Sri Lankan Mission Trip

News from our Sri Lanka team 2019

During the October school holidays, a group of 10 students and staff from across two Tyndale campuses had the amazing privilege of visiting Sri Lanka to take part in our annual mission trip. For some it was a chance to re-visit this wonderful country and for many it was a totally new experience. For all, it was an incredibly memorable and rewarding trip.

Our first week was spent at Shalom Girl’s Home. Shalom is home to twenty girls aged 6-18. Whilst there we were involved in multiple projects to help update and improve the home. We learnt and improved many skills including painting, shovelling dirt, and mixing cement to update the rooms and build a new retaining wall for their bathroom area. We also spent time simply hanging out with the girls – playing with balloons and basketballs, bowling with empty plastic bottles, doing craft activities, playing cricket, skipping, drawing, singing, dancing, blowing bubbles, and much more!

We also spent two days at Beth Shalom Boy’s Home. While our time there wasn’t as long, we were still able to spend some time doing more painting to update their front veranda and get to know the boys. Again, we spent most of our time playing games with the kids including cricket, volleyball and monopoly.

Our time in Sri Lanka also allowed for many other new experiences such as drinking tea from an actual tea factory and riding elephants (much to the great excitement of Miss Milne!). Our transit home also meant we spent a day out exploring the amazing sights of Singapore – some from 140m high! Throughout everything, the trip was also a great opportunity for the team to bond and get to know each other better.

“Sri Lanka was such an amazing experience for myself. It was a privilege to get to experience a whole new way of life and getting to know not only my fellow peers more, but the love of God.” – Kingsley Marston.

Amongst all these amazing projects and experiences, I think if you asked any member of the team, the most special and rewarding part of the trip was hanging out with the children at the homes. Their joy and laughter is infectious and pure – relying not on what they did or didn’t have, but relying solely on knowing that they are loved by those who run the home, by us as we visited with them, and also by God. Watching them enjoy even the smallest of presents, seeing them smile and watching as they danced and sang praises was an incredibly humbling and beautiful thing to witness. Being able to spend time with the children in this way was also a beautiful reminder that the love of God transcends all language barriers, overcomes all seemingly hopeless situations and provides incredible joy!

Kirsten Milne

Secondary HASS teacher