Haddon Heights Christian School provides unique opportunity for South Jersey Kids | Ep 21

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And one of the problems is, in the public schools, that worldview difference that we talked about is baked into everything.

00:07

It's not like they just, in health class, have one lesson about LGBTQ. Right. It's snuck into the children's books.

00:15

That's right. It's snuck into conversations, and even at some level, among the peers. You know, because the peer pressure can become a major issue there, too.

00:24

Yes. So we would love to see as many kids as possible leave a public school and come to a private school.

00:30

But there are a lot of parents that say, Look, I would love to do that, too, but we just can't afford that. Right. And so you're offering what's probably half the price of a lot of other

00:39

Christian schools, and that might just be a big shining light from God saying, Here is your chance.

00:45

Here's an opportunity. A godly school to train your kids in Christian ethics and how to live the

00:51

Christian life. And welcome to Tearin' Down High Places.

01:18

My name is Joe Gormley. Average Joe, they call me. I've got here Pastor Jeff Kluwer, as per usual, and our special guest today, on -site

01:26

Principal Kathy Entwistle, here to talk to us about a

01:32

Christian school in Haddon Heights, New Jersey, that we want you to support, and we're going to tell you why.

01:37

So, Kathy, what do you want to tell us about your school? Our school is brand new.

01:43

Our school is based on the biblical worldview. Our kids are loved.

01:49

They're taught by live teachers. They come in happy every day because they know that there's something ahead of them that's going to be exciting, and there's something there that they're going to learn.

02:00

We are biblically based. Scripture is integrated in everything that we do and everything that we say. The teachers have a wonderful testimony of a love of the

02:09

Lord, and the kids see it every single day. They are living

02:14

Jesus Christ through them. Wait a minute. I heard that you're doing an online school hybrid thingamajiggy.

02:22

What is that? Our 6th through 12th graders are on Liberty University Online. They belong to the academy because we are an affiliate.

02:30

That's how we really began to open the idea of opening a Christian school here in Haddon Heights, is we started off with introducing

02:39

Liberty University Online, but we have moved away from that with our elementary school, and our elementary school from K to 5 is taught by a live teacher with hands -on activities, with outside, outdoor things for them to do.

02:55

Critical thinking is being built. Children who need remedial help are helped one -on -one with love.

03:01

We've seen success. We have seen just joy in everything that's done here.

03:07

We don't teach anything that is against God's Word. It's all taught from Scripture, and we are creationists, and we teach the creationist view.

03:19

Pastor Jeff, I know you're a big Kathy Entwistle fan. Oh, yeah. We go back a long way.

03:26

I can offer my own personal testimony of our kids having been here when they were younger, that this school is just godly.

03:35

The Scripture is worked into the curriculum. You know, you hear about Christian schools like, hey, they got a Bible class.

03:41

You know, once a week they do chapel or something like that. But then you'll have a poster of Charles Darwin, where, you know, just like, this is a great scientist.

03:50

You think, wait a minute. We need the biblical worldview, not just on, you know, in chapel service. I used to be a chapel speaker here.

03:57

That was so fun. But that was awesome. But the biblical worldview has to be part of the curriculum.

04:05

It has to be in your science, how you teach science, how you teach even mathematics nowadays, believe it or not.

04:11

That's right. You're getting all Kuyperian on me, aren't you? Yeah. Every sphere. Yeah.

04:16

So, yeah, the biblical worldview needs to be in every subject, not just one chapel service, and that's what

04:23

I love about this school. Yes. The curriculum is fluid. It's always changing in that it's always improving.

04:31

And in that process, we've actually picked up and are going to be using the

04:36

Bob Jones curriculum, which is by far one of the best curriculums that has ever been published.

04:43

Wow. So they are all, I mean, there is scripture integrated in everything. There is, the kids understand why something is the way it is because it comes from the

04:56

Word of God, which is the truth and the only truth. So if I'm a parent and I'm worried, I'm saying, you know, my kids during COVID didn't learn anything.

05:03

It was all online. Like, what's the difference between just doing a Liberty Online experience and coming here?

05:10

To come here, your kids will be worked with at the level they are.

05:17

And if we find that they are struggling, we stop everything and go back to where they actually can see success and then build from that point.

05:27

Because many of our kids that have come in here have come in here with lacking in something.

05:32

Mathematical skills, critical thinking is missing. The idea of writing is missing as far as putting down a comprehensive narrative or anything.

05:41

We take them all the way back to the beginning and start there and watch as they grow.

05:47

And the end product is absolutely amazing because they get the personal one -on -one care from the teachers.

05:56

Right. Well, that's fantastic. So what's the history behind why did the school close down?

06:03

I mean, you've got such a great facility and we're going to take a tour in a little bit, I guess. Yeah. We're going to walk around. Where are we now?

06:08

This is our playground area. Okay. The kids come out here every day. The preschoolers are out here for a good half hour, 35 minutes because we believe in physical activity and it's good for them.

06:19

It builds their core muscles. It builds fine motor skills. All of that is taken care of when they come out here to play.

06:26

They see God's creation. They draw on the chalk, on the asphalt here because our driveway sort of kind of slopes.

06:33

So you can't really do much of anything here. But the kids play on the playground. Oh, they're just amazing.

06:39

Now, the original school that was here was Baptist Regional School and that school was closed due to lack of enrollment and COVID.

06:51

It shut the school down. Our numbers went down so far that we couldn't sustain it. So the school closed and it was

06:58

Pastor Eric Christensen's vision to open a new school and that's where we started.

07:04

We started all the way from square one. We began first with our vision, our mission, our philosophy of education.

07:13

We met every week on Monday afternoons for two hours and put it together.

07:20

It was Mr. Keith Anderson, Pastor Eric, and myself. And we worked diligently. We picked out our mascot and our colors, presented it to the board and the board was ready to go with it.

07:32

And we're very fortunate. So here we are. This is now Haddon Heights Christian School using the same facilities because we're a ministry of Haddon Heights Baptist Church.

07:42

It's not a separate ministry at all. We are under—the deacons are my school board and I work under a school ministry team and we come together as a team and make decisions.

07:55

I come up with an idea. I present it to them. We talk about it. So it's not just me. It's a team of believers that are members here of this church that have come together with a passion for Christian education for the kids today because the public schools aren't giving them what we all had at one time in our public education.

08:15

Pastor Jeff told me you've got a little experience. You might know what you're doing.

08:21

Tell us about that. I taught at the King's Christian School for 25 years. I started in 1986.

08:28

Our children grew up at King's. They went from K to 12 there. They both are graduates.

08:34

And from that point, I went over to the

08:39

Christian Academy in Lakewood and was the assistant principal there.

08:44

And in the meantime, I got my master's degree in curriculum and instruction. I was there and was called by the principal here at Baptist Regional.

08:54

She specifically called and asked me to follow her, which to me was a great honor. And so I've been here ever since.

09:00

I was here for the two years and three months before COVID claimed us and then was asked to come back and be the administrator here at Haddon Heights Christian.

09:11

And this was a thriving school before the COVID? Yes, it was. 200 children from pre -K to 12.

09:19

It was busy. It was busy. And our heart's desire, of course, would be to have another large thriving school, but we're letting

09:27

God do that. We're doing our advertising. We're praying constantly, and we're just asking

09:34

God to bring the families in. So that's just what we believe. And right now, you have an advantage that you won't have for long, and that is you're a small school, and you can give that private attention to each kid and really pour into them just to have access to yourself and the teachers.

09:50

And by the way, these facilities are still amazing. They are amazing. There's a gym up there. There's incredible classrooms, this playground.

09:58

Like you said, the kids love just being outdoors here. It's a protected and safe little enclave.

10:05

We are. We're fully protected. The four houses that surround our property belong to the church.

10:11

Oh, how about that? Yeah, and the building is secure. It's locked all the time. You only can get in by being buzzed.

10:19

Right. And if we don't recognize you, we don't open the door. We have fire drills planned and security drills planned and crisis management things that we have in place.

10:30

With so few children, we can get them out if we ever needed to. But if more children will join us, then it will be everything, fire drills and whatnot, would be implemented.

10:42

My police department is on speed dial if I need them. They patrol our area all the time. The numbers are in the windows so that if the fire department or police department needs to find what rooms are in jeopardy or whatever, it's all coded right there.

10:58

We've worked very, very hard in making sure that our kids are safe. So now I've noticed, because I notice these things, you're charging half of what other schools in the area are.

11:09

That's right. How are you doing that? Because we're not in this to make money. We're in this to minister and come alongside families and help them to get their kids out of the indoctrination that they're receiving in the public schools now.

11:24

So our full -time price is only $4 ,800. Wow. If you have a preschooler and they come five days a week, it's $4 ,800.

11:35

If they come three days a week, it's $3 ,800. Your $100 deposit goes towards your first month's payment.

11:44

We're not here to become a prestigious, top -notch school in regards of our financial backing.

11:53

We're here because God called us to open this building and do what we're doing. So yeah, that's the only reason.

12:00

That's the only reason is because parents need to know that there is a place to send their kids where the government and the government's education can't touch them.

12:12

Well, Kathy, I don't know if you realize, but our podcast is called Tearing Down High Places. Yes. Because we love to pull strongholds down.

12:19

And one of the problems is in the public schools, that worldview difference that we talked about is baked into everything.

12:27

Everything. It's not like they just in health class have one lesson about LGBTQ. Right. It's snuck into the children's books.

12:35

That's right. It's snuck into conversations and even at some level among the peers. Because the peer pressure can become a major issue there too.

12:44

Yes. So we would love to see as many kids as possible leave a public school and come to a private school.

12:50

But there are a lot of parents that say, look, I would love to do that too, but we just can't afford that. Right. And so you're offering what's probably half the price of a lot of other

12:59

Christian schools. And that might just be a big shining light from God saying, here is your chance.

13:05

Here is an opportunity. A godly school to train your kids in Christian ethics and how to live the

13:11

Christian life. And to give them the proper understanding of the rainbow. Yes. Amen. Yes.

13:17

There's no such thing as pride month here. Wouldn't it be great if you had a team uniform and it was all rainbow colors and it said

13:26

Noah's stewards or Noah's shipmates? That would be wonderful.

13:33

Vacation Bible school. Noah's shipmates. They always have the knights. Right. That's where you came from with the knights.

13:41

With the knights, that's right. Another like Noah's sailors. Oh, I love it.

13:47

All in rainbow. It's our rainbow. True. It's true. It's true.

13:53

Yeah, they don't hear that. And that's just because it's not of God. If it was of God, but it's not of God.

14:02

I was recently talking to a parent who had their kids in homeschooling or Christian school most of their life.

14:11

And then just the last couple of years they ended up in a secular school and a government school.

14:18

And they didn't lose their faith, praise God. But they were quickly indoctrinated in some really bad worldview stuff.

14:30

That's right. That's right. And here they'll build relationships with other kids who have the same philosophy at home.

14:38

That's huge. And that's huge. Yeah. Because that's where it starts. And so if we can reach parents through the children, through our education and our biblical worldview, then praise

14:50

God. Have you ever talked to parents that have kids in public school and go through what kind of conflicts that causes in the home?

15:00

Yes. Tell me about it. It causes angst in the children because they go home and say,

15:06

Mommy, this is what the librarian read to me, but that's not what we believe, is it?

15:12

And then the parent just has to take that apart and say, No, this is what we believe.

15:17

But then they go back into the school and once again are being taught something that is anti -Christian or anti -God.

15:25

And they go home with it again. And so it creates such a conflict in the child. So the child doesn't know what's right and what's wrong because of what they're being taught in school.

15:36

And they love their teachers and they believe everything their teachers say. Then they take it home and they love their parents and they believe everything their parents say.

15:42

So what are we doing to these kids? What are we doing to these kids? Yeah.

15:48

And the freedoms of a child who is from a believing home have been squashed because they can't profess their beliefs without the fear of being criticized, ostracized, alienated, made fun of.

16:04

But it seems that on the opposite side, if the child is wanting to dress up like a cat and meow, then that's okay.

16:14

So no litter boxes in the classroom? No litter boxes in the classroom. We don't answer to barks. No. Can you bring your own?

16:22

Litter box? No. Thank you. Now, one of the things that really surprised me is that when

16:29

I went to college, I took a religion class. And I thought this, it was supposedly Florida Presbyterian College before it was

16:36

Eckerd College. And I thought, well, you know, I'm not going to be influenced by any kind of teacher or anything like that.

16:42

But this professor was undermining the accounts of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He was not a believer, but he looked the part.

16:49

But here's the thing. I started to fall for what he was saying because he was so funny.

16:55

This teacher was, he was hilarious. He was very personable. And I looked up to him and everybody just thought he was the coolest guy in the world.

17:03

And that's when the influence started to take root. And I think a lot of parents underestimate how influential a teacher can be.

17:10

Yes. There are teachers that you think, well, I'm the parent. They're going to listen to me. They're not going to listen to this teacher. But there are certain ones that are so charismatic, not spiritual gifts charismatic, but charismatic in their personality that they can sway a kid that you thought was safe.

17:25

I thought I was safe going to college, but this guy, Tim Beal was his name. He started to have me hoodwinked.

17:31

Yes. Yes. And you'll see it too. The children will go home and say, but my teacher says.

17:37

And even if the parent disagrees with the teacher, but my teacher says. Right. Because the teacher has such influence.

17:42

You think a child is in the classroom six and a half hours a day. That's a good chunk of their day.

17:47

And so they go home with all of this underlying stuff in their thinking.

17:54

And they just, they come out wondering, which way do I go? What is it that I believe? Who do

18:00

I believe? Mommy and daddy or my teacher that I love? And it's just for a little person that is so hard for them to discern.

18:07

Caris is so, so desirable. We all desire Caris, right? Grace. Yes.

18:14

And I'm thinking about that. And I'm thinking about Greek lessons and things like that. So the individual study, for me, this is like a personal thing for me.

18:23

I think it's wonderful that you can get that individual attention. Maybe if a kid needs to be caught up.

18:29

That's right. But what about a kid that's bored and needs to excel? You can do the same thing, right?

18:35

Absolutely. We let them fly. We let them fly. You can throw in that Greek. You can, yes. Yes. Other Hebrew, maybe.

18:42

Exactly. You can do any of that because we have that freedom to do that. And you've got this curriculum.

18:48

You've got this program where it seems like you're targeting homeschoolers, too, that want to add a higher level class.

18:54

Yeah. Yeah. We're working towards it. We are open to homeschoolers coming in.

19:03

Homeschoolers are phenomenal. And what they do to take care of their kids and teach their kids is absolutely amazing.

19:08

And we're willing to have them come in and enroll their kids here and then be aides in the classroom so that they can see what it is that their children are learning.

19:21

We would love to have that, for that to happen. We do have a homeschool group that does meet here two times a year for nine weeks in the fall and nine weeks in the winter, in the spring.

19:34

And the group is called HIS. And they're a co -op. And they're run by believers. Not all of the children that come here are believers.

19:42

But every Friday, this building is full of 150 homeschooled kids that come together as a co -op and are taught various subjects, whatever the parent's expertise is.

19:52

And the kids take those classes. And they're here from 930 until 1230 every Friday morning.

19:58

And it's amazing to see. And I love it because there's noise in the hallways. Yeah. Every 40 minutes, there's noise in the hallways.

20:04

And that's something that we can't wait to hear again. That we can't wait to be able to hear that noise again of happy kids.

20:14

Yeah. Kids that are comfortable in who they are, in who they were created to be. And experiencing all

20:21

God's gifts. Exactly. And really learning those gifts. Jeff was just talking about one of our shorts that we did.

20:29

We're encouraging all you Cornerstone people to share our shorts because we're getting a lot of hits on them anyway.

20:35

Which helps us spread the word, right? Sure. So he was talking about really taking what you're good at, figuring it out, and excelling in that.

20:46

That's right. Exactly. God gave you a gift and you got to excel in it. I remember my older daughter was inspired by a couple of kids that went to this school that played violin.

20:55

Want to teach a girl? Oh, absolutely. Yes. And being around other kids and being inspired to do things is important, right?

21:03

Exactly. Exactly. And one iron sharpens iron. One child is excelling, another child is falling behind.

21:11

That excelling child can come along that child that's struggling a bit and it builds a friend relationship, but it builds an academic relationship that is just amazing to watch.

21:23

It really, really is. Because it's not lorded over them. Well, I can do that and you can't. It's let me help you.

21:30

Right. And that child will learn from his or her peer because of the relationship that they've developed.

21:36

I remember Baptist Regional before COVID had a very robust extracurricular. We did.

21:42

Yeah, we were sports. We dominated basketball, soccer, baseball, all of those sports.

21:52

Even the girls in their softball and basketball. They had a great basketball team.

21:59

But they also excelled musically, too. They had a great choir. The music program was incredible.

22:04

It was incredible here. It was. Teaching girls. Yeah. So all that's coming back.

22:11

We pray and we're asking God to allow it. It's all whatever God wants. Well, and it looks like.

22:20

I mean, Pastor Jeff, what do you think? Were there other schools around here that shut down? Do you think there's a lot of kids out there?

22:30

Oh, yeah. I think there's thousands of kids in this region that they're teetering between two worlds.

22:37

Like, I really want to do Christian school, but just haven't found the right one. And different schools will be a different fit for different kids.

22:44

But I think a lot of them need to be here. We would love it. We would love it.

22:49

But every morning, my teacher, Lori, and one of the

22:55

SMT, our school ministry team members, and myself, we get together. We open

23:00

Scripture. We read Scripture. We have our kids' names on three -by -five cards.

23:06

And every day is a different child. And we pray through our cards.

23:11

And we pray for the kids, the families, their financial abilities, their stabilities, their growth together as a unit.

23:22

And that's every morning at 745. Yeah. And you're all welcome to join us. We'd love it. I just have to share.

23:27

I have seen this woman in action. When families are maybe teetering within themselves, like families that are in trouble,

23:35

I've seen this dear woman come along and counsel the families and help them get reestablished.

23:40

So this is like a treasure for a family, not just in the education of their children, but as such, as a family.

23:48

Oh, yeah. And that family is very dear to me to this day. Yeah, I know they are. Very dear to me to this day.

23:54

So Liberty Online for the older kids, what advantages do they have maybe going to college, having some access to that?

24:04

Because I know a lot of people in homeschool, they do their last year. They start accumulating college credits that are lower cost.

24:11

What's that look like? Juniors and seniors can take dual enrollment and can take their college credits as well as their high school credits and graduate with a high school diploma as well as an associate's degree.

24:27

Wow. And they have a list of topics, of subjects that the kids can graduate with and an associate's degree.

24:35

And then if they choose to want to go to another four -year program, they can apply and all their credits transfer.

24:44

If they want to go to Liberty to finish their education, they receive a substantial discount from going on to Liberty because they are a

24:51

Liberty student. Wow. So we have all kinds of opportunities for that as well. The kids can come in if they want to take one class from Liberty Online, a chemistry class or something to excel, or an advanced bio class or an engineering class.

25:09

All of those can be taken online by sitting in our classroom or by taking it home after becoming part of our affiliate.

25:17

And becoming a part of our affiliation, they receive a discount. So there is a good 15 % discount, 10 -15 % discount if they become part of our affiliation.

25:30

It really seems like the best of both worlds. How do we fill the school? Where do we go to get...

25:37

Where are you located? So people are watching. We're at 300 Station Avenue in Haddon Heights, New Jersey.

25:45

We are a ministry of Haddon Heights Baptist Church, which takes up an entire block between 4th

25:53

Avenue and 3rd Avenue. We take up the entire block and we're very visible. We try to make ourselves very visible by putting out

26:01

Facebook messages and messages to the different town groups and market groups or whatever.

26:09

So we make ourselves visible in that way. I've got signage coming in that I'm working on now.

26:15

I'm waiting for the stands to come in. We can put signs out all over. And don't worry, Pastor Cleo, there's one saved for you.

26:21

So you can put it out right in front of your cornerstone. Just to advertise, we're here.

26:28

We exist. We're going to get a map up and some links in the notes for the program.

26:34

What links are we going to share with people? You can get a link to our website. My own personal email is open.

26:44

The phone number we can give you and the extension. All of those things are accessible.

26:51

Why don't we get to walking around? Let's do it. Let's see what the school looks like. What's that big top part, the three -story part?

27:01

That's the gym. That's where all those basketball championships were?

27:07

It's not a full -size gym, but it's a good practice gym. We have Upward Sports here in the winter, and they use that gym for competitions.

27:17

Maybe Pastor Cleo could put on a basketball clinic or something. I would love to. Actually, me and Tim Robinson were just talking about doing that.

27:24

We were talking about putting on a little basketball camp or something. Why don't we do it indoors here? That could be an idea.

27:30

I can take you inside. Pastor Jeff's no stranger to basketball. I can tell.

27:38

He's got a few inches on you, Kathy. I've lost all the agility and all the speed and explosiveness, but all I can do now is just shoot threes.

27:45

That's not bad. I just shoot them. Anybody who played college ball knows more than most.

27:52

I'll take you upstairs and show you the gym. All right. Here we go. Before we go there,

28:01

I'll show you the science lab. Science lab. It's amazing, the facility here.

28:11

Pastor Jeff, are you good at science as you are at basketball? Oh, no. Science is my weakness. Is it?

28:17

This is our science lab. It's fully equipped. Oh, man.

28:24

Physics. I remember cleaning beakers. I used to try and do it to get extra credit.

28:32

So, yeah, the anatomy and physiology was taught here. Biology, advanced biology, physics, chemistry.

28:42

Wow. Dark hallway here. Flip a light. Want to be in the light.

28:51

We'll go to our art room. All right. The art room.

28:58

Oh, man, look at this. What a great place. Yeah, the ceiling. Look at these ceilings.

29:04

This was done by seniors. Wow. So, yeah, we would love to have a part -time art teacher come in and teach our kids the fundamentals of art.

29:16

Wow. That's one of our heart's desires. All right, so what are you looking for?

29:23

Are you looking for someone on a purely volunteer basis? Right now, yes. Because we wouldn't be able to financially sustain them.

29:30

Can't sustain them right now, but you're doing some amazing ministry right now just trying to get off the ground.

29:40

Yeah, and we would love to have somebody come in and teach art. We'd like to have them teach music.

29:46

That would be amazing as well. So anybody who has time that can volunteer to do that would be a godsend for sure.

29:56

So, ladies and gentlemen, we have volunteer opportunities here. Gospel wheel.

30:02

Nice. We have Awana here on Wednesday nights. And this is one of the groups that the older kids use.

30:11

One of the rooms that they're in. Yeah. I get to speak at that every once in a while. How many kids are involved in Awana?

30:18

Oh, my goodness. I couldn't tell you. A lot. Wow. And that really blew open after COVID.

30:24

Yes. Blew open? What do you mean open? Expanded. Expansion?

30:30

Expanded, yeah. Some awards here. Math League.

30:36

When ACSI existed, or when Baptist Regional existed, they were the awards that they won. We'll have in September, we'll have a homeschool group that will meet up here in these two rooms.

30:49

And it is both of our desire to be able to do things together. Some activities together.

30:55

Yeah. It gives more socialization. Exactly. Socialization for the kids. Yeah. Yep. Awards. Oh, yeah.

31:02

Look at all those awards. Yeah, there's more up here. Trophies. Yeah. Wow.

31:09

Christian testimony awards. Right. Wow. And that's what all of the team strived for.

31:20

Christian testimony award. What's a Christian testimony award? That means they played on the court and treated others as they would want to be treated.

31:30

So they were always above board in their behavior, in their language, in their skill to play.

31:39

They had no problems passing off the ball to maybe a player that wasn't as strong as they were.

31:45

It was just a neat thing to watch. Yeah. When I was an inner -city missionary, we had not an

31:50

MVP, most valuable player. We had an MCP, the most Christ -like player. Yeah.

31:56

That's more important than the MVP. That's right. Yeah. That's right. I want that award.

32:02

When my girls were at King's, they both played field hockey. And that was the award that they really struggled with the most.

32:08

Yeah. Our kids play up here on rainy days or when it's below 35 degrees.

32:14

We don't take them outside if it's below 35. We protect them. That's a cut -off.

32:20

Yeah. It's my cut -off. I know a school where the cut -off is like negative 5. Yeah, no. That's not my idea.

32:27

What is the child learning at that point? They're learning how not to die. It's like survival skills.

32:34

I can't feel my toes. I can't feel my fingers. They're just welcoming them to home. Alright, Jeff.

32:44

TDHP fans want to see you hit that top of that rim. Come on. Let's see you jump. That would be a cold hammy.

32:52

I still dunk once a year. Do you? But the process is like a month of ramp -up. I have to lose 10 pounds.

32:59

I've got to stretch. I've got to be in my short shorts. I can't be wearing jeans. I would literally blow an

33:06

ACL if I tried to dunk. I'm sure you would. But anyway, this is our gym.

33:11

We use it. Kids play up here. We have all kinds of equipment for them. They jump rope.

33:17

They shoot hoops. They play on scooters. They have foam balls that they can throw at each other.

33:22

So we teach them how to play. How to get along with each other. Tattling.

33:28

It's like, no, we don't tattle. Just go play. How do you vision homeschoolers integrating into athletics and other extracurricular activities here?

33:41

If we could get a volunteer PE teacher and the homeschool group was here, we would group them by age with our kids and let them have gym together.

33:54

And let them learn how to interact with each other. Some good socialization skills. So that's something we could do.

34:01

How about that? That would be awesome. That's one of our desires. I think a lot of people want to homeschool that don't because of that.

34:09

What would a godly sports environment look like, different than the world?

34:16

I'm thinking, right now there's a big challenge with kids joining sports because they're all playing on Sundays.

34:24

And there's not only that, they consume up so much time. Kids are specializing in one sport.

34:32

I have a young man from Liberty who's on my Liberty Online.

34:38

They were coming to church. They had just started coming and it's baseball season. And so we don't see them until baseball season is over.

34:46

If we could if God wills we have enough students here, we could work and do intramural sports.

34:54

That would be something that we had talked about way back when we first formed Hadden Heights Christian.

35:00

To work and do intramural sports either with teams that we create or reach out to other homeschool groups and have them come in and play sports.

35:10

So that was something that we had talked about. Great. Pastor Jeff, what do you think sports needs today?

35:18

Kids sports. Where's the culture failing in sports? Where's the high places we need to tear down in kids sports?

35:25

We certainly don't need to be kneeling at the national anthem. We need kids that recognize the lordship of Christ and play as unto the glory of God.

35:35

It's all about... Most of these kids are not going to become professional athletes. But all of them are going to stand before the

35:42

Bema. Before the Lord Jesus Christ and give account for every word that's spoken. The most

35:48

Christ -like player, that's the goal. And you want to excel at what you do. All of us train in sports to win.

35:56

The runner runs to win the race. We're all about excellence in athletics. But I think keeping

36:01

Christ at the center is the missing piece. You got your Martizvi, color of compromise? And Ibram X.

36:09

Kendi, how to do anti -racist work? No racism here.

36:16

Don't you believe in it. There's one race, the human race. God created us in different ways, different colors.

36:26

It doesn't matter. We still all bleed the same blood. We all still need a savior. So, during Thanksgiving you're not going to have all the kids be indigenous people because no one wants to be a pilgrim?

36:37

Nope. Some people are Indians and some people are pilgrims. Wherever their bent is.

36:43

Let me turn the lights on. This is how the Christian world view differs from what you're going to get at the public school.

36:50

Just messing around, talking like that. It shows what's in the heart of the leader. Leadership matters the most, right?

36:58

What you have at the top of an organization will set the tone. And you talked about how this is a church school.

37:04

That means the church can actually influence what's being taught. There's some advantages of having kind of like the big tent movement.

37:13

But the problem then is you can't really hold to an accountability on particular matters.

37:18

Whereas here, you can actually set a tone and a world view that is pervasive through the whole thing.

37:26

Library. We need help in the library. When Baptist Regional closed, the books were all brought down from the classrooms.

37:38

They're every which way. We need help in organizing a library. Someone's got some librarian skills out there that can come and help out with this.

37:46

It's not me. I don't have library skills. That's okay. Dewey didn't have a very good world view anyway.

37:52

He did not. He did not. Do we have a... I mean,

37:57

I said that tongue in cheek, but do we have a new system than organizing things by Dewey's system?

38:03

No. Dewey's system is what we've always used, but he was one of the beginning founders of the progressive movement.

38:11

Yeah, he was. Was he part of the... What's that school? The Frankfurt school?

38:16

Was he part of that? I don't know whether he was part of that or not. I know he was associated with Woodrow Wilson.

38:24

There was an association there. The progressivism. So none of that.

38:30

No, no. I studied that in my master's program. Tim Tebow. That's my guy right there.

38:36

That man was part of the reason we named our son Tim. Because of his godliness.

38:42

He would write Philippians 4 .13 on his cleats. Now I teach our people...

38:47

Just in this most recent article for our church, I had people that are struggling with anxiety just write

38:52

Philippians 4 .13 on their hand. And literally, physically do that. Because it says in Deuteronomy 6, write it on your hand.

39:01

Write it on your gates. And that's what I'm seeing at this school. You have the scripture written all over every wall. It's everywhere. It's Deuteronomy 6 in action.

39:09

That's great. And it's good, wholesome reading.

39:15

We've gone through them. We've pulled stuff that we find a little questionable. And the kids don't see it.

39:20

We pull it. And they read wholesome literature. Amen.

39:27

Well, you know, I can't even take my daughter to the Cherry Hill Public Library anymore.

39:34

I can't even tell you how horrible it is. One of the very first things, I let her go a little bit in the teen section.

39:41

Oh my goodness. No way. I'm not even going to talk about it. Because you know, it's horrible.

39:53

So, having a place, having a book repository where you can let your kid run wild.

39:58

Or just have a great time. It's just awesome. These are all empty classrooms that the homeschool on Fridays uses.

40:06

And they fill them up. The homeschoolers fill them up, huh? The homeschoolers come in and fill them up. Is the building warm in the winter and cool in the summer?

40:15

Yes, all the rooms are air -conditioned. Oh, air -conditioning. Yep, we have air -conditioners in the rooms.

40:21

I thought we were going back. That's not old school. That's new school. I didn't have any air -conditioning.

40:27

This is the second floor. This is preschool. Oh. We've got a class going.

40:37

Yes, we do. Hi. Hi, sorry. Ms. Darlita, and that's our preschoolers.

40:42

Three and four year olds. Is it okay for me to use this video or no? Yeah. Everybody signed off.

40:49

Some of them are moving on to our kindergarten. Oh, wonderful. They're staying.

40:55

Some of that. Our vision. Yeah, we need to transform a generation.

41:04

That is for sure. Look at these beautiful shots here. That's what the building looked like. Still pretty much looks like that.

41:11

It does. The only thing that's changed really is the main sanctuary. Oh, where's that?

41:16

That's off this way. This is the main sanctuary over here. Oh, okay. This is what it looks like today.

41:25

Only now it has natural wood doors. Okay. It's got that big sign. We can see the sanctuary.

41:31

Yeah. This is our music room. As we're walking by.

41:38

This is where the kids would have music. Oh. And our music teacher used to have the kids sit on the floor and they were moving, they were busy.

41:49

It was just a neat place. A little shuffleboard going on here. Yeah, you can see.

41:54

This used to be an activity room way back in the day. This is where we would have chapel.

42:00

Good memories from here. I used to be one of the chapel speakers. Oh, nice. This is where we would have chapel.

42:06

This is where we'd have dinners. This is where the kids would eat lunch. We set up round tables and they can have lunch with whoever they please.

42:15

They get some relaxed time, some down time. This is the original chapel. Hasn't changed much.

42:24

What's that big sign say out front? Jesus never fails. That's right out there. It's a great sign.

42:33

Shines every night. And this is the sanctuary.

42:43

Alright. Tell us something about this. The old pews. My parents were married here 71 years ago in October.

42:52

My dad just went home to be with the Lord in January. Mom's memories of being here.

42:59

They came here as a young couple before they were married. Dad simply sat in the second pew.

43:06

Mom argued with him. It wasn't red carpeted. It was green tile, she remembers.

43:11

So yeah. This is where they were married. It is.

43:22

It is. I like that Christian flag out front. I don't know the origins of that though.

43:28

The white flag. Do you know the origins of that? The white they all have representations the colors all have representations like the

43:39

American flag. Sure. And I don't remember all of it. Yeah. But we salute that flag.

43:46

The kids salute it in the morning. As well as the American flag and the preschoolers salute the Bible. Nice. That can't hurt.

43:55

No. No. This is our 3rd and 4th grade. That's Miss White.

44:02

Hey Miss White. Hi Ruby. Hi Esmeralda. My name's

44:07

Avis Joe. Nice to meet you. Yeah. Do you mind being on camera or are you shy? No?

44:13

No fear? No fear? Why's that? I go to my church so I'm used to it.

44:20

Yeah. Is there any scriptures that talk about fear? No. I don't want chapter and verse.

44:35

In general though, you've probably heard about that. You don't want to be fearful, right? Fear not. Hi. Can I say hi to you?

44:44

Sure thing. Do you mind being on camera? No, that's fine. Alright. My name's Avis Joe. That's Pastor Jeff.

44:49

We're just here with Principal Entwistle doing an episode of Tearing Down High Places.

44:56

I guess the erosion in our public school culture is a high place. You know?

45:02

What do you think? What inspires you to be here? God has called me to impact kids through teaching with the foundation of his work.

45:10

So everything we do comes back to God and his creation. We're so grateful to meet you and thank you for serving.

45:17

Thank you. Girls, we're going to let you get back to it. That looks like a great snack. I don't want to interrupt.

45:23

He wants to eat your snack but he doesn't want to interrupt. I might want to eat the snack.

45:29

See you later. See you later. Alright. This is the Highland Heights Christian School office.

45:37

It's always a busy place. Mrs. Rachel Parsons is sitting in as my admin.

45:44

Hey, Ms. Parsons. Welcome to Tearing Down High Places. I know we're invading your space and I'm welcoming you.

45:51

My name is Avis Joe. Nice to meet you. Great to meet you. What inspires you to be part of restoring

45:56

Christian education to South Jersey and Haddon Heights, New Jersey? Well, I'm part of the youth group.

46:05

I'm not part of the youth group. I help lead the youth group here at Haddon Heights Baptist Church. Working with these students every week,

46:13

I see how important it is for them to come together, be with people who love the

46:20

Lord, who know the Lord. That time together, even once a week in youth group, is so valuable.

46:26

Having a place every day where kids can come and learn about the Lord is even more valuable.

46:31

I'm very excited to be a part of it here. Great. That is wonderful. You're in on the ground floor as they say, right?

46:38

Yes. And then my office is behind you where I spend most of my time. Alright, well let's get some shots of you sitting there making big decisions.

46:46

Making big decisions. Yeah. All of a sudden you're on camera. Usually it's, what are we having for lunch?

46:53

This is where I sit. This is it, huh? Yeah, 7 -15 to 4 o 'clock every day. Every day.

46:59

Wonderful. Wonderful. This is my place. This is my home. I love it. Let's check out your bookshelf.

47:05

Look at that. Now, are these favorite books or books that help you with kids?

47:11

Are you referencing these or they're just happenstance? They're a mixture. There are some leadership books there.

47:17

There's a commentary there that helps me when I want to break down scripture. There is books there that are my favorites that people have borrowed and I've just put them back.

47:27

Ah. Yeah, that's... And Joe, right here, Bible Knowledge Commentary.

47:33

That's one of my go -tos. Oh, that's one you told me about that I haven't heard about. The BKC. I'm learning a lot.

47:40

And then Josephus because church history. History is my thing. I love history. So reading

47:46

Josephus. Joe loves books. I love Josephus. I haven't read them yet. I'm dying to read them. Oh my gosh.

47:52

I mean, I've read Clippus, right? Sure, sure. But then we have Ken Ham's books, all on creation. Ken Ham.

47:59

We visited. We spent our 45th anniversary at the Creation Museum. Awesome. I'm a recovering

48:07

Old Earther. I'm all Young Earth now, though. I'm glad you're

48:12

Young Earth. It takes time. Sanctification is not overnight. No, no. My favorite place is the beach.

48:18

So my grandkids find white stones for me. Yeah. Nice. This is all just what

48:25

I like to do. That's great. Wait a minute. That seems out of place. Why would you have a book about the

48:31

Constitution up here? Being a Constitutionist. Are you now?

48:38

Tell me about it. Well, that's our founding document. I live by it as far as my principles when it comes to government, when it comes to politics.

48:49

Go back to the Constitution. Go back to the Constitution. You're not one of those crazy people who thinks it's tied to the

48:54

Bible in some way, do you? Yeah, I am. And I'm okay with that. Welcome. We're in good company,

49:01

Jeff. That's why we're here. We wouldn't be here if we weren't. And I drive a

49:07

Beetle. And I drove Beetles all my growing up years. So I'm a Beetle person. My Beetle's sitting outside.

49:14

You got a new Beetle or an old Beetle? It's a new one. It's a 2013. Yeah? But she's a convertible.

49:21

What a great story. Once upon a time, there was a girl who really wanted to become a teacher. It was me.

49:28

The end. Ever since I was in the second grade, I wanted to be a teacher.

49:35

I tried all other different avenues and God kept saying, No, you're going to be a teacher. Oh, we need great teachers.

49:43

And there's your picture at the Ark Encounter. That's my husband of 47 years in August.

49:51

That's wonderful. We want to go to the Ark Encounter. You need to do that. I'm going to actually meet my newly saved cousin from Texas.

50:02

It's like right halfway. It will change your life. To see it in perspective and it's done to scale.

50:11

Right. To understand of their own kind.

50:17

What that means. Of their own kinds. How Ken Ham portrays that is absolutely amazing.

50:25

I'm taking one of his classes now online from Answers in Genesis on world religions and cults.

50:31

I want to understand what others believe. If they want to come in and be part of our school and they're not believers what do they believe?

50:42

We had a Buddhist family come in and they've enrolled their third grader. So they don't care that she's going to be hearing a worldview.

50:50

As long as you're teaching your worldview to them. They don't mind. They don't mind at all.

50:56

That was something I made perfectly clear. The father who was very high up in the

51:02

Air Force and actually works with our own government said, that's fine with me. That's fine with me.

51:10

She's going to learn scripture. I don't care. That's fine. It was a God thing. Has it had an impact on the kids?

51:17

She will start in September. She's just a brand new enrollee. So we're excited.

51:23

She's a cute little thing coming out of public school. Parents are not happy with what's being taught. She's not being challenged.

51:28

She's very bright. Not being challenged. Not being able to move on. And is being held back because she has to follow the teacher.

51:36

Has to follow the curriculum. And we won't do that. Can you have an American dream in an

51:42

America that no longer follows the Constitution? No, not really. You can't.

51:48

Because the Constitution gives you that privilege, that opportunity to dream that American dream.

51:54

To pursue that happiness. To pursue the life that is successful.

52:00

But then we go a step further that honors and pleases the Lord. And is seen in anything you do and everything that you say.

52:06

You can't have a Constitution without morality. No. And where do you get that morality from? It comes from God's word.

52:12

We've got to have an objective standard, right? And our standards are being taken away from us. They're being compromised.

52:20

It goes back to what scripture says about tickling man's ears. And that's exactly what's happening. So we want to keep kids away from that.

52:28

Let's teach them what the standard is. And the standard is God's word. So you've got immigrants saying, we want that American dream and we know that even if we're not

52:36

Christian, yet, they're going to be steeped in some Christian, and they want to be.

52:43

They recognize that that's the foundation of this country if they're here. That's amazing.

52:48

They were a wonderful family to talk to. It must be brilliant. He was, yes.

52:54

He had just had a meeting with the Secretary of Defense. I mean, that's how high up he is.

52:59

So he knows? He knows. And he was born in Thailand. And he was raised in England.

53:06

So he had quite a British accent. A lovely man to talk to. Just lovely. Very open.

53:12

But to have a conversation with him was just a breath of fresh air. Because he was that open.

53:18

Wow. Yeah. Pursue truth, defend liberty. I love your little banner over there.

53:24

Say that again. Pursue truth, defend liberty. That's Hillsdale. I took classes from there too.

53:33

I'm always learning. A promise I made to myself many years ago was that I would learn something new every day.

53:40

Whether it was about my God, whether it was about my Savior, whether it was about my world, or myself.

53:48

And every day I learned something new. Wow. Continuous learning. I learned how faithful God is.

53:55

So, yeah. That's my big deal. That was really good, man. I think we got a lot of content. I think we're good. Thank you so much.

54:03

Awesome. This is exciting. I love this sign. I do too. So this was built in 1930.

54:10

Wow. So you think how old this building is. 1930.

54:17

It looks like the roof is fine. No, the roof is not. You can see the stone starting to crumble.

54:24

Yeah, you might need a pointing. Let's get under the sign there a little bit. This might be a still shot.

54:30

This might be the still shot for the thumbnail. Yeah. This is the entrance to our building.

54:40

Kids get dropped off here. They come up the steps. We greet them with a hello. And they get picked up in the back parking lot where we were.

54:48

We went back and looked through our verses from the year. So they found a couple verses for you. Oh, nice.

54:55

That takes some motivation, girls. Tell me why you came back outside. Because we were put on the spotlight.

55:06

Deuteronomy 31 .6 Be strong and of good courage. Do not fear nor be afraid of them.

55:13

For the Lord your God, He is the one who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you.

55:20

Wonderful. Psalms 118 verse 6

55:27

The Lord is with me. I will not be afraid. Amen. Isn't that wonderful encouragement that you don't have to be afraid.

55:35

And I knew you had the Lord in you because you're not afraid. That's good stuff. How much do you love your school?

55:44

100%. You're a good mathematician then too because you can't have more than that, right? That's wonderful.

55:51

What do you want to tell me about your school? It is nice and you get to learn about God a lot and you get to experience things that you wouldn't experience in public schools and stuff like that.

56:08

Wonderful. What grade are you in? I'm in 4th grade. And you? 3rd grade. Wonderful.

56:14

Thanks so much for being part of our show. We'll let you know we'll probably get your parents permission before we put it online but then we're going to do it.

56:22

Awesome. Thanks so much for running out here. And that was really great because I asked you about fear in the classroom and you went right to your

56:30

Bible. Was that your idea or your teacher's? Both of ours. Good. Well said.

56:38

Alright. Thank you. That was great. That was really great.

56:45

They're good kids. We're going to close this episode of Tearing Down High Places up and you know how we always do it.

56:52

If you see a brother down, lift him up. If you see a high place, tear it down.