Service
One of the core values of the College is 'Love God and love others' (Matthew 22:37-39). We encourage each student to ‘relate through service in community’ and to develop the 'hands and heart' of service. Students will be encouraged to love others through serving others as we seek to instill a foundation that leads to genuine benefit for others. Children will not naturally focus on bringing benefit to others and so emphasising this value by prioritising opportunities to serve is crucial. Students are encouraged to use their gifts and interests to benefit their peers, the College and the broader community with opportunities suited to varying ages.
Opportunities are available for students to serve within the College as well as in local, regional and overseas contexts.
Our student body undertakes community service in the local area and supports a range of local charities such as Samaritan’s Purse, Compassion Australia, Carevan Blacktown, The Exodus Foundation, Youth With a Mission (YWAM), The Big Issue Magazine and the Cancer Council. Students are also encouraged in outreach to our local community through our October Holiday Kids Club in partnership with Riverstone Baptist Church who meet onsite.
"We are amazed at the generosity and support we receive from your students and teachers. Your students are learning great lessons in generosity and compassion for people they do not know … Together we are making a difference.”
— Jeni Simmons (Coordinator, Carevan Blacktown)
"It is great to have a school drive all this way and take interest in us. We are all very old and so it's impossible to build a garden. This community needs something like this because we are all isolated and lonely doing our own thing. This will bring unity for sure."
— Geoff (Tenant, Mission Australia housing)
Students also have the opportunity to travel through regional NSW to support schools and churches with music performances on our Regional Mission Tour. Students are also given the opportunity to partner and learn about supporting regional communities with Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF).
Students are also given an international perspective on service through partnering with Tear Fund, Compassion Australia and the Church Missionary Society (CMS) to fundraise, raise awareness, and support mission overseas. International mission trips are available annually and seek to serve communities through establishing key relationships with organisations and people who are “local” to the communities the College will serve.
International trips seek to use the many blessings we have in our daily lives to serve and love others. Students also get the blessing of being able to share this experience with their friends under the supervision of our experienced staff. For Christian students such trips also afford them opportunities to share their faith with people who have little knowledge of The Gospel. The College’s annual mission trip is to Cambodia, assisting in a children’s ministry aimed at children living in slums in some of the poorest areas of Phnom Penh. The participants assisted their Khmer counterparts in a reading program and shared their faith with crowds of up to 130 people through sport, craft, song, drama, testimony, and reading God's Word.
Visit the Missions Photo Gallery to see some snapshots of the many ways our students serve others.
"I have brought me and my wife here for 10 years to serve Him with these amazing students from Norwest!"
— Vandy Chea (Director of Children at Risk Project, Phnom Penh, Cambodia)