Adventists have long seen our educational students as missionary schools! The story is told by my late mother of her time as a young single missionary teacher in Papua in the aftermath of WWII. One small girl had been converted to love Jesus against the wishes of her village family. She wished for an education which was not available in her village. Her family forbade her from attending the mission school. But she made the break and became a boarding student. The school authorities were well aware of her situation. And did all they could do to ensure that she was safe at all times. But alas! It happened just as the family had threatened!! One dark night, sometimes after lights out in the girls dormitory she disappeared. The other girls roused my mother, Miss Wiseman (Wisey as she was called) with the news that their school friend had quietly been kidnapped from her bed in the open-plan dormitory. The school principal was alerted and a search immediately instituted. There was no sign of her anywhere on campus so the search area was extended to the mangroves adjacent to the campus. Eventually she was found, strung up in a tree, hanging by a rope. The girl was quickly taken down and carried to the verandah of the house where the girls dean, my mother, lived. It appeared as though the girl was dead. But she was tenderly laid out on the rough boards of the verandah. Pray was offered. And the miracle happened! She sat up!! In a few hours she was able to resume life as if nothing had happened. Her father and his friends who had been intent on doing damage to this girl watched these proceedings from the shadows without saying or doing a thing. Later he and his friends were converted. The girl became a minister’s wife!
Yes, Sahmyook University is an interesting place. All Christian educational institutions in Korea are known as mission schools. (And there are scores of them in Korea). I taught English there to English majors in the Division of English Studies in 2008 and 2009.[Before that I spent three years teaching English at a government run university in the far south of Korea). I also served as Senior elder of the University International Church. At that stage our pastor was a Korean pastor and Seminary Professor.
Sahmyook has a distinguished history, having begun as the Adventist training school located near Pyongyang, North Korea, pre-WWII. It was moved to Seoul many years ago. My friend Dr Robert Johnston, a long time missionary to Sahmyook told me of how he and his family would sometime be wakened in the early mornings by the sound of his students praying out loud in the beautiful forest surrounding his house on campus.
A degree from a University in Seoul is worth much more than a degree from a university in the provinces. How thankful Sahmyook is that it’s back boundary is the border of Seoul Metropolitan City and the neighbouring province. Hence competition for a place at Sahmyook is intense. Yet it was only in the late 1980’s or in the 1990’s that Sahmyook University was expanded sufficiently to allow for students to come from the general community. Many of the students who come, and who are not from an Adventist background, are from a Christian background, but not all. My understanding is that such students should demonstrate some appreciation for conservative Christian principles. And all freshman students must attend the university on the Saturday morning. The various schools of the University organize a Sabbath school of sorts to suit their needs, and then go to a special campus wide freshman church service. It was my sense that the university authorities work hard to make such events fit the needs of a very post-modern generation. However, all kinds of subtle pressures and inducements are applied for students to be baptized.
It seemed to me that Korean Adventists would react to the very real religious prejudice against Adventists. Adventist teachings did not allow them to submit themselves to the Confucian ideal of harmony and not rocking the boat. Conversely, Korean Adventist pastor friends would put very real pressure on people to accept the label and become Adventist.
In 2004, I interviewed for the position of full Professor of Theology at what must have been Korea’s smallest university. I actually arrived at the interview not understanding what I had been recruited for. I soon was told. They were happy with my academic record from America, from the UK and from Australia. All went well until I answered the inevitable question - “What denomination are you affiliated with.” The walls went up immediately on my answer.
Most, but not all of the academic staff of Sahmyook were Adventist. In my time there, there were a small handful of academics baptized. We foreign teaching staff were warmly embraced by the university and the academics. (Such was not the case in my former university). Although, in my time we were not listed as credentialed missionaries of the church in the Adventist Yearbook.