Within and Beyond the Walls of Taejon Christian International School
Ryan M. Roberts, MEd, MRel, Director of Spiritual Formation Programs
Taejon Christian International School, Daejon, South Korea
The main gate of Taejon Christian International School (TCIS) in South Korea is one of the most important places on the campus, not because of its grandeur or size but because of its purpose. The main gate serves as the place where students and staff enter the campus to grow both academically and spiritually, and it serves as the place where students and staff exit the campus to serve their community and the world in Christ’s name.
Inside the walls of the TCIS campus, the offering of an outstanding Christian education is given highest priority. Beginning with the Primary Years Program (PYP) in the elementary school and continuing through the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Program in the high school, TCIS values academic learning and encourages excellence as students honor God with their minds as well as their hearts.
In 2007, the TCIS headmaster, Dr. Thomas Penland, led the school in sponsoring a first-f-its-kind symposium titled “Teaching IB in the Christian School.” Christian educators from the United States, Indonesia, Australia, India, Africa, and Korea gathered on the TCIS campus to discuss the future of international Christian education in the twenty-first century. For TCIS, there is a seamless link between education and ministry, and it is the desire of the institution to be a blessing to others and a catalyst for excellence in faith-based education.
The TCIS education calendar sets aside specific days for focus on Christian growth as a community. Each year, the students and the staff of the school participate in Spiritual Emphasis Week, and for those three days the students consider the Word of God together, worship together, play together, and work together in service to others. During the week, the students live out their faith as they spend a part of each day either handing out hot drinks at the local train and bus stations or distributing blankets, clothes, and toys to children at a nearby orphanage.
In the high school, the student council members have taken the lead in creating unity among the members of the diverse international school community by implementing quarterly randomacts- of-kindness (RAK) days on campus. The RAK days have included activities ranging from offering free hugs for students who are passing between classes to setting up a foot-washing station where the student leaders take time to pray for their classmates and wash their classmates’ feet.
During the 2007–2008 school year, a total of 175 students and staff members exited the main gate of the TCIS campus to participate in 10 love-all-serve-all (LASA) mission/service trips throughout Asia. TCIS students and staff went beyond the barriers of language, culture, and ethnicity by building homes and schools in the Philippines, evangelizing in Indonesia, leading vacation Bible schools in Thailand, and giving time, love, and care to children living in orphanages in India. The LASA trips form the core of what the TCIS educational community is about—a spirit of service and a zeal for sharing God’s love and care with the world. It is on these types of trips that the hearts and the minds of students change forever as they become aware of the needs of the disadvantaged around them. As students step away from their lives of comfort, give of themselves, sleep on the dirt floor of a hut, and give hugs to orphaned children, the students’ heart for the world expands beyond the realm of their own personal interest, and their global vision for ministry in Christ’s name enlarges.
In May 2008, TCIS sponsored its first middle school mission trip, and 21 students and 4 adult sponsors exited the main gate of TCIS and headed to the northeast corner of the country to the Jesus Abbey in the Taebaek Mountains of Kangwondo, South Korea. At the Jesus Abbey, the students spent four days serving one another, preparing fields for the sowing of crops, praying together, worshipping God, studying the Bible, and learning about how they can be ready to minister to the people of North Korea when the “wall” to that country comes down.
The main gate of Taejon Christian International School swings both ways in the cause of Christian education, service, and ministry. It is a place where students enter to grow in their love for God and others and then exit to use their talents, abilities, and lives to serve the world in the name of Jesus Christ. Within the walls of the school, TCIS presses on, focusing its mission on the education and the spiritual formation of students so that they may be equipped to one day go beyond the walls of the campus to live out the Great Commission.
TCIS 12.2