Seventh-day Adventist schools are places where children and young people may learn about God, the Creator of the universe. With the dominance of evolutionary theory in secular schools, Adventist schools are seeking innovative ways of advocating and promoting the biblical account of creation. The rationale for this is that creation is the basis for knowing God and His powerful words. Other biblical doctrines and teachings such as Sabbath observance, sin and salvation, and the philosophy of work are related to creation.
For that reason, the Education Department of the Northern Asia-Pacific Division (NSD) of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, in collaboration with the Geoscience Research Institute (GRI) in the region, came up with the idea of providing every Adventist school with a creation display or a creation museum. This initiative seeks to help every Adventist school to provide a space, a room, or a corner in the school building where creation artifacts are to be displayed. The goal is to remind students that creation is real, and God is real; it is to teach them that the world did not come to existence by chance or accident.
To make this goal a reality, during 2020, the NSD GRI and the Education Department have purchased creation artifacts and fossils from Tucson, Arizona, United States. They have been distributed among all Adventist schools in the Japan Union Conference, the Taiwan Conference, and the Mongolia Mission. (Each Adventist school in the Korean Union Conference has had a creation museum in place for more than 10 years.) Each school in Japan, Taiwan, and Mongolia has received creation items worth US$1,000. In response to this initiative, every school has dedicated a space to display these artifacts and fossils.
Since it is not possible to visit all schools right now due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a launching or inauguration of these creation displays took place in the NSD headquarters in Paju, Korea, on June 16, 2021. In the office of the NSD Education Department director, a space has been prepared with some shelves to display similar artifacts and fossils that were given to the schools. Half of this office is dedicated to this purpose. It symbolizes that the NSD Education Department exists to introduce God to all students and bring them to the knowledge of their Creator.
At the inauguration of the creation displays, NSD president Si Young Kim thanked Chong Geol Choi, NSD GRI director, and Richard Sabuin, NSD Education director, for their effort to make this happen. “We need to introduce God to many students studying in our schools, who have not known God and accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior,” he said.
All NSD employees attended the special event and witnessed the ribbon-cutting ceremony.
Although it was a small event, it represented the most important value in Adventist education. May Adventist schools continue to be a place where many children and young people come to know God and have a personal relationship with Him.
The original version of this story was posted on the Northern Asia-Pacific Division news site.
