THE PACIFIC ONLINE CHRISTIAN SCHOOL GOD’S FINGERPRINTS Australia is a vast landmass with a sparse population outside of the main state capital cities. Many families deeply desire a Christian education for their children but cannot see how it can work, given the tyranny of distance that is part of the Australian way of life. There are also families who send their children to local small public or Christian schools, but these schools don’t have the capacity to offer the educational alternatives of larger school communities. They may be elite sportspeople, families in emotional distress, families who move frequently, or parents in capital cities who want specific subjects that aren’t offered where their child is enrolled—these are some of the scenarios where families need a more flexible option for their children’s education. Our team has witnessed the needs of these families for many years and sought God for direction and answers. His fingerprints have been evident on Pacific Online Christian Schools (POCS) from the beginning. Borderless learning, as our community was originally termed, started with small seeds in 2020 from a little team in Medowie and grew in 2021 to include staff teams from Pacific Valley and Pacific Coast. From this relatively humble beginning, with prayerful guidance and strategic development from the Pacific Group, Borderless Learning expanded, with many Pacific Group families hearing of our story. In 2022, we began offering places to students from Pacific Coast and Pacific Valley. Over the next 12 months, the Borderless Learning community grew, and we knew this unique learning model was successful, as students shared stories of success whilst undertaking single courses of study. With this success, we then prayerfully took steps to plan the formal registration to become a distance education school that could cater to full-time students. With the Pacific Group registration of Distance Education came the birth of POCS. In 2023, we had 15 full-time students and a small team seeking to provide a distinct online Christian community with a goal to ensure all students experience God’s grace and blessing, where each student is known, cared for, and loved in an authentic Christian community. By the end of 2023, our story was being shared widely, and we had grown to 67 students. POCS became known for its relational Christian education, with many new parents reporting the heartlevel connection in our community, excellent Christian educational tuition, and expressions of service. Our team often regularly recognises God’s fingerprints in our story—from the grace and blessing of His guidance in starting Distance Education in Medowie, through the stages of becoming Borderless Learning, to joining the 39
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