Castle Valley Academy

Excerpt from the August 2026 Student Newsletter <- Click Here to view the NEW Issue!

"HERE I AM, SEND ME!"

By Esequias Perea

Principal and Bible Teacher

I have a dream ... no, that's been done. Four score and seven years ...? Man, that one has been done too! Oh, I know-
it was the best time, it was the wor ... that one isn't new either!

How do you start a new school year? It's something that has been done in the past so many times over. Principals, teachers and administrators are constantly coming together those few weeks before the first day of school, trying to come up with a new theme for the school year, a catchy new phrase, or something that just grabs your attention from the moment the students walk into the front door of the school. So many of them are creative, and it is a gift that is truly admirable.

What about when it's not just the beginning of a new school year for the students, but it's a new start for you as a
principal too? Questions come up-- who is he? where is he from? what is his leadership style? his philosophy on Adventist education? Talk about pressure! Who is this guy with a strange name, and what is the theme or vision of the school year going to be? Again, a lot of pressure!

Ecclesiastes 1:9 tells us that "There is nothing new under the sun." So, I wish I had that catchy new theme for the
school year with all the latest marketing merchandise to try to promote it as something that pops! But, I don't. I wish I
could tell you that we met with the top educators in the Adventist education system, and that they gave us new ideas
and connections and energy-- but we didn't. So now what?
"For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an
expected end." Jeremiah 29: 11

I'll tell you what we did do, and what we will continue to do. We prayed. And we have been praying-- for you, for the students and staff, for this campus, all before registration day even began. We have been praying, because we know that our Lord and Savior has great plans for all of us as we read in Jeremiah 1:9, and we want to embrace those plans
that He has put forth. We have been praying for more than just a school year starting in 2026 and ending in 2027. We have been praying that this will be the year when all of us accept the calling placed upon our hearts by God, that we may have the courage to step forward and say, "Here I am, send me!" 

As teachers and staff of Castle Valley Academy, we pray that our students will take this charge seriously, saying it loud and clear, "Send me!"