Mount Hebron Christian Academy: The beginning of the school

Mount Hebron Christian Academy began classes on September 1, 2014, with seventeen students ranging from pre-kindergarten through junior high. Its opening brought a long-standing ambition into daily operation: providing children from Monte Hebrón’s church families with an education in a Christian environment. [1, 2]

The immediate initiative came from Juany Rodríguez, an experienced professional teacher who had grown up in the congregation. Jonathan and Jenny Ashcraft helped develop the work, and other church members joined in bringing the school into operation. The first enrollment was small, but it covered several stages of childhood and early adolescence. [1, 2]

A teacher takes up the challenge

For several years, Tommy Ashcraft had wanted to establish a Christian school for the church’s families. The ambition had remained unrealized because the ministry had not found the person to take responsibility for the challenge. In the spring of 2014, Juany expressed her desire to begin that work. [1]

She brought years of professional teaching experience to the project, along with a personal connection to the people it would serve. Juany and her sister Ruth, Stephen Ashcraft’s wife, had been saved at an early age in the church and had grown up there. Her initiative therefore emerged from within the congregation itself. [1]

The school’s stated purpose joined educational quality with Christian formation. It would give church families an opportunity to have their children taught in a wholesome environment by teachers committed to the faith those families practiced. [1, 2]

The plans become public

On Sunday evening, May 4, 2014, the church formally announced plans to open the school that fall. The congregation responded with encouragement. During the preparations, Jonathan helped guide Juany and her husband, Ángel, through the process of developing the new ministry. [1]

The announcement came months before the opening. That interval was a period of planning and work, turning the desire for a school into arrangements that could receive students in September. The project added a new form of children’s instruction to a congregation already involved in Sunday School, evangelism, and training Christian workers. [1, 2]

Seventeen students on opening day

The school opened on September 1. Its seventeen students ranged from pre-kindergarten to junior high, placing children of different ages within the founding enrollment. [2]

Jonathan and Jenny were closely involved in the school, alongside five other church members. Their participation made the opening a shared undertaking within the congregation, extending beyond the teacher whose initiative had helped set it in motion. [2]

The opening also marked a change in the kind of educational work available to church families. The Bible institute prepared adults for Christian service; the academy brought a school program into the lives of younger children and teenagers. The new work shared the ministry’s concern for training while serving a different age group. [1, 2]

The second year

By September 1, 2015, the academy was entering its second year. The wider ministry was providing a monthly budget subsidy to help sustain its operation. The expectation was that increased enrollment would eventually make that assistance unnecessary. [3]

The subsidy shows one of the practical responsibilities that followed the opening. Establishing the school involved continuing financial support as well as finding teachers and receiving the first students. The second-year account records an academy still developing its enrollment and financial footing. [3]

An early connection with further study

By December 2016, Joel González had finished high school at the academy and was preparing to enroll at Hyles-Anderson College. Joel was the son of Henry and Tammie González, missionaries serving in El Salvador, and a grandson of Tommy and Brenda Ashcraft. [4]

His experience provides an early named example of the academy’s connection with further education. The opening account had described students only through junior high; by late 2016, a member of the extended missionary family had completed high school there and was preparing for college. [2, 4]

The academy’s beginnings rested on identifiable people and decisions: Juany’s willingness to begin, Jonathan’s help during preparation, Jenny’s involvement, the service of other church members, and the congregation’s support. Those contributions brought the school from its May announcement to its first seventeen students in September 2014. [1–3]