School visitation | Castle Hill NSW

Wednesday: 12 March 

School visitation | Hills College Castle Hill NSW

The Right Around Australia display was scheduled for a school chapel program at 9:00 a.m., followed by class displays throughout the morning. We wanted to be all set up before most of the students arrived, so we aimed to be at the school just after 8 a.m.
It’s always a challenge when we are not familiar with where we can offload without restricting traffic, but fortunately, we have Glen King on our team. He has worked with many of the schools in the Sydney area and can advise us on some of those points.
We left just after 7.30, fully refreshed after the full day yesterday and had a good run through to Castle Hill. The chaplain – John, was arriving just as we pulled into the carpark area and could unlock the gates into the large, covered play area, where we unloaded Bubsie from the trailer much to the delight of those students who had arrived early at school. We signed into the school and set up the car display. Kevin and Glen completed the setup of the table and some other resources, while Glenda arranged to print the Bubsie Activity pages for the students.
Kevin commenced the chapel presentation. Although the PowerPoint program had been inadvertently left in a different bag, we didn’t need to rely on technology and telling the story worked well anyway. The two points that were emphasised were that
1. the Bible is reliable in what it says, and we can share its message with others and
2. even when things in life get difficult, we can trust God to give us the strength and the ability to persevere.
Following chapel, the students had the opportunity throughout the morning to come with their class teachers to inspect the vehicle and understand more of the challenges the men faced on their journey. A copy of the sharing book was given to each class, and Bubsie Activity sheets for each student. Students could also request a copy of the sharing book to take home if desired and take some of the QR code cards to the Incredible Journey programs of interest to them. The older students were also able to watch the vehicle being cranked. The Principal of the two school campuses – Carlie Deppeler, called in from the Kellyville Campus during the morning, and Deputy Principal – Daniel Marsden, had his photo taken behind the wheel. The Principal will have her photo opportunity tomorrow when we visit the Kellyville Campus.
During lunchtime, students were able to see more of the vehicle and collect resources to share with their families. We also took the time to relax and eat lunch. We really appreciated the helpfulness of the staff and thank them for the opportunity to showcase this small part of Australian history.
On our return to Galston, where we were staying, we found a dog scent training exercise in progress in the church carpark. Some of the dogs’ owners were interested in viewing the car in the van and enjoyed that opportunity.