In 2000, an Adventist church in Romania cleared two rooms to start kindergarten. Now, those two rooms have grown into two school buildings that soon will house 200 students!
Story filmed June 2019 - Ploiesti, Romania
In 2000, an Adventist church in Ploiesti, [ploy-esh-tee] Romania cleared two rooms to start kindergarten. Now, the two rooms grew into two school buildings that soon will house 200 students.
It started when a group of parents and teachers from the church dreamed of a school to provide children a safe environment to grow. This desire led them to setup two private kindergartens in Ploiesti in a space provided by the Adventist church.
Parents loved the idea of an Adventist school.
“Both of my children were enrolled in public school before coming here. It’s difficult when I teach my children about our faith at home, and they encounter conflicting beliefs at school.”
More and more parents prayed for a school that would help instill the principles of the Seventh-day Adventist church in their children’s hearts. And in 2015, Excelsis school opened. It started with only 22 students, but every year, their numbers doubled!
Today, over 120 students from kindergarten to 8th grade are enjoying Christ-centered education at Excelsis School. Every morning, they start their day with a devotional and a prayer.
“This school is a blessing for me as a parent because I know that my children are safe here physically and spiritually. Aside from learning subjects like Math or Physics or Chemistry, more importantly they learn about life and God.”
The school administrators help to connect families who cannot pay tuition, with potential sponsors. As of today, they have over 20 sponsored students.
Parents began hearing about the quality education and the values taught in Excelsis School. Some even send their children a long way from home in order to study in the environment that the school provides. 58 such students live outside Ploiesti, and some of them travel up to 80 kilometers daily to go to school.
“I love that the students here are very friendly and we have a lot of extra-curricular activities.”
“Our teachers don’t yell at the students and they don’t discriminate against us on any basis. They’re very nice and they respect us even if we’re just kids.”
“In this school, students prepare for their classes every day. We teach them to explore and discover new things and we prepare them for a better future. The students are not perfect, neither are the teachers. But we try to understand them and we learned that behind every child, there is a special story. The parents trust in us. And together, the teachers, students and their parents are a family.”
The school building is now working at full capacity. Staff rooms are used as additional classrooms and the archive room is used as a library. To accommodate more students the school has started construction of a new building, which will allow them to enroll over 200 students. Soon, Excelsis School will expand its ministry to teach even more children about the love of Jesus.
“This school answers the needs of Christian families in Ploiesti because they want their children to learn good values and principles. Our goal is to present a beautiful God not only to the children but also to their parents.”
