Yesterday, we landed in Taipei and as we walked through the airport Ava pointed out something to me. It was a beautiful sign that crested over a display. The iridescent sign read, PRAYER ROOM and under it were 3 doors with religious symbols attached to each. The doors had an eerie look with light shining brightly illuminating only the edges of the odd shaped doors. The first door had the star-and-moon of the Islamic symbol, the middle had a symbol best described as a backwards swastika, which is an ancient Buddhist symbol, meaning peace and the last door had a cross to represent Christianity; Three doors, three rooms, three ways to pray.
This display is symbolic of our trip. The doors represent our friends and students. We have come to know and love our Muslim, Buddhist and Christian friends from our last trip and I look forward to deepening these friendships this year. The prayer room display has 3 doors under the same roof just like the 3 faiths represented by the students who come under the same roof of the Santisuk English School. The stark difference between the airport display and Santisuk school is that these 3 faiths come under one teaching at the school. The Gospel of Jesus’ saving grace is the roof to this house. Do all of these students follow Christianity? No, but they come back to the school time and time again. The school has had record breaking attendance over the last two months.
The question is, why would these students, especially of other faiths, keep returning to a school that explicitly teaches that Jesus Christ is the one true God? These students return for a variety of reasons but the main reason is because they know they will get excellent services at Santisuk. One group of students love the English instruction and merely tolerate the gospel message. Another group of students love the English instruction, are intrigued by Jesus and are attracted of the love the teachers and staff. Some of these students, while learning English, are completely won over by the truth of the gospel and love of those who share this good news to them.
So, we are left with a choice. We can stand on a balcony and shout out to people all the reasons why we should stay away from other faiths. We could walk through the illuminated doorway of our faith and shut the door tightly behind us. Or, we can get to know the people of these faiths and show them the love and compassion that we have been shown by our Lord and Savior. Santisuk English School has chosen the better way.
