Why GCCA: The Gifford Family's Story
“Thus says the LORD, “Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things,” declares the LORD.”
- Jeremiah 9:23-24
We are Callum and Heidi Gifford, and we have three children (ages 14, 12, and 9) who currently attend Grace Classical Christian Academy. This is our story of how we ended up here.
Shepherding the hearts of our kids and having strong relationships with them individually - and also as a family - has always been very important to us, because it is important to God. Making disciples in our home has been high priority and one of the greatest blessings of our lives.
When it became time to make decisions about formally educating our children, we considered all options. Our oldest ended up going to kindergarten at the local public school. We had a great experience, and the teacher she had was fantastic, but we wanted to provide our kids with a really solid spiritual foundation at home and were struggling to do that while she was away from us all day. So we made the decision to homeschool.
I (Heidi) was reluctant to homeschool. In my mind the task was so HUGE, I was unqualified, and so much was at stake if I failed! But as time went on, God increased my confidence in His ability to use imperfect parents and their desire to be faithful to Him to accomplish His work. Faithful He has been! I learned to learn and to love learning alongside my kids! It wasn’t perfect, but we loved it, and we were mostly thriving as a family, hearts were being trained and discipled, and they were all doing well academically.
Along the way, in my researching of different philosophies of education, I ran across the classical Christian model and fell in love with it! I implemented it in our homeschool the best I could. As the kids got older (specifically my oldest child) and became much more advanced academically and had a hunger for continued learning and conversation about what she was learning (that I couldn’t keep up with or facilitate), it became clear to us that we needed to start thinking and praying about other options. Everything was on the table.
Over the years, I have had a couple of people persistently ask (thanks guys!!) and encourage us to visit Grace Classical Christian Academy during an Open House, which they host monthly. We were hesitant to do that for a couple of reasons: 1) we had grown to love schooling our kids at home, and it was working well for us in the early years, and 2) we knew we’d most likely really love GCCA, and we could never afford to pay tuition for three kids.
I’ve always been aware of the quality of Grace Classical Christian Academy and its staff, and wholeheartedly recommended it to anyone I ran into that sounded like they might be looking for an option like GCCA. Now that we were strongly considering other options, we decided to just visit on a Convocation day and trust that whatever God’s will for our family was, He’d provide.
After that visit, we were hooked! The classical Christian model that I had grown to love and appreciate was demonstrated in such a beautiful way! The Lord was so kind to use His people and orchestrate all the circumstances to work out all the details that would allow our kids to enroll (wow!).
Don’t get me wrong, changing our lives was hard and took time to process and work through. The transition hasn’t been easy, and it has required a great deal of effort from our kids and our family as a whole to acclimate. But we have settled in and we love GCCA!
We cannot tell you how grateful we are to be a part of this school community! We have been served so well and have felt cared for and welcomed every step of the way. We believe that at GCCA our children are receiving an excellent Christian education from people who are serious about knowing, loving, and serving the Lord Jesus in all that they do. Their lives testify of that, and that is what we want taught and modeled for our kids in these formative years: that Christ is ALL and He deserves our allegiance!
That is the prayer of our hearts for our kids (and really the school as a whole): that they would work hard in their studies and grow in wisdom for the glory of God alone. We pray that their excellent education and knowledge of the Bible and spiritual things wouldn’t be a source of pride, but a tool in cultivating a deeper relationship with and delight in the Lord Jesus that would overflow into a faithful life and proclamation to this dark world that Jesus is Lord, and He has made a way for people to be reconciled to God through Him!
May we be found faithful at His return by His grace alone! Soli Deo Gloria!