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The 40 Avondale College students who travelled to Africa and Asia over the yearend have shared their stories during service-themed worship services this past month.

Senior minister Dr Bruce Manners called those who had served to the front of the Seventh-day Adventist church on the college's Lake Macquarie campus during the worship service on March 10 before chaplain Dr Wayne French offered a prayer for God's blessing. The Friday evening worship service, 7.28, had a similar theme, as did a Saturday morning worship service at the Fox Valley Seventh-day Adventist Community church a week earlier.

The students travelled to Cambodia, the Philippines, Mozambique and Tanzania with the support of independent supporting ministry One Mission.

The largest group, comprised predominantly of students from the Lake Macquarie campus, travelled to northern Cambodia to renovate the Whatpreahyesu Orphanage and build a playground and six wells. A smaller group of students from the Sydney campus, who called themselves HEART, an acronym for hygiene, education, alcohol, recreation and temperance, travelled to the Philippines promoting health and hygiene in an orphanage, a prison, schools and a village using resources they developed themselves. They fed up to 600 people a day.

The two other groups travelled to Mozambique and Tanzania. The smallest group--six people--served the longest--two months. Group members built and repaired churches, orphanages and schools in Mozambique, distributed more than 600 Bibles and conducted three, two-week evangelistic series. The group travelling to Tanzania spent most of its time working with the Masai, demonstrating cooking and other lifestyle practices that help prevent disease.

According to co-founder Sarah Kranz, One Mission seeks to position itself as a short-term mission trip facilitator. She hopes the presence of One Mission on the Lake Macquarie campus will encourage more students to serve.

Caption: Avondale College students, including Liliana Osorio, served in four countries under the One Mission banner over the yearend.

Caption: College Church senior minister Dr Bruce Manners and chaplain Dr Wayne French acknowledge the students who gave up a part of their holidays to serve overseas.
Credit: Ann Stafford