The Education That Crosses the Time Zone

By Célio Barcellos

At the headquarters of the Northern Asia-Pacific Division, Pastor Edgar Luz, from the Department of Education, placed in my hands a phone stand—handsome, sturdy, stamped with the Adventist Education mark. A simple object. And yet heavy with meaning. 

It was my last Sabbath in South Korea before flying back to Brazil. I had left my son at Sahmyook University. 

For a moment I felt as if I had stepped into Back to the Future: I was a Dr. Emmett Brown, knocked out of time; he was a Marty McFly about to go on alone. 

A joke? Almost. Being on the other side of the world, body clock turned inside out, the time zone and the unfamiliar campus pressing in, gave the sense of having crossed a fold in time. But leave the fiction there.

Let us return to what was real. After the worship service, Grace, a young woman from China with an angelic face and smile, invited us to a dinner she and a friend would prepare. 

We've already lunch with them. Still, we said yes. That clear afternoon, my son and I walked across campus. The trees were beautiful. We spoke little. 

We watched more: the attentive, human way Koreans and students from so many countries received us. 

At the table I tried to talk. Mostly I looked. Happy faces, full of plans. Mexico, Sri Lanka, Uzbekistan, China, the United States, Spain, Africa, Malaysia, Brazil—and other names that mingled in the air. 

They were between nineteen and twenty-five. I held my gaze on their smiles, their gestures, the timbre of their voices. 

I wanted to keep them as a mosaic. I saw them as sons and daughters, too. And at the same time I imagined that from that table Kairos' future wife might one day come. 

Who knows - I might have been looking at my future daughter-in-law, the mother of my grandchildren. And the promise came to mind: “All your children shall be taught by the Lord, and great shall be the peace of your children” (Isaiah 54:13).

In Korea, and all through the journey, the same thought returned: human beings are the same everywhere—and, at the same time, other, with their language, their habits, their culture. 

Moments of Bible study and relaxation among international students

For many of these young people, coming from countries where freedom is narrowed, Adventist education—and Sahmyook in particular—is not only a school. It is refuge, learning, hope. 

I am drawn to the words of Frederick Douglass, the enslaved man who became an abolitionist and is part of the American literary pantheon. 

When Mr. Auld discovered that his wife was teaching Douglass to read, he feared that literacy would “spoil” him. Douglass understood the opposite: what the oppressor feared most was exactly what he most desired. 

Education sets people free. “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32).

A mind that is awake and committed to others makes room for respect, equality, fellowship—and for a kind of progress that does not humiliate.

How good it is to be an Adventist and to remember that the pioneers believed this enough to rest the work on four pillars: literature evangelism, heir to the Waldensian spirit; the local church, the heart of the movement; medical missionary work, the whole-person care of people; and Christian education, which forms a life and points toward eternity. 

Edgar Luz and the image of the pioneers of Adventist education in Korea

From the time the message reached Korea in the early twentieth century, the church invested early in schools and in health. 

The fruit is there to see: five hospitals, two universities, and a network of churches across the country. 

Early childhood education students at Sahmyook

In June 2025, the Korean Union Conference—almost entirely in South Korea—reported 700 organized churches and about 268,000 members. One Adventist for every 291 people. A firm presence in Seoul and in the major cities. 

To look at those young students around the table was to see, at once, the church’s challenge and the mission unfolding—now, there, in real time. 

Sahmyook (삼육) means threefold education: mind, spirit, and body. The name came to identify the whole Adventist educational system in Korea.

Every time I look at that phone stand, I will remember not only the faces from that night. I will remember Isaiah again—children taught by the Lord, abundant peace—and that the church was present in their lives, and in my son’s, under the banner of Adventist education.

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