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First Grade

Mrs. Linda Ellis

First Grade Teacher

I was saved at the age of 8 after a morning service at Walnut Street Baptist Church in Muscatine. I realized I was a sinner and asked Jesus to save me and make me His child.

My desire to teach began at an early age. However when I got into Junior High and saw how children sometimes treat their teachers, my desire to teach was temporarily gone.

Years later during summer breaks from college, I taught three-year olds at Migrant School in Muscatine, Iowa. My love for teaching returned and I changed my major to Elementary Education at Cedarville College.

After college, I taught at Beavercreek Schools, a suburb of Dayton, Ohio. Then I moved back to Davenport, IA and taught First Grade for four years. In the meantime, I met Jim whom I married in 1970. God allowed us to adopt a son from Vietnam and a daughter from Korea. As a child, adoption and Asian children had always fascinated me and the Lord gave us both when He gave us Darin and Kristina.

When our children were in First and Second Grades, we were able to send them to Christian schools in the Champaign, IL area. This was our first acquaintance with Christian schools and we were very pleased with it.

A job for me at a Christian school had never opened up until 1991 after we had moved back to Iowa. I taught at Quint City Baptist School for a semester before moving to Urbandale. I was offered a job at Dallas County Christian School, seven miles south of Perry. I taught there for 3 years.

During those three years, Mrs. Cole and Jane McWilliams came to visit our school. They were hoping to open a Christian school in Ankeny. From that point on, I desired to teach there. It took a year and a half before I was hired as the first teacher at ACA. I have seen the amazing way God provided each step of the way up to our present facilities and gym! I still feel it a privilege to teach here!

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not harm you,
plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11