“Christian School” - 헤럴드인사이트 청소년 영자신문

Incorporating religion in public schools has been a major hot topic in the world. Public schools are not allowed to support any religion or be against any at the same time. This case is similar in South Korea and not many high schools include Christianity in their educational program, even private schools. However, Gyeonggi Suwon International School is one of the private schools that provide the Christian community in the school. This system brings in many different parts of what non- Christian schools usually provide. There are chapels, prayer requests, praise teams, sermons, and more. But Spiritual Emphasis Week is considered the most enjoyable and special moment in school.

SEW is the acronym for Spiritual Emphasis Week and is the program for staffs and students where people spend more time as Christians by putting aside school work for a week. This helps the students to prioritize God and to learn more about Him and the bible. This spiritual program is mainly organized by chapels, homeroom discussions, rotational activities, and fruits of the spirit sessions.

Chapels begin with the praise songs by the praise team in the auditorium where students not just stand and watch, but get involved in clapping, jumping, singing, etc. Some songs we sang were getting involved with the praise team was a greater experience than what I usually did in my church. Singing helped me to take a better look at the lyrics, clapping kept me focused on the songs, and jumping made me feel the joy. After praising, we would be led by our guest speaker Wade, who travels around the world and shares his stories of God. Listening stories that were able to relate simplified his messages better than preach sermons in church sometimes. A confession of Christ would follow after these events which are a beautiful moment where students decide to commit their lives to God and the adults pray for these students.

Homeroom discussions always follow after the chapels. In this special time, homeroom teachers talk with his or her homeroom students about what they felt in chapel time. In most cases, teachers may just be professionals who just teach students and many students feel this way as well. However, through these discussions, I felt more connected with teachers and found more similarities between us than I thought there would be.

[Praise team praises during chapel and students gather closer
to the praise team members to get more involved.
Photo credit: Andrew Ji]

SEW is not only about sermons and discussions, but also a time for activities for students to enjoy. There are three activities that are put in the schedule: Indoor games, outdoor games, and fellowship with elementary. Indoor and outdoor games are exactly what they sound like. They are series of activities played by homeroom teams to win points for prizes. Games consisted of basketball shootouts, speed- eating challenges, dodgeball, water fights, and team jump rope challenges. I believe that these entertaining activities were put into SEW to show that Christianity is not a religion that requires people to be serious endlessly, but a religion where jollification and enjoyment are part of it. There was also a time of teaching the elementary about the bible verses and what they meant. This was a great way to set the foundation of Christ.

[Upper Secondary students read out and explained bible verses
to elementary students and they had written their own explanation of it
on another paper. Photo Credit: Andrew Ji]

SEW, which is only 3 days in a school year, reminds students of Christ in their life. The busy schedules consisting of schoolwork, tutor lessons, and other works make students to put God aside. It was my first time experiencing a religion- based program in school and it was just like a retreat from a church. More Christian schools should be able to have their students experience this delightful program.

Andrew Ji
10th grade
Gyeonggi Suwon International School

Andrew Ji student_reporter@dherald.com

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