By Tyler Wright
The Mountain District Christian School community have bid farewell to their school as it concludes its final year of operation after 43 years in Monbulk.
It was announced in October the Prep to Year 12 school would close at the end of 2022 due to financial issues.
It is believed roughly 155 students were enrolled this year.
In a Facebook post, Mountain District Christian School shared a prayer read by Mrs Hanscamp at the end of school’s final gathering on Saturday 3 December.
‘For the first families whose passion for a Christ-centred education for their children, laid the foundation for our school, Lord, we give you thanks,” the prayer began.
“For this awesomely beautiful place they found for us to grow in, learn in, play in and enjoy; in which every towering tree, misty morning, birdcall and smell of eucalypt fills us with wonder at our creator God, we are so grateful.”
The prayer went on to express gratitude for the school’s board members, teachers, families and children for their contribution to the community.
“We were all here ‘for a time’, ‘for a season’, and as it says in the third chapter of Ecclesiastes in the Bible, there is a time and a season for everything.
“A time to plant, and a time to build, a time to end a time to weep; but God’s purposes are greater than what we can see, and Ecclesiastes also says that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it, and nothing taken from it. Of His purposes there is no ending,” the prayer concluded.
“And when we drive out that driveway for the last time, many with tears, it is comforting to know that God’s purpose for each one of us endures, that our loving God goes before us, and goes with us in the next stage in our journey.”
Community members flocked to a video on the school’s Facebook page capturing the last bus pick up; reminiscing and sharing their heartbreak at the school’s closure.
“A friend once made the comment at an EGM that quality was better than quantity, which is totally true, but sadly we needed the quantity to keep going. A catch 22 situation,” one commenter wrote.
“I am still grieving this and will for some time and I’m really annoyed at myself that over our 17 years I never walked the Nature Trail!”
One said they were “so sad to see the end of such a beautiful community”.
“We have see amazing growth in our boy while there. Best wishes to all,” their comment read.
“I was so sorry when I heard this. My son Kaleb went to your school. You were amazing [and] bent over backwards to help,” another parent added.
Others thanked Mountain District Christian College and reinforced that it would be missed, but not forgotten.
“Thank you for all the wonderful years our girls had at MDCS – good luck to all the teachers, staff and students in the future,” one community member wrote.
