Faith integration in Christian school: Beyond Sunday learning
What do we do when we realize we’re living on borrowed time? We all know deep down that we’re not going to be on this Earth forever, yet many of us tend to live like we’ve got all the time in the world, constantly telling ourselves that we’ll take care of it tomorrow or we’ll get around to it eventually, so what happens when that reality finally hits us? What are the first things we think about? Most people will likely think of all the things they haven’t done or places they haven’t been, but for Don Wickstrum, his immediate thought was how many people haven’t come to Christ.
Having grown up with a financially struggling, yet loving family and a 1.3 GPA, Don went from working in a shed behind his mobile home to helming one of the most successful robotic companies of all time, Quest Industrial. Holding his first $1 million check was one of the biggest, happiest moments of his life. This was it, he had done it. He had accomplished a classic rags to riches story, but then something happened to Don. He started to feel unwell. A tad concerned, he spoke to his doctor, where he heard the words that must’ve triggered all of those aforementioned thoughts about limited time on this Earth and what to do with it: ‘You have cancer.’ As if that wasn’t already a massive enough bombshell to drop on somebody, Don is then told that at stage IV, if he has any chance of surviving this, he would have to sell his company, the one he had spent so much of his life building and perfecting, and he did.
Not knowing what direction to take himself next, a friend of his suggests knocking something off of his bucket list. From there, Don’s mind immediately went to Pike’s Peak, a famous race track he’s wanted to drive on since childhood. Long before starting up Quest Industrial, Don envisioned his life going in a different direction, to be an auto mechanic and professionally race. Racing has been a passion of Don’s for most of his life, as evidenced by him and his wife Mary naming one of his sons, Daytona. Over time, things clearly changed, with him going to college and becoming an engineering intern, which led to the founding of the company. Before making any final decisions, something Don and Mary made sure to do was pray. After much prayer, Don finally decided that this was the best direction for him to take. For anyone else, that alone probably would’ve been the goal, to race up to the top of that mountain. For Don though, this was a grander opportunity to minister to a lot of people who likely needed it at that place at that time.
When Don came to speak at Eastern Christian High School, he spoke about all of this and much more about his life. All of it was already compelling and inspiring for sure, but he made sure to drive home the point that the single biggest thing that drove him throughout all of this was his trust in God and his desire to lead people to Him. With both his robotics company and the Pike’s Peak race, he got to do just that. We’re taught by Matthew 6:33 to ‘Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.’ After his cancer diagnosis, His kingdom was all Don could think about as well as how he could use what God has blessed him with to get others to it.
Although there were several opportunities for Don to speak during his time at Eastern Christian School, this is a summary of his talk to the Honors Academy. As part of an excellent, Christian education, Eastern Christian is intentional about weaving faith throughout the school day. Faith can be taught explicitly, as seen in activities such as chapel, but it is also part of the DNA of who we are as a community and as a school. As Christian philosopher, Abraham Kuyper, once stated, “There is no such thing as a religiously neutral education.” Opportunities to live out who we are as Christians can happen in any class or extracurricular event, at any time. It is also important to approach our work life from a biblical worldview, and we were happy to host Don Wickstrum, who in addition to sharing his testimony pointed our students to a better understanding of the biblical wisdom that also makes good business sense.
