Chaplain's Message
Rev'd Dr Rob Beamish
Our School Chaplain, Rev'd Dr Rob Beamish, reflects on our new partnership with Edukid, our upcoming trip to Peru in October 2024, and doing all the good we can in a troubled and divided world.
"Rydal Penrhos School has a long history of supporting overseas development projects, most recently in Uganda.
"That partnership saw groups of Senior pupils and staff visit southern Uganda, with the whole school raising funds to support various projects. As with many things the global Covid-19 pandemic caused an evaluation of that partnership, and it was clear that it was coming to a natural end.
"During our last Advent term, we began a partnership with the educational charity EduKid.
"This charity may be new to many, but it is the preferred partner for Methodist Independent Schools Trust (MIST) schools and has a focus on supporting education in deprived communities across the world.
"As part of our partnership, we have chosen to support their new project in Northern Peru. Another MIST school, Kent College, Canterbury will visit in July and then we have a trip of eighteen pupils and two staff going during the October half-term. This trip, accompanied by three EduKid staff, will travel to Imacita in the north of Peru and spend time in the local school as well as going on ‘home visits’ to various villages along the Amazon River.
"The partnership is not simply about a trip every now and again, it is about raising awareness of the development needs of the country across our whole school and curriculum. The links with our modern languages department are fairly obvious given that Spanish is taught across the school. Elsewhere we will see links with Geography, and the charity provides significant support for our pupils engaged in The Duke of Edinburgh's Award scheme.
"Our sponsored walk later this year will raise money to support children from the school in Imacita. Many of the children travel to school from the jungle and cannot afford to regularly go back home, but also struggle to get adequate accommodation near the school. We have a number of these children who we are specifically supporting as a school.
"An opportunity like this to support pupils in a very different setting allows us as a school to reflect on what it really means to ‘do all the good we can’, being those who love ourselves and ‘our neighbours.’ The challenge of loving neighbours who we may never meet, is one that we all face when confronted with the needs of a broken and hurting world. How do we relate to those who we never meet who are subject to different forces and situations than us, whilst at the same time we are confronting and dealing with our own issues and challenges?
"So far this term my chapels for the Prep School have focussed on us all as people created by God with equal value and worth, living in a world that is marred by hurt and pain but also marked by the possibility of hope. (You will be relieved when I reassure you that I have communicated those significant and weighty themes with more puppets and action songs than I might ordinarily use in other settings!)
“As we start the season of Lent, which our term is named after, we prepare for Easter mindful that the hope found in Jesus for a hurting world embraces both the blessings and battles we can face on a daily basis. Our partnership with EduKid and the project in Peru will continue to be a picture, whether we are able to visit there or not, that wherever we are and whatever battles we are valuable to God and to one another and that there is always the promise of hope.”
- Rev'd Dr Rob Beamish