A Rural Church Meets Educational Needs

Welcome to Family Policy Matters, a weekly podcast and radio show produced by the North Carolina Family Policy Council.

And now, here's the host of Family Policy Matters, Tracy Devitt-Griggs. Thanks for joining us this week for Family Policy Matters. Every January, schools across the country celebrate National School Choice Week. North Carolina is among the leaders of a national trend of providing families with a variety of schooling options, home schools, public charter schools, and private schools. Some churches are responding in a very practical way to bringing families together.

A very practical way to parents' desire to send their children to schools that will teach according to their values, or at least not contradict the values they're teaching at home. Well, Pastor Mark Perko has led Deep Creek Baptist Church in Waitsboro, North Carolina for 13 years. Three years ago, the church started Deep Creek Christian Academy. Today, we're joined by Pastor Mark Perko and Academy Director, Miranda Chuney. Mark and Miranda, welcome to Family Policy Matters. Thank you.

It's good to be with you today. So Pastor Perko, what happened that made you consider this crazy idea about opening a school? It seems like such an adventurous on-taking. Yes, I think a lot of people thought the same thing. I like what the Family Research Council said, that 90% of children that are raised in Christian homes spend 30 to 35 hours a week in public schools that are typically run by people who don't even have a biblical worldview. And then you multiply that times 12 years and a lot of damage has been done. I think I also heard somebody say that if we send our kids to be educated by Caesar, we have no right to be surprised if they act like Romans. So we're here in a small county, Anson County, North Carolina, and parents wishing to send their kids to a non-public Christian school, they had to drive long distances for that to take place. So about 12 years ago, one of our young godly deacons who has since passed said in a vision casting meeting that we had here open to the congregation that he had a vision of a Christian school here at Deep Creek Baptist Church. And three years ago, we saw that vision become a reality.

So we basically spent nine years on this, but we got really serious the last three of those nine years in order to make that happen. All right, well talk about the mission then of Deep Creek Christian Academy. The mission of our school is to educate students in the light of God's word to equip them for a lifetime of learning, leadership, service, worship. But really the base of it is to plant and grow the seed of Jesus. And it has been really, really cool to watch how much these kids absorb that.

And it's been really awesome to watch how that has rippled out into their homes and into their families. So is this a private school? Is it a charter school? We are registered as a private Christian school in North Carolina. So talk about why you think churches are important players in expanding educational options for families.

Well, we figure we've only got one chance to get this right. And a lot of people know that back during the 18th through the early 20th centuries, schools were allowed to teach the Bible, to have prayer, etc. And then in, of course, 1963, that all changed with the ruling by the Supreme Court. And we sort of figured that we can't put the church in school any longer. But we can sure fix this by trying to put a school into our churches. So any family, regardless of race, color, economic status, they ought to be allowed options as to where they send their children to school. And the reality is, is they're our kids.

They don't belong to the government. And it's our responsibility as parents, as grandparents, as relatives, as educators, to give them the best opportunity as Christian parents. And we ought to be able to send them to a Christian school. So you did mention the legal aspects that maybe changed how we do public schools. But are there some things that are happening in North Carolina that make it easier for churches to start a private school as compared to other states?

Yes. You know, one of the things that we had to consider was, you know, with the changing political landscape really across the country, how that affected us opening a school. You know, you're thinking about the same-sex marriage ruling, the issue over bathrooms, the books that we're finding in public school libraries, and so much more that gives us a lot of reasons to do this.

And really the big concern is this big slippery slope that the political climate is in right here in North Carolina. So when we began to meet about this, we got some advisors, we sought wise counsel, as the scripture tells us, and got some great advice. And we looked at different schools, we talked to a lot of people, we worked closely with the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina, and we're still learning a lot of the legal things. So you mentioned nine years where you guys talked about doing this. Explain a little bit more about what that process looked like. You explained that you had a lot of partners, and I think that's certainly a great idea. But give us some more specifics.

What did that look like? The talk of the school had been going on for a really long time, which I know Mark's already shared with you. And so, of course, since we're Baptists, we went ahead and got a committee together to get out there and do some research and things like that. And so we reached out and we looked into different schools around our community and outside of our county. We went in there, we had questions laid out, and they gave us just really awesome advice on getting ready to start this school. The number one thing that everybody told us is, why are you doing this? The big thing was if you were doing it for money, you were doing it for the wrong reason, because there is no money in it.

And there's not, it's all about God and nothing else. And like you mentioned before, we had a couple other kind of smaller schools in our county, and we got their directors involved. And so they came over and they talked to us and they allowed us to go and see how they operate. And they gave us really good advice on how to get our baseline and how to get started. And it was super helpful to have those friends come along.

And we're very thankful for that. All right. So you've been going around three years now.

So talk about the current status. How many students do you have? How many grades do you have? When we first started our very first year, we offered a two-year-old class, a three-year-old class, and a four-year-old class.

Since then, we've grown. We have a one-year-old class, a two-year-old class, two three-year-old classes, a four-year-old class, kindergarten, and first grade. We have a total of 58 students. We have 10 teachers on staff. We have a security on staff. And then I'm here as the director and Preacher Perko is here too.

So we have grown tremendously and we're just really excited about what's going to happen in the upcoming years. So is this a common way to start? So you're starting kind of in the younger ages, really preschool.

Is that common? Is that like the wise way to do it? Go ahead and get those kids. Are you going to take them on up the ladder? That is my prayer. I hope that God leads us in that direction. But really, it's been awesome because the parents here have been so supportive that the ones that have started their children with us in their one-year-old class, it has been awesome to watch them get involved with the teachers and then they get excited about seeing them go to the next class the next year and have those teachers.

And I really, really think it makes a difference. I think that those parents are very appreciative of that relationship they get to build with those teachers and the comfort level that they have there with them. And so when we first started, we kind of started knowing that with the younger grades, we were just going to kind of get our feet wet and see how it went from there and it just worked out beautifully. Have there been some unexpected blessings? And what about the greatest challenge that you faced? There have been many, many blessings and many, many challenges, good challenges, growing pains. For me, I've told Preacher Mark a lot that I guess I thought my purpose here was going to be for the children, but it didn't take me long to realize that I think God has put me here for the staff. I have loved getting to know these ladies and to grow this family here and we don't even call it a job. We call it a ministry and we're thankful for the ministry that we get to come and be a part of and that has been a huge, huge blessing to me. And then as far as challenges go, right now we are growing like crazy and I'm thankful for that and we're kind of running out of space.

So it is kind of like a puzzle trying to figure out who we're going to put where each year. I don't like telling parents no because the parents love having their kids here. It makes me feel so good because anytime a parent calls, they say, I've heard nothing but good things about your school. And I tell all the parents they will not get loved on any more than they will out here.

The girls for five hours a day, their children are their priority. And I don't like having to tell people no or put them on a wait list. Hopefully our church will be expanding really soon and we won't have to put that many people on a wait list. But definitely the challenge of finding different spaces for all of the interests that we have here. Yeah, just to touch a little bit more on the space issues, we are currently involved in the plans for a 7,000 square foot addition. The church is growing, of course, too.

The school is growing. So we're in the process of raising funds right now so we can get the ground broken on that quickly. You know, there's challenges.

We meet them head on and we don't let them deter us because we know this is a God thing and he's going to see us through. You're in a rural area. Do you think it's more important for the many rural areas that we have in North Carolina?

Is this more important even for you because of where you're located geographically? I think some of it has to do with the culture of our county in that so many of our rural areas at one point they had a school. They had a little country store and they had a lot of people living out there and they didn't have the transportation and it was very convenient to walk to the school. As a matter of fact, there was once a Deep Creek school in this community. You can see the property from our church and it closed in 1969. And even the neighbors here are excited that there is now another Deep Creek school. We're the Christian Academy, but we're back in this community again. And it's not a hindrance because people are coming here and bringing their children from a lot of other rural areas.

They're bypassing the towns to come out here and bring their children, some of them as much as 30 miles just to bring their children here. Talk a little bit about the person whose idea this first was. I know you mentioned it was a young person and this person has since passed away. Which I'm sure was a tragedy for your church. But this vision that God, I'm sure, planted in his heart and now is growing in the church just continues to grow. So talk about that as kind of an encouragement to the people that might be listening about what they need to do with those kinds of ideas that God plants in their hearts for their community.

Kevin Tucker is the young man's name and Kevin is all about the children. And we have a lot of different ministries that have begun here as a result of some of the visions that he had. We're doing an outreach in another community for Christmas now on the third year because of his vision. Visions can be like wildfire and they just spread and the people got excited and we saw what God was doing and how he opened doors. Even we were going to start during COVID and we decided to wait one year, which was a smart thing. And it gave us an extra year to prepare with what we were going to do.

And it just really worked out good. And, you know, I'd say to other pastors and church leaders who are considering, is this something that they should do? And the most important thing, they need to just bathe this thing in prayer.

You're not going to open a school tomorrow. It's going to take some time. But you definitely need the support of the church, not half the church, not three-fourths of the church. They need the entire church to support that vision. And the pastor has got to get involved.

We've met with many schools that are churches and there was very little involvement from the pastor. And that's got to be done. I look forward to being out here every day and getting in the middle of those kids. Sometimes I'm told I have to leave the classroom because I get them a little bit too stirred up.

But that's fun because my grandbabies live too far away and I've just adopted 58 kids here. Miranda, any words of wisdom from you for people who might be considering going in this direction? Honestly, like Mark said, just put a lot of prayer on it and then get out of God's way.

I pray every day whenever I come to work, I say, God, just help me take myself out of every decision and every action I have today and just let it be all about you. And just to kind of put it in perspective, like Mark already said, Kevin passed away. It was early March. We had already been meeting the year prior trying to get this going and we put it on pause for COVID.

He passed away. We had his service. And the very next week our committee was meeting and we were pushing forward. We had a lady come out from North Carolina Baptist Association and she kind of gave us some pointers on what we needed to do. She says, when do you want to open? And we said, we want to open fall of this year. And this was like in April or May. And she was very nice about it and super helpful. Well, when we opened up in August, I went and spoke with her and she told me, she says, I'm going to be honest with you. She said, I didn't know if you could pull it off by August. But we had our very first fundraiser in May.

We threw it together in two weeks and it made twenty thousand dollars. And if that doesn't show you that God's in it, then I don't know what does because he just has orchestrated every single thing. And it's only by his grace that we have come this far. But I definitely would tell anybody that's interested in doing it to put prayer on it and really pursue it. Because like Mark's already said, I mean, it is our duty and it's our job to teach these babies about Jesus. And if we don't do it, then somebody else is going to do it and they're not going to do it the way it needs to be done. So I would just encourage everybody out there to put a lot of prayer on it and see where God leads you.

We're just about out of time. Where can our listeners go if they want to learn more about what you're doing there at Deep Creek Christian Academy? Well, we have a website. You can just keyword Deep Creek Christian Academy and it'll bring us up. And most of the questions could be answered through that website. We also offer visits by prospective students and their families.

And word of mouth basically around here has just really grown us. Pastor Mark Perko and Miranda Chuney, thank you so much for being with us today on Family Policy Matters. Thank you for listening to Family Policy Matters.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the show and leave us a review. To learn more about NC Family and the work we do to promote and preserve faith and family in North Carolina, visit our website at ncfamily.org. That's ncfamily.org. And check us out on social media at NC Family Policy. Thanks and may God bless you and your family.