A few years ago we moved to a new city because of my job. Our first priority was to find a house to rent near to the church we would be attending. Having found a house in an ideal location, which was a real answer to prayer, we then had to find a school for our primary-school-aged daughter. She had previously attended a church school with a good reputation, where a large number of the children attended a church of one form or another.

A difficult decision

We were presented with three viable choices: another church school; a very good council school on a nice residential estate; and the nearest school to where we lived, on a small council estate which had a rough reputation. We had been warned about the latter school before moving, but as it was the nearest we wanted to give it a chance. On our first visit to the school we were really impressed by the warmth of the head teacher, by the obvious discipline around the school, and by the friendly and cheerful welcome we received from the staff; even the building was welcoming and colourful! Even more impressive was the invitation I received from the head teacher to take assemblies when he discovered I would be working for a local church.

The previous inspection results of the school had not been good and the SATs results were comparatively low. We were impressed however with the emphasis not on high results but on enabling each child to do his best. The high academic pressure of the previous school our daughter attended usually left her exhausted at the end of the day, flopped in front of the TV. Having prayed and sought advice from friends involved in primary school education we were persuaded that this was the right school.

There was more to the decision however.  The church I would be working for previously ran a Sunday School on the estate, and had, until recently, bussed children from the estate to the church kids club, but now had no ongoing gospel contact with the estate. Having grown up on a council estate and gone to a church on a council estate my heart warmed to the evangelistic potential in an area so needy for the gospel. Links to the school would obviously open the door for opportunities to witness and share the good news of Jesus Christ with those on the estate.

Sacrificing our children?

We had previously been accused of trying to turn children into missionaries. Were we not now sacrificing our daughter’s education for ‘missionary endeavour’? Were we not sacrificing our daughter to Baal in exposing her to a godless education system on a godless estate? Yes, the culture shock was big for our daughter. She did struggle with the transition from a school where half the children went to church to a school where she could find no-one who did. She did meet kids whose behaviour shocked her and she nearly died of embarrassment when I started going in to take assemblies.

However, she thrived as a person and, with the lessened academic pressure allowing her creative talents to flow more, we had a far more vibrant girl at home as a result. She got good academic results because of the personal support given. More importantly she learned to care for others, supporting those less academically gifted and others with social, behavioural and emotional problems. Most importantly she saw something of our gospel motivation in the choices we made. After the initial shock of being a lone church child she slowly caught the gospel vision and was soon bringing lots of friends to our kids club. Some of them still come occasionally and her boldness to be a Christian witness continues.

The gospel door is still wide open for me in the school. I am a governor; I ran the football team for a while; I have taken regular assemblies and now teach Religious Education to three classes. Every child leaving the school knows the story of the Bible and the life of Jesus.

God’s grace keeps us

We are very conscious that this is a story of God’s grace rather than our gospel courage or wise decisions. Not every parent has a choice of schools and not every child thrives in a challenging school. However, we are commanded to be salt and light and God’s grace keeps us pure in a dark and rotten world when we are seeking to serve Him.

When the time came for her to move to secondary school we had a choice of two, which we lived half way between; one with a better reputation, the other closer to the church; one where her church friends would be going, one where the majority of her school friends would go. Where did we send her? We sent her to the school with the better reputation, further away from the church building, where her church friends were going. Weren’t we inconsistent? No, we applied the same principles: what will be best for our daughter’s spiritual, moral and academic progress (in that order); which will give us the best gospel opportunities and what does our parental instinct suggest is best?

The transition, again, was not easy. In fact there have been more challenges in this school than in the primary school. However, our daughter is doing well, has learnt Christian boldness through a time of bullying, has now been baptised, and is still bringing friends to the youth group from school. The door has not opened in this new school for us to get involved but then we haven’t got time! But the large group of church children who attend the school are doing a good job of being a good witness.

We will have choices to make for our two younger children at some future stage. Knowing their personalities, strengths and weaknesses, desiring their character to be formed in the challenging context of the world around, and seeking our whole family life to revolve around gospel opportunity and witness will continue to be the principles by which we will make our choices.

Anonymous