Ponderings
The Samuel School began with a dream. One Sunday morning about 8 years ago, during worship, I pondered in my heart, “Lord I see how children can engage in prophetic worship and arts but what about the content areas of school (math, science, reading, and so on).”
That very night the Lord gave me a dream. In the dream I was walking outside. Ahead of me I saw a traditional looking one story school building to the right, on a hill, and to the left were green rolling pastures. In the pastures I saw a man walking who I personally know loves the Lord.
As I approached the school I noticed it had a glass wall. Gathered behind the glass wall was a group of about 5 or 6 children with the oldest being a boy, about age 12, standing in the middle of them. He was holding a musket and pointing it toward the glass wall.
My pastor was beside me and I said, “Look, the children are trying to break out of the school.” The dream was over.
The Search Begins
I was amazed by the dream and especially wondered of the significance of the musket. I knew the dream was in response to the prayer of my heart and so I started to research education during the time of the musket, colonial times especially. Was I ever surprised!
What I found, with regard to those of us who have gone through the public school system, is that our Christian heritage has been systematically and intentionally hidden from us. I had no idea the significance faith and God played in those foundational years. I also was surprised at how personally meaningful I would find the accounts of Christian Americans who have walked before us. I began to understand why the Supreme Court at the end of the 19th Century declared us to be a Christian nation.
I combed the internet for about a year and became most impressed with David Barton and Wallbuilders. His research on the founders and education is very thorough and enlightening, resources well worth the study. However, I continued searching wondering how the curriculum of that time could be discovered or would I need to right it from scratch.
Finally – I Found It!
One day after about a year of combing the internet, I came across The Principle Approach, America’s Historic method of Biblical reasoning. It places the Word of God as the only foundation for school and its’ subjects. I knew immediately that this was what the mother load.
The leg work has significantly been done with regard to searching out our Biblical foundation in education. During the 1960’s and 1970’s the Lord inspired two women, Verna Hall and Rosalie Slater, to become dissatisfied with the direction that civil government was leading this nation and sought out rather to restore our Christian heritage and rediscover its sources. And thereby restore our nation and government.
They gathered a group of people in the San Francisco area and begin to compile and gather information from primary resources that illuminated the Christian character of the nation during its founding. As the years of their research transpired they discovered underlying principles that reoccurred within this Christian nation at its beginnings. Thus the name, The Principle Approach to education was conceived. Furthermore, they compiled the materials they accumulated into a meaningful curriculum that has been used to restore the Christian character within children as it did this nation at its inception.
The Name
Some time after researching and starting to understand that the Lord was leading me to start a school, I pondered what the name would be. One Sunday morning, my pastor’s wife encouraged the congregation to read the Bible through, in order, from cover to cover. As I read through the Bible, I of course came to the books of Samuel.
I was amazed at how many similarities exist between the prophet and the purpose of the school. Samuel experienced God’s presence as a boy, heard His voice, and learned His ways. Through the citizens of Israel, God transformed their nation back to Him in about 25 years. Every sphere of society, including civil government, was transformed back into a God honoring representation. Samuel’s School of the Prophets had a lot to do with speaking God’s truth into these spheres (7 Mountains).
Forward Ho!
So now… the Lord leads on. The year of the breakthrough has come for children. The green pastures of life in the Spirit are before them. The heritage of the Lord, also called His testimony, cannot be hidden any longer. Children need their testimony/His Story (HiStory) to embrace life to the fullest and to be equipped with the weapons necessary to overcome the evil one (see Revelations 12:11). And as His truth is revealed and spoken again, so too will His power and Kingdom be restored in America, one child at a time!