Many people who are actively engaged with Westminster Christian Academy are familiar with the frequent visits of exchange students from various countries that come to spend time in the United States learning English and engaging in the new culture. Additionally, members of the community may also be familiar with the summer seminar trips to different countries including South Korea and Spain. Yet the actual history of Westminster’s relationships with its partner schools still remains a mystery to most of the community. Dani Butler, Head of Student Development, has played an important role in setting up and going through with Westminster’s Global Relationships throughout the school’s history. In a brief interview Butler reveals the purpose behind the partnerships:
“The Global Partnerships, which means that Westminster reaches out to other Christian schools outside the United States, and establishes partnerships with them. Also, Westminster helps the school establish, so the school does not exist yet, but they are getting ready to start, and we support, help, and provide resources for them.”
The first school that WCA helped to establish was Saemmul Christian Academy in South Korea. The founder of Saemmul visited Westminster in 2008 and after a year in which faculty from Westminster trained faculty from Saemmul Westminster agreed to go forward with the relationship and help get the school up and running. The basis of the connection between the two schools was their shared dedication to a rigorous curriculum and biblical principles. This bond with Saemmul has only grown stronger over the years and inspired WCA to continue building more global relationships with other schools around the world. Butler additionally commented on another international connection Westminster made with a school in Spain:
“After that, in 2012 we started to partner with Alpha and Omega in Spain. That school was already established for a long time, but they were looking for a partnership relationship with a United States Christian school […] So we went there, visited, and they came to visit before we started […] We were in agreement that our vision and mission and their vision and mission aligned with each other.”
Similarly to the process that took place with Saemmul Christian Academy, both WCA and Alpha and Omega visited each other’s campuses and found that their biblical beliefs and curriculum matched. An important change that came from Westminster’s relationship with Alpha and Omega was the beginning of an international student exchange program. For about 14 years, the students from Alpha and Omega traveled to America to visit Westminster and vice versa, however the schools recently switched the exchange program to every other year. These exchanges also occur with students from South Korea as well as students from Japan, and soon they will also happen between Westminster and their newest partner, a school in France. After Alpha and Omega of Spain the next partnership formed was African Vision of Hope. Butler commented on Westminster’s relationship with African Vision of Hope along with the effects that WCA has left:
“We had African Vision of Hope start in 2017. They had about 3000 students and now it is 6000, so they doubled it. They had one campus, now they have three campuses. What we did was the same thing that we did with Saemmul. They sent their faculty members here for a long period of time, 2 or 3 weeks, and then we taught everything to them.”
Westminster has been extremely helpful for the growth of African Vision of Hope among other schools who they partner with. The love of God truly shines in international exchanges between believers such as these, and these partnerships truly do have significance which is why Westminster is hoping to continue to foster even more partnerships in the years to come. Butler commented on the want for more global relationships:
“We don’t have any schools in Central America or South America, but we would love to have a partner school there. We would love to extend our global partnerships”
The desire within Westminster to build more long-term relationships with schools from all over the world will only grow as more students become involved in the programs. While a good portion of kids go on the global seminar trips and enjoy them, the relationships need to build deeper than just visiting, so students should attempt to build further and form relationships that could last a lifetime. In fact many students have already felt the effects of these relationships being built. Ava Fichter, Senior, has been on both the Spain trip along with the Korea trip. She explained her experiences with the students on both trips:
“For Korea, I was blessed to be welcomed into my host family for a week and developed friendships and relationships with both of my host sisters throughout our week there. It truly felt as though I gained another family. For Spain, I got to experience the daily life of an average high school student at Alfa y Omega. We were brought to their favorite candy store, their homes, their favorite stores, and we threw a picnic party on the beach to celebrate our new friendship.”
Not only are the relationships good to have for relationship building, but they also help open the eyes of students to a much larger world that needs to see the Lord. Butler explained:
“I would love for our students to be more aware. Not a lot of students know we have this amazing program. That’s why I would like to talk about it more in chapel. I would like to involve more students in those trips in the summer to different countries. So they can be motivated and widen their horizons beyond the United States.”
Overall these global partnerships are a great way that the Lord works from country to country around the world in order to make his word more accessible. Forming deeper relationships is a great way for students to become more aware of God’s great creation and reflect Jesus like they are called to do. As Westminster continues to grow past its 50 year birthdate its effects on schools around the world and the connections built with students of those schools will continue to become more and more prevalent.
