Staff Opportunities

“Faith Academy is home to me because I have spent the majority of my life here. I went to Faith Academy K-12, and now I have the amazing opportunity to serve here as a teacher. Initially my wife and I were open to serving anywhere in the world, but God opened and closed doors to have us end up here in the Philippines. At first I loved that I had the opportunity to teach at the school that helped me grow so much. However, since teaching here, I have grown to love even more how my ministry is helping missionary families by teaching their children so they can do their ministry with ease.”

Caleb spent his childhood years in the Philippines.

“In 1995, I came to the Philippines with a group of nine other of my college mates and one of our professors. It was to be a three week trip. For me it turned into nine and a half weeks. Faith Academy’s Middle School needed a Social Studies teacher, as the teacher that was coming still needed to raise support. I had just graduated college a few months earlier so I stayed and taught Middle School Social Studies. God used my time here to burden my heart for teaching at Faith Academy. I left here saying, “I will be coming back!” And in August 2000, I was back at Faith Academy.

I love teaching in Middle School. Middle School students are a mixture of crazy, fun, creativity, and energy. I love how our students will engage in creative thinking and be self-directed learners. There are many times I am just blown away with the work that my students produce or the deep conversations we have during discussions or debates. Middle Schoolers can “rise up to a challenge”. In one activity, I had assigned students in my Philippine Social Studies class a president that they had to defend in a debate as a being the better president. One the students that had a more challenging president to defend came back and said, “Thank you for assigning me this president. It really made think about the good things he did for the Philippines.” It is moments like this make me love my job.

The other thing I really love about my job is being able to build into their spiritual lives and seeing their love for Christ increase. I had the opportunity during Outdoor Education to pray with a student as she received Jesus as her Savior. This still stands as my most favorite memory. And I can still see all of the Middle Schoolers in our traveling group cheering when she announced her salvation at a bonfire. I have also had times to disciple other Middle Schoolers. It blesses my heart to see them long for Christ.

Middle Schoolers have a lot they can teach us. Middle Schoolers respond the best when you show them that you care, when you are willing to sacrifice for them. The more that you can show how much you care, the more they will respond back to you.”

“From the time I was born until I was 12, I lived overseas as a missionary kid, first in Kenya and then in the Philippines. In fact, I went to 5 different elementary schools on three continents, including four years at Faith Academy.

Transitions and new experiences were all I knew, it was what I felt formed my identity. However, when I was 12, my parents sensed God calling them to stay in the United States. My life as I had known it changed completely – I didn’t even get to say goodbye to my friends and life here at Faith Academy because the decision was made while we were on furlough. Needless to say, as a young teen uprooted from all I had known (even as that had changed so often), I became angry at my parents and at God. I felt that if there even was a God, surely He must not love me, since I had such a hard middle school experience. I did not understand my classmates in the US, most of whom had rarely been outside the state of Colorado, and they did not understand me, this strange girl who had lived all over the world. God used that hard transition in my life to make my heart tender towards the transitions missionary students go through. God also gave me a heart for middle schoolers, even though I first vowed I would never teach that age group, because of my own negative Middle School experience. But God knew those experiences would lead me to seek out the hurting and left-out students while working with their classmates to include them.

That is why I came to Faith Academy in 2013; I hope I can be a consistent person in students’ lives and identify with them through their struggles. When I share my story with my students, especially new middle schoolers, they seem to breathe a sigh of relief that someone understands what they are going through. I love being an encouragement to them and seeing them become more comfortable with the community here at Faith.

The students are what I love the most about Faith. I love how they bring such a richness and diversity of thought to their studies. I love how they are so grateful and that I can build relationships with them on multiple levels, both inside and outside of the school day. I pray that God can use me to show students that their identities don’t come from being a missionary kid, or a business kid, or even a Faith Academy student, but that their identities are rooted in the fact that they are beloved children of the King of Kings.”

“Music is part of my DNA, having come from a musically inclined clan. As early as 18 months old, I was singing songs with the right words and tune, and as I grew up, music became the language of my heart.

When I was 15 years old, The Lord called me to use my gift of singing to be part of our church’s praise and worship ministry. I may have loved music and singing, but I did not like doing it in front of a crowd. I was very shy and nervous, and did not think I was good enough to be singing in front of hundreds of people. I struggled and argued with God at first, unsure if this was what He really wanted me to do. He confirmed… many times, so I trusted Him and obeyed. I learned that if I am willing and obedient to His call, God will use me to accomplish things beyond my capacity and what I can ever think or imagine. With my obedience, the Lord opened many opportunities to serve Him through music.

For the past 10 years, I have been part of a Christian group called Gloryfall Band, a team dedicated to bringing true worship back to the body of Christ through worship training and leading, and evangelistic outreaches. We help churches in equipping worship teams through instrument/vocal training and teaching them the Biblical principles of worship. We have written and released 10 albums, and through these songs we are able to reach people around the world with God’s message and love. If you would like to hear or download our songs for free, our website is gloryfall.net.

Faith Academy has always been a place close to my heart. I first visited Faith in 2000, when my then boyfriend (now husband), showed me around the school where he graduated. I could not believe there was a school so beautiful, where the grounds were vast and well maintained, with classrooms that displayed so much creativity and talent. The children walking around the campus and the teachers I met were friendly, well-mannered and showed such joy to be in a place where Christ is being taught. I thought Faith Academy would be a wonderful place to be called to serve! Little did I know that 18 years later, God would open the door for me to be part of this wonderful organization.

This school year, I started teaching Elementary Music at Faith Academy. I get so much joy and excitement to see children’s faces light up when I tell them we are playing with musical instruments in class or we are going to learn a new song. It is also an honor to teach the students not only the technical aspect of music, but to be able to share with them the heart of worship. It is a blessing to share with the children how God can use music powerfully in their lives just like He did in the Bible through the lives of David, King Jehoshaphat and many others who won battles through music offered in praise and worship to God!”