
A Voice from Vista Ridge Academy
Vista Ridge Academy is blessed with support from Boulder, Chapel Haven, and Twin Peaks Adventist churches. Our constituent churches are committed to helping their families desiring a Christian education to attend our school. Enrollment increased 25 percent last year due to our marketing and recruiting efforts with retention and new student enrollment. With the addition of three-year-olds in our preschool program, 70 percent of our preschool students are from our community while community families make up 38 percent of our students in the K–8 classrooms. We have learned that community families share similar faith values with us. When we give community families campus tours, we are often asked what Seventh-day Adventists believe. Parents want to know how our beliefs align with their beliefs. We proudly share our central belief that “Jesus became human to save us, and through Him, we can begin again. He is preparing heaven for us and will return to take us there.” Many parents, showing relief, say they also believe this. We also share that we are part of a worldwide education program sponsored by the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
Parents learn that our Bible curriculum is implemented without apology and approached with the understanding that many of our students, Adventists included, may not be knowledgeable regarding the truths found in the Bible. These parents desire a Christian learning environment for their children and appreciate our approach to Christian education.
Community parents often reach out to our teachers about our Adventist faith, and often an invitation follows asking the parent to attend one of our Adventist churches. Through the years, several of our community families have become members of our church through ministry taking place at our school.
Some challenges we have encountered with community families has involved the aligning our Adventist beliefs with opportunities set forth by community parents. Whether there is a suggestion of serving alcohol or meat at an event or hosting events on Sabbath, we are committed to uphold- ing our Adventist beliefs and values in all our planning. We have found that once community parents learn more about our beliefs, they approach their planning differently and are respectful of our beliefs.
Another challenge for us is how to navigate the “us” (Adventist) versus “them” (Community) mentality. Our Fundamental Belief #14 states, “We are all equal in Christ, who by one Spirit has bonded us into one fellowship with Him and with one another.” Vista Ridge Academy provides Christ-centered elementary education for all students, both Adventist and community children. We know we can learn a lot from our community parents, so we have always been intentional about inviting all parents to help us with Home and School events and projects, marketing events, commit- tees, classroom activities, etc.
We want all our families to feel welcome at Vista Ridge Academy. From the first point of contact to enrollment and beyond, we focus on giving great customer service to all our families. This process involves phone calls and texting, emails, personal notes, campus tours and face-to-face meetings. During the first month of school, all families are invited to our Dedication Sabbath and Back to School Night. We also host a Welcome Breakfast for new families. We invite our constituent churches to these events to share their church ministry with the parents. This past summer, Boulder Adventist church invited families to attend Vacation Bible School, held at our school. Twin Peaks Adventist Church invited all our families to join their Adventurer and Pathfinder Club. This year, Parent Ambassadors are reaching out to new families to see how they are adjusting to having their children at Vista Ridge Academy. One Parent Ambassador is doing this by hosting a dessert night in their home for all the Pre–K and Kindergarten moms.
One of our community families said, “You’re one of the best secrets around.” Vista Ridge Academy is committed to letting our community in on the secret. We want our school to be the first choice for Christian education in the north Denver metropolitan area, creating strong students and community engagement and a reputation for excellence in academic achievement and personal growth.
To help make our vision a reality, we have put together a three-year marketing plan. To reach community families, we are participating in several events with the town of Erie and the Erie Chamber of Commerce. Some of these events include hosting Business After Hours and Meet the Candidates, having a booth at Erie Country Christmas, Erie Town Fair, Erie Block Parties and the Erie Miner’s Blast. This year, we are working with the Erie Community Food Bank by collecting personal care items and helping to create Thanksgiving baskets for local residents in need.
Vista Ridge Academy is excited to offer a Christian education to all families who desire one. We join the Rocky Mountain Conference in supporting and empowering all our families foremost to “know Christ and to make Him fully known.”
–Sandy Hodgson is principal of Vista Ridge Academy. Email her at: [email protected]. Marsha Bartulec is vice principal and marketing director of Vista Ridge Academy. Email her at: [email protected]