School for Thai mission

STUDENTS at Maranatha Christian School are on a mission.
Come July, 25 students and staff from the Endeavour Hills school will travel to Thailand to work as missionaries in an AIDS orphanage and leprosy hospital.
Students will also teach English to children rescued from slave labour and help fill emergency packs for missionaries to take into volatile Burma.
Teacher Michelle Sharp said at least another 50 staff and students would travel to Thailand in December to carry out similar volunteer work.
This is the sixth year of the program and on Saturday the school will hold a car-boot sale as part of its Thailand Mission Awareness fundraising campaign.
Ms Sharp said physical education teacher Graeme Smith, whose parents work as missionaries, organised the annual trips and she had been lucky enough to join the group last year and would travel again in July.
Staff and students attending the first trip need to raise $1900 each for their travels and those departing in December need $2200.
Ms Sharp said the trip was an invaluable experience for students and gave them some hands-on experience in missionary work.
“The students work with HIV positive orphans, who are aged from infants to 13 years.
“They just play with and love the children and take them bowling and on other activities they would not normally be able to do,” she said.
Donations for site hire at the car-boot sale are $20 with a $5 deposit to be paid upon booking.
The sale runs from 9am to 2pm and there will be a barbecue and Devonshire tea.
Maranatha Christian School is at 106-108 Reema Boulevard, Endeavour Hills. Contact Michelle Sharp on 9709 7269 or 0413 380 912.