Here at Faith Academy, we love the families the Lord leads our way! We want you all to get a chance to know them better, so we’re beginning a new feature called Family Spotlight. We hope these stories help our families get to know one another better, and to give future families that feeling of seeing a familiar face when they walk into our halls for the first time.
Our first spotlighted family is the Harders, who’ve been a part of Faith Academy since the very beginning. Dad John works as a Vice President of Operations, while mom Sandy is an accountant. Three of their four children—Samuel, Josiah, and Abigail—are Faith Academy students, and we look forward to welcoming their youngest, Evelyn, to kindergarten in just a few short years.
“We are a loud bunch, always on the go,” Sandy says. The Harders are a close-knit group, with the majority of their extended family living right here in Wichita. As such, their family life is full of dinners, holidays, birthday parties, and other celebrations. At home, the Harders enjoy relaxing with their backyard swingset and sandbox as well as family movie nights. But they also love to get out and about, and can be frequently spotted on bike rides, camping trips, and taking in the occasional drive-in movie.
Samuel, the Harders’ oldest child, is ten years old and an incoming fifth-grader at Faith Academy. He’s a devotee of baseball and soccer, and also enjoys sketching, reading, and creating Lego movies. When he grows up, Samuel says he’d like to be an architect and computer engineer.
Eight-year-old Josiah will be a third-grader at Faith Academy next fall. He is all about construction, be it building things in the garage or creating worlds with his Legos. In fact, he’d love to be a construction worker as an adult. He also loves reading books and riding his bike.
At age six, Abigail is already a budding artist. Her favorite activities are anything artistic, be it coloring or creating a craft project. When she grows up, she’d like to both illustrate books and be a mom. Abigail will start first grade at Faith Academy next school year.
At age three, Evelyn is the youngest of the Harder bunch, but she doesn’t let that stop her from dreaming big dreams. She’s decided she wants to run her own bakery someday. For now, though, she’s content to read books, hang out with her big brothers and sister, and play in her backyard sandbox.
The Harders first learned about Faith Academy through word of mouth from their piano teacher before the school was even founded. Sandy has been thrilled with her family’s experience at our school, and enthusiastically recommends it to everyone who asks. “Faith Academy is shaping our kids into the godly men and women they will someday be,” she says. “Full of knowledge and love for the Lord and for others.”
Give the Harders a smile and a wave the next time you see them, and stay tuned for more Faith Academy Family Spotlights!