Lucas and Sarah Smith met in the mountains of North Carolina, when Lucas came to Sarah’s hometown to attend Appalachian State University. After graduation, he attended Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, where one of his professors was Dr. John H. Sailhamer. This gentlemanly scholar of biblical Hebrew, by the heat of his own love for the language, sparked a passion for Hebrew within Lucas. At the end of his second year of seminary, Lucas asked for Sarah’s hand in marriage and was accepted. It was already a settled matter that, if the Lord blessed them with children, they would be homeschooled, and Hebrew was on the subject list. After the wedding, Sarah joined Lucas in the flatlands for another year at Southeastern Seminary, and, while pregnant with their first child, had the privilege of auditing several of Dr. Sailhamer’s classes. Having already decided they would put down roots in the mountains, Lucas and Sarah returned to Boone, NC and the next morning (!) at twenty-six weeks gestation, their daughter, Hannah Faith, was born. Over the next twelve years the Lord added: Abraham, Anastasia and Zoë, Noah, Caleb, Abigail, Joseph, Marcus, and Phinehas. The Smith children fill the house with noise, laughter, and plenty of their own good ideas. If you want to see some of the fruit of their creativity, visit our MountainMaid shop on Etsy.
In the course of time, the learning at home became official with the establishment of their homeschool “Messiah’s Mantle”. Also in the course of time, Lucas settled on a vocation in law enforcement, and he continues to strive to make the community safe and peaceful. Lucas and Sarah also designed and built the home of their dreams on land where every year they strive to become a little more and better “homesteaders”.