For the past 4 years, Good Shepherd Lutheran College, in Darwin, Northern Territory, have been sending a team to Bethany Home in Malaysia, with the view to establishing and building a relationship between the two schools. Bethany Home is a school run by the  Evangelical Lutheran Church in Malaysia, and caters for students with disabilities. […]

For the past 4 years, Good Shepherd Lutheran College, in Darwin, Northern Territory, have been sending a team to Bethany Home in Malaysia, with the view to establishing and building a relationship between the two schools. Bethany Home is a school run by the  Evangelical Lutheran Church in Malaysia, and caters for students with disabilities. Our teams have been comprised of 4-6 of our year 12 students who have been appointed to a leadership position, and 2-3 staff members.

It has been a real joy each year to see the growth of our students through this service experience.  We only spend a week at Bethany Home, and ten days in Malaysia in total, but each year our students, and staff members, are totally awed and inspired by the cheerfulness and determination of the Bethany Home students, and the attitude of service and vocation shown by the staff.  We have appreciated that, even though we are with them for a short time, we are always warmly received and cared for by everyone at Bethany Home.

As a partnership, we have been very pleased with how this has gone for our College. The student leaders we take over each year gain great benefit from this trip, and we see this in how they carry out their leadership roles for the year. These students also then lead the fundraising efforts at Good Shepherd for the following year. In addition, our local Lutheran congregation also partner us in our fundraising. Together, in 2018, we have now sent $11,000 to Bethany Home.

All of us who have attended this service trip have been richly blessed by it, as has our whole school and local church community. We certainly encourage other schools and congregations to look at setting up a partnership like this also.

If your school would like to know more about how they can connect to the mission of God through a LCA International Mission service-learning and ministry partnership, you are invited to phone Erin on (08) 8267 7300 or email erin.kerber@lca.org.au. For more information, go to www.lcamission.org.au/join-gods-mission/service-learning/

Read more stories about school partnerships and school service-learning at www.lcamission.org.au/category/stories/local-partners/schools/