Strong As Ever

God is good and God has been good to our school.
As you know, we are the oldest continuously operated Seventh Day Adventist Academy in the world. Our early church members saw a need for a distinct Seventh Day Adventist form of education and dedicated themselves to fill that need with a school – our school South Lancaster Academy. As the saying goes, “there has been a lot of water under the bridge” since those humble beginnings. The same spirit of distinct Adventist education is currently alive and well at SLA.

We, as faculty have one real mission – that of educating your children, grandchildren and potentially your great grandchildren to the gospel message. Certainly the 3 R’s of education are important – that is reading, writing, and rithmatic, but there is a fourth – which is the reason for the school- that fourth R stands for religion. While the world’s message about education and success is about income, power, prestige, and accumulated toys, the message of our school is salvation. The world measures a person by their bank account - as a church and school we do not. Simply put as a question it can be stated as “how do you measure success?” Do we measure by the 3 R’s or the fourth? The fourth R is by far the most valuable.
That is what makes us distinct. Yes the majority of our students have gone on to higher education and eventually become successful in life demonstrating that we do a decent job with the 3 R’s. Most of you sitting here can probably name a few of those individuals. But the real test is the fourth R – that of commitment to God. That is what we are all about. We, as a school, have a an excellent record for success with the fourth R – religion - and most everyone here knows it – if we did not have success you probably would not be reading this.
Now more about our school. We are a school that is constantly in transition. Gone are the nostalgic days of working on the dairy or in the broom shop. That is a thing of the past. The student body that you knew is also a thing of the past. While they are still all children, and of one spiritual fabric, our student body is a reflection of the changing demographics of our church. It is exciting to see parents that are deeply concerned about their children’s spiritual education. We applaud those parents of the students both past and present for seeking our distinct form of education. These students are the future.
As a school, we are organized differently today from 50 years ago – South Lancaster Academy contains more than just students in grades 9 – 12. We have a whole elementary system included as part of our school. Seventh Day Adventist Education can now start as early as age 4.
Over the last three years South Lancaster Academy has operated contrary to the trend of other denominational schools. We have substantially increased our enrollment. We are at levels not seen in fourteen years. This is in the shadow of a severe recession and the closing of an associated institution. Currently our total number is 315 students. We are strong, we have excellent enrollment, and we look forward to continuing to do God’s work until He returns.
God has blessed us over the last few years and we ask prayers for His continued blessing upon South Lancaster Academy.