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Celebration Time!  It’s time to celebrate! Faith Christian School is closing its fortieth year of operation on May 30. In honor of this big event, a day has been set aside for present students and parents to join with alumni from all over to celebrate this milestone.
The first Christian school in Randolph County, Faith Christian opened its doors with eighty students in 1968. Forty years later, the student body numbers 325, pre-school through grade twelve.
“We are not in competition with the public schools,” notes FCS president, Gary Moger, pastor of Faith Baptist Church. “We have a different purpose all together—like our mission-purpose statement says, we exist ‘to educate and train student leaders for the Kingdom of Jesus Christ.’”
Faith Christian School is not merely a glorified Sunday School, however. It has an academically rigorous program that will prepare students for any college. Moger said, “We are thankful that our graduates are going back into the community and making a difference in their churches and in various businesses. Our alumni include two deans of a Christian college, missionaries, preachers, lawyers, teachers, and a research scientist among many other professions.”
The celebration on Saturday, May 17, isn’t about the feats of the school. “We just want to get together to celebrate God’s faithfulness for forty years,” pointed out school administrator, Bill Hohneisen. “We are going to have an inflatable carnival in the afternoon and a bar-be-que supper. In the evening we just want to gather to praise the Lord for His goodness for nearly half a century.”
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Why it All Began .jpg) The year was 1968 – Vietnam was raging, students were protesting, cities were burning and America lost two of its brightest young stars in Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. To say that the 1960s were a turbulent time in America is to grossly understate the obvious. But in a small southern conservative county in central North Carolina, 1968 marked the year that one of the state’s first modern Christian day schools opened its doors.
An August 1968, edition of The Courier-Tribune declared that Randolph County sees the opening its first private Christian day school – Faith Christian School in Ramseur. The idea for the modern day Christian school movement was born as a result of the U.S. Supreme Court decisions to remove prayer and Bible reading from the public schools in 1962 and 1963. Under the leadership of Pastor Richard Gray, Faith Baptist Church in Ramseur sensed the leading of God to establish a Christian day school where the Bible would be at the core of the instruction. Faith opened its doors in the fall of 1968 with an enrolment of eighty students. Its first graduation class in 1973 had seven students. Faith presently has 328 students and will graduate its 570th student on May 28. The graduates of Faith include teachers, lawyers, business owners, pastors, missionaries, research scientists, college deans, managers and workers who faithfully serve all over the county, the state, the country and the world.
On Saturday, May 17, friends, parents, students, alumni and neighbors will gather on the campus of Faith Christian School, located on a thirteen acre tract just outside the town limits of Ramseur on NC Highway 22 South, to celebrate the school’s fortieth year of operation. Administrator Bill Hohneisen, along with his wife Sherri, has served at Faith for thirty nine of those forty years. Bill Hohneisen states, “The most amazing aspect of the ministry at Faith is God’s grace. God has met every need over these forty years in so many fantastic ways.”
Because Faith Christian School is a private school, it receives no financial help from any government agency. All funds to operate the school are generated by tuition, donations and fundraisers. Bill goes on to say, “in actuality, Faith has sustained an approximate operational deficit of $1.5 million over its forty years of operation, but by God’s grace, the total funds generated from donations and fundraisers is also $1.5 million.”
Philosophically, Faith Christian School is conservative, traditional, God-centered and very serious about its education. In order to assess the educational quality at Faith, every student takes the Stanford Achievement Test each year. Many of the students also compete among other Christian schools in the state in fine arts and academic competition. This year FCS students placed first in state academic competition in the areas of physics, algebra and chemistry. The school also operates a Talent Development Center where students can get help for any subject through individualized curriculum development. The school’s curriculum also includes speech and drama, journalism, Spanish language instruction, advanced math and sciences, and a full complement of athletics. The school competes in the western conference North Carolina Christian School Association. Because of the small size of the school, virtually any student who wishes to participate in a sport is afforded that opportunity.
The small size of the school has also allowed it take advantage of new educational developments. The President of the school, Pastor Gary Moger, states, “To introduce a new concept at a small independent school such as Faith is like steering a jet ski as opposed to a steering a battleship.” Because of this, Faith has been able to quickly incorporate new tools and technology into its educational scheme. For instance, the class of 1983 donated the first computer to the school at graduation. That fall seven more computers were added to produce Faith’s first computer lab where the students began to learn programming and develop computer skills years before PCs became popular. In 1986, through the generosity of a school donor, the school bought one of the first laser printers ever developed and became the first school in the state to produce camera ready pages for its annual through desktop publishing. Today via the internet, the parents and school have unprecedented daily communication including the ability for the parents to order lunch for their students up to a month in advance. Presently the school is in the process of placing flat screened HDTVs in each classroom in order to allow the teachers to use power point presentations in their teaching. Pastor Moger adds, “All of this has been accomplished by God’s grace through the generous donations of those who believe is what the school is doing. Without our donors, there would be no Christian school here.”
Through of the years of change, one thing stays constant at Faith Christian School – it’s God-centeredness. Every teacher and administrator will say that the purpose of Faith Christian School is to “glorify God by educating and training servant leaders for God’s kingdom”—the school’s mission and purpose statement. Each student has a Bible class each day and there is a chapel service once a week. Even though the sponsoring church is independently Baptist in doctrine, there are over one hundred different churches represented in the student body. Peace among the divergent religious beliefs is maintained by the embracing of a common doctrinal creed that each family agrees to before enrollment. Teachers are also instructed to steer clear of non-essential religious controversial topics.
The heart of every teacher and staff member is to glorify God. Veteran teacher Sherri Hohneisen sums it up best: “Our true hearts’ desire for these students is that they grow to love the Lord with all their heart, and that they in turn will raise a family that loves the Lord. Having this purpose in their lives will give them a single focus worthy of dedicating their whole life to which will result in their full enjoyment of life.” |
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Elementary Fine Arts Update After being selected as top students in various categories on grade level, students in grades 1-6 participated in the NCCSA Fine Arts Program on April 24-25. Under the leadership of Cris Brunson, high school speech/drama teacher and middle school English teacher, FCS was represented in various competitions, including art, poetry, spelling, and sword drills. Below is the latest results:
Art - Breck Bivins (2-3rd places); Bryson Staley (1-3rd place) Essay - Taylor Brunson (2nd place rating) Poetry - Victoria Langley (2nd place) Speech - C.J. Stickler, Lillie Price, Taylor Brunson (1st place ratings); Emma Busick (1st place / Award of Excellence) Spelling - Kandelyn Middeke (2nd place) Bible Sword Drill - Allison Stout (1st place) and Lillie Price (1st place / Award of Excellence); Team: Hannah Bertrand, Logan Shoun, Lillie Price, Allison Stout, Cassidy Shoun, Taylor Brunson, Sarah Bertrand, and Levi Joyce (2nd place in state)
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Les Miserables a Success This year the ATAP (All Things Are Possible) Dinner Theatre certainly lived up to its name. After a week full of a variety of setbacks, the sophomores delivered two solid performances of Victor Hugo's masterpiece, Les Miserables. "Every year the students want to do a comedy," said speech teacher Cris Brunson, "but we wanted this class to do a play that was worthy of their talents." "The class has a heavy load of male students," added teacher, Sherri Hohneisen. We had fifteen boys and ten girls. Most plays don't have that large a cast. We had done this play about eleven years ago, so we breathed new life into it and did it again."
One of the most challenging scenes was when the Parisians met the aristocracy on the barricades. Mrs. Hohneisen noted, "This is such a touching scene to see people giving their lives for their freedoms. Even during practice, tears came into my eyes when I saw the students lying lifeless across the barricades. I couldn't help but think of our soldiers in Iraq and the Iraqi people who are doing this right now."
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Girls Soccer & Baseball 
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Faith Falls in Finale May 2, Graham - Faith Christian School saw its baseball season come to an end with a 14-4 loss to Alamance Christian Friday night. Caleb Freeman and Drew Davis had two hits each for the Eagles (5-12). the Courier Tribune
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Faith Tops Grace May 1, Sanford - Faith Christian's baseball squad traveled to Grace Christian on Thursday for a play-in game and won 11-0 to get into the state playoffs. Caleb Freeman picked up the win in 4-2/3 innings of work and helped his cause with two hits and two RBIs. Drew Davis and David Morris both added two RBIs.The Eagles (5-11) travel to Alamance Christian today in the next round. In soccer action, Faith dropped a 3-0 decision to Lee Christian. The Eagles' season ends at 0-12-1. the Courier Tribune
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Faith, Grace Split April 29, Raleigh - The Faith and Grace Christian School varsity baseball teams played a doubleheader split Tuesday. In the first game, the Eagles won 6-2. Caleb Freeman pitched four strong innings for the win, while Cameron Joyce had two RBIs. Grace won the second game 16-7. Drew Davis had three hits, and David Morris had two hits and two RBIs for Faith (4-11). In varsity girls soccer play, Grace won 6-0 as Faith fell to 0-11-1 on the season. the Courier Tribune
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Faith Girls Fall in Soccer April 24, Ramseur - Grace Christian recorded a 4-2 varsity soccer win over Faith Christian. Goals for the Eagles came from Caroline Burroughs and Brittany Blakley. Amelia Smith had the assist for Faith (0-10-1). the Courier Tribune
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Faith Tops Lee April 22, Sanford - The Faith Christian School baseball team beat Lee Christian 8-1 Tuesday. Caleb Freeman pitched the first four innings for the win, while Josh Barker had three hits, and Cameron Joyce notched three hits and three RBIs for the Eagles (3-10). In varsity soccer, Faith hosted Lee, playing to a 4-4 tie. Brittany Blakley had two goals for the Eagles (0-9-1), while Heather Diniz had one goal, and Caroline Burroughs notched a goal and dished out two assists. |
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Faith Falls to Alamance April 18, Ramseur - Faith dropped a baseball-soccer doubleheader to Alamance Christian Friday as the Eagles fell 12-2 in baseball and 3-2 in soccer. Josh Barker had three hits, and Drew Davis had two RBIs for the Eagles (2-10) in the baseball game while Bryanna Hussey and Caroline Burroughs scored with an assist from Heather Diniz in the soccer game. Faith is 0-9. the Courier Tribune |
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Faith Falls to Vandalia April 15, Greensboro - Vandalia Christian swept to three wins at home Tuesday over Faith Christian in baseball and soccer action. Vandalia kept the Eagles winless on the season with a 5-0 soccer victory. In baseball, Vandalia recorded a 3-1 victory and then completed the doubleheader sweep with a 6-3 victory. The losses dropped the Eagles to 1-9. |
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