In the 1970s YWAM Kona pioneered a Preschool and International Christian School (ICS) for Elementary & High School students, running seminars and developing curriculum centered on the nature and character of God that impacted many nations. In 1989 the ICS was passed on to another Hawaii school group and U of N staff began exploring a different model of education.

Our current school began in 1989 as a parent led school, (“UofN Co-op School”) where parents shared the teaching, often with a full time teacher helping. At international gatherings in Fiji in 2006, University of the Nations leaders were reminded of the word God spoke back in the 1970s that U of N was to begin with preschool education on through elementary/primary and high school to tertiary level. Out of this came a fresh commitment to the education of children and further development of our parent-involvement school model and Biblical curriculum on the U of N Kona campus. In 2013 the school was renamed “Wai’aha International Family School” to better reflect our heart and vision.

Wai’aha continues to develop as a school on our campus that helps children know God and prepares them with knowledge, skills and character to fulfill their God-given destinies. Experienced parent-teachers, parents new to teaching and trained teachers work as a team, endeavoring to shape a learning environment, creative teaching methods, and curriculum that reflect the character of God, and are applicable in missions settings. There is a focus on training parents, equipping them to teach their own children when they go places where there are no schools, and to be a part of multiplying Biblical models of family and education into the nations.