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Darren & Sherry Petri share their family's story.
How long has your family been a part of our school?
Our son Jonah enrolled in the tenth grade in the fall of 2019.
Why did you choose FCS for your child(ren)?
Long before we knew Darren would be transferred to Roanoke, I was learning about the Classical Method of Education during the years of homeschooling middle school. This led me to research Classical Christian Schools in Virginia where I found Faith Christian School. I could tell that it was wonderful but also out of reach because it was four hours from where we lived at the time. A few years later, we found out that Darren’s office was being relocated to Roanoke, and we knew that FCS was where we wanted Jonah to go to high school.
%20(25).png?width=600&height=600&name=Stories%20Photos%20With%20Captions%20(Landscape)%20(25).png "Petri Family | FCS Stories")
%20(2%20%C3%97%203%20in).png?width=600&height=900&name=Stories%20Photos%20With%20Captions%20(Landscape)%20(2%20%C3%97%203%20in).png "Jonah Petri, VACA state champion and NACA national champion, 2 years running")
What do you love most about FCS?
When I look back on our time at Faith, I think I will always see it as a lighthouse for us during a storm in our lives. We moved here in August of 2019, and Jonah began his sophomore year. Six months later, the world stopped, and isolation from each other became the darkness that crept into all of our lives, but especially into the world of our kids. I distinctly remember a powerful moment in time as I sat in my car in the lower parking lot while we waited to pick up his textbooks.
The words to a beautiful song floated through my radio: "Waymaker, miracle worker, promise keeper, light in the darkness.” Looking at the building, I could picture the light inside as the people who were busily recreating an education that would serve as a link in the chain to our anchor in the storm. Their work was a light. They never stopped.
Describe one of your favorite (or your student's favorite) teachers and the impact that this teacher has had in your student's life—or perhaps a specific example of a way this teacher has cared for your student in a special way.
In April 2020, at the height of the quarantine, when no one could see one another, Jonah’s friends and teachers sent sixteenth birthday video messages. Mrs. Goodman sitting in front of her favorite tree on a beautiful sunny day, continuing to pour into my boy through a birthday video was a beautiful picture of just how special the teachers at Faith truly are. When an ankle fracture last spring once again brought an important part of his world to a standstill, teachers like Mr. Muench stepped in to try to help him see what God might want to show him while he was down. He reminded him to look up. This fall, when he was asked to stand up with his older brother at his wedding, I sent him some links on how to write a best man speech. He responded by saying, “Mom, I’ve got this. Mr. Smith already taught me how to write one.”
How is FCS preparing your student(s) for God's call on their lives, including hopes, plans, and dreams for college, career, and/or community?
There is much to be thankful for in the mission carried out through Faith Christian School, and we will forever embrace the blessing of being in this place during such a time as this.
