“Great Vision without Great People is Irrelevant.” –J. Collins
Bibleway Academy Online is excited about our teachers!
In a week largely focused on team building and system support training for our teachers, we gathered the entire group of Bibleway Academy Online staff and teachers together for the first time, via online conference call. It was an epic moment in the decade-long genesis of our school. It seemed like the end of one phase and the beginning of another, as we prepare for students and the 20/21 school year. As we started the meeting, Brother Michael Rae (BAO Development Team Leader) thanked the teachers for joining this project, but considered again and said, “I don’t want to call it a project, as that seems to have an end….and a venture makes it seem like we are conducting an experiment…”
After a brief moment of silence as we all searched for the right word, Brother Barry Coffey (BAO Development Team Ministerial Consultant) supplied, “ADVENTURE. This is a new adventure!” And it truly is and will be an adventure. There are times that it may feel like a wild ride, times when we won’t know what is around the next bend, and times that we will enjoy smooth sailing. I would not want to go on a great adventure like this with any other group of people.
Our current group of teachers can be described as equipped, educated, and devoted. I have talked them at length about their training, family, church family, teaching experience, and joining the vision of our online school over the course of the last few months. This group of people is truly unique and God-collected. We have teachers from as far away as South Africa, teachers with over 20 years in the classroom, teachers with their masters and doctorate degrees, teachers who have home schooled their own children from kindergarten through high school, teachers who are Sunday School teachers at their church, teachers who are on home school administration boards, teachers who have run their own businesses, and on and on. They are not just varied and qualified, however, they are passionate about home education and bringing Bibleway Academy Online to the Bride as a home school option for believers by believers. In conversation and in our meetings, many have mentioned how they have dreamed of starting a school for believers, or how they have always dreamed of teaching for believing families, or how God brought this teaching opportunity into their lives at just the right time. I felt overwhelming gratitude and excitement when at our first online meeting one teachers said, “I know I wouldn’t earn much, but I want you to know that I would teach my class even if there was only one student.” To me that summed up into a few words the dedication and heart with which our teachers are approaching the coming school year.
To the teachers, I cannot think of a better group of teachers and believers to work and fellowship with. To the parents, I would trust the education and training of my own children to any one of these individuals without reservation. To those who have supported and driven the vision of Bibleway Academy Online, we have some great people to support your God-given vision to aid the Bride of Christ as they “bring up their children in the way they should go”, and we are excited to get started.
I am looking forward to the 2020/2021 school year with excitement and eagerness. I know these teachers are going to do a wonderful job as they bring creative, enthusiastic, God-centered learning to your child in our online classrooms.
