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The Brenham Christian Academy Family courageously addressed the question of establishing a secondary school in 1993. Much prayer and discussion brought the consensus that a secondary school was an essential for our community to provide Christian education for all age groups. At that time, several other churches offered elementary Christian programs, but there was nothing available for students after 5th grade.
Brenham Christian Academy began as a movement to provide an educational environment that would stress a Christian worldview, Christian character traits, and the values America was founded upon in addition to a solid academic education. Their idea was to network together to educate their children in their homes. As they began putting their plan together, a family here and a family there began asking if their children could also be a part of this experience. As interest grew, the idea shifted the homeschool setting to a private secondary Christian school. In late spring of 1993, part of the dream became reality when a firm decision was made to start Brenham Christian Academy. The five organizers, two of whom attended Brenham Community Bible Church, asked the church to sponsor the Academy as a ministry, and they gladly accepted this responsibility and spiritual stewardship.
In August 1993 the first day of school arrived with forty-five students enrolled and the 1997 graduation class of nine bore the fruit of its first class of graduates. In February 1995, a choice forty-five acre tract of land was given to Brenham Community Bible Church on South Horton in Brenham. In February 2002, the school had grown to slightly over one hundred students and a decision was made by the church that the school was stable enough to stand on its own. Brenham Christian Academy became an independent Christian school that February. The property was given to the church with the intent that the school would also benefit from it, so at the time of the separation the school paid the church half the appraised value of the property and moved to that location just in time for the school year to start in August 2002. God had been so faithful to this ministry through its founding and establishment years and used many people who generously gave of their time and resources to keep things going.
As expansion and continued refinement defined our first ten years at Brenham Christian Academy, our success has been marked by prayers for powers equal to the task that God gave in the establishment of this school. Successive years have been marked by attitudes for continuous improvement as God continues to mold and shape this school for His purposes. I am confident that the work of the Lord through many individuals and families will continue to move us onward as we pursue the expansion into a physical facility that will better accommodate the educational needs we face as our numbers continue to increase. Plans for classroom space in a permanent facility will allow us the space to add elementary grades which will draw even larger numbers of students to the Academy. It is our desire to impact more and more students with the rigorous academic preparation and the spiritual nurturing that will send out graduates ready for college and for impacting our world for Christ.
God provides us a wonderful example in the Old Testament of how a nation that has turned from Him can be influenced by the character, scholarship, and leadership of His people. It serves as a great motivation to me in the work we are doing at the Academy. The amazing aspect of this story is that “His people” were teenagers! During the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem, Daniel and his three companions were taken captive and raised in the court of King Nebuchadnezzar. These four teenage boys were eminently qualified in literature, languages, mathematics, advanced sciences, and theology – the knowledge of God. Able to internally govern their lives, they drew upon the Biblical principles taught them by their parents as children and courageously made unpopular choices! At the end of three years, when their academic expertise, character, physical competency, and spiritual discernment were put to the king’s test (one far more comprehensive than America’s SATs!), these four teenagers were so exemplary, that their God was acknowledged by Nebuchadnezzar as “a God of gods and a Lord of Kings” (Daniel 2:47). Daniel was chosen by Nebuchadnezzar for his highest position of leadership, ruler over the whole province of Babylon and prefect over all the king’s wise men!
Just as Daniel and his three friends’ training and placement, as well as their personal choices were preparation for dealing with the trials and persecution they faced, so will the preparation be for the students attending the Academy as they face the peer pressure and challenges of today! It is for these purposes that Brenham Christian Academy exists. We will, with God’s help, continue to equip and commission our current students and students in our future, to enter a world of diverse challenges and to be able to focus their minds on subject mastery, to discipline their bodies for athletic success, to apply their heart to loving the Lord and helping their neighbors, that they might be a light to their generation to help solve, not add to, the problems of our times!
As we embark upon each new year, we are challenged by the signs of the times. In an age marked by hopelessness and darkness, we envision our greatest opportunities to disciple others for the Gospel and to impact our nation’s character by instilling within our young people the truth about America’s heritage and the Biblical principles upon which it was established as well as with the ability to think and reason biblically.
Those who have true “vision” are the ones who also have the courage and creativity to see the ideal become the real. As the founder and head of Brenham Christian Academy in these “envisioning” years, I am richly blessed from the accomplishment and attainment of the many visionaries—faculty, parents, students, board members and most of all my husband—whom God sent to establish a school that truly influences the nation and the world for Christ.
Diane Keller
Co-Founder & Superintendent
August 2006
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