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Morling College

2nd INTERNATIONAL TRAINING SEMINAR January 12th - 16th 2009- Morling College Sydney NSW

Sydney -- The Second New Hope International Training Seminar was held at Morling College Macquarie Park in Sydney NSW from January 12th to 16th. Neighbouring Dunmore Lang College provided very convenient and attractive accommodation for the 39 delegates and 8 staff members. Morling College, which is a Mission partner of New Hope International, provided the venue free of charge for the conference. New Hope International is very grateful for this valuable support and the new location was a wonderful success.

Pauls Productions

Some of the overseas delegates with Bethany Ferguson

The lecturing team
The lecturing staff included NHI staff workers and experienced teachers who have been involved in developing this material or have undertaken training in it. The team was led by Rev Bob Frisken President of New Hope International. David Ferguson, NHI Business Director ably assisted by his wife Debra did a magnificent job in organising the seminar. Their daughter, Bethany, helped where she could and brought a ray of sunshine to the sessions where she loved to participate. Other lecturers were Ross Carlyon, Alanna Hiha, Rev Peter Hester, Lynette Hester, Sue Skuthorpe and Catriona Wansbrough. Neville Pollard organised the teaching program and Luke Reifler operated the camera to record the Phase Two lectures. Again this year the recording equipment was provided free of charge by Pauls Productions www.paulsproductions.com/
Everyone present was very conscious of the recent death of Bob Frisken's wife, Maryanne, who had organised the previous conference and who had done so much work in the writing and editing of the teaching material.

Group photo of the delegates.

Evaluations
The evaluations showed that the Seminar was highly valued by participants. What they valued most was:
0 Fellowship with other like-minded Christians who have a passion for genuine Christian education. I really enjoyed getting to know and learn about the situations of the people from overseas. The course provides good material to initiate genuine Christian education.
0 The encouragement gained from our fellowship with each other and the way all participants and lecturers added value to my life and educational approach to both classroom and life.
0 Transforming my secular teacher training assumptions into Christ centered teaching.
0 I believe the sense of community was very strong and powerful.
0 The fellowship and insights gained from other cultures
0 The excitement of the potential of this ministry.
0 All content of presentations was good - very good equally it was great to connect with those from a VERY diverse collection of backgrounds and to hear their stories, struggles and blessings and to see God at work.
0 The interactive group activities, which facilitates learning , the opportunity to network and the group discussions. The actual material is great and informative. There is a good balance and mix of information. The knowledge of the facilitators is excellent.
0 The Bible teaching. As a school we have many areas needing work. As a Christian teacher I need a lot more help to be truly teaching from a biblical perspective.
0 It reinforced the mind of Christ in a fresh, practical way and showed me how can I apply these better in my classroom/school here and now.
0 Excellent in-service for the building up a teacher spiritually and emotionally for Christian education.
0 The content of the course has been most helpful, it enables me to consider how I can be of service to both NHI and in my current school ministry.