KingsWay Missions is so excited to see growth in our young people as we connect them in to both domestic and international mission opportunities. Whilst the past three years have enabled us to strengthen our domestic mission focus, it is exciting to be starting up international mission trips again in 2023.

The highlight of this term was selecting the KingsWay Mission Outreach Teams for trips to Tonga and Cambodia in 2023. For the Tonga trip our students will be working with Motivate in conjunction with Tonga Christian Radio, producing content as well as working with schools and community discipleship groups. For the Cambodia trip our students will be working with Asian Outreach with a range of community projects and ministry opportunities in the area of Stung Treng. We look forward to supporting these teams through 2023 and seeing what God will do in our young people's lives.

Another highlight of this term was fundraising for Mongolian children to have boots and jackets for winter. Whilst this was an across-the-school mufti day fundraiser, it was a particular focus for our Year 5 students throughout the term. After completing the Mission Minded Kids programme with Asian Outreach, the students designed products and ran a market day. All money raised was donated went to the Mongolian Winter Kits appeal. Seeing the enthusiasm generated and students using their entrepreneurial skills to bless others was incredible.

Our mission is ‘Every student engaged in sharing Jesus with the world’. It has been so good seeing our young people activated in this throughout 2022. The future looks bright as we prepare for many more mission opportunities in 2023.

There is a lot of work that has been going on behind the scenes but we have a couple of new initiatives to share with you which are taking place at KingsWay School.

The first involves the setting up of a Wellness Room which is based at the Primary School. The aim of this is to provide a peaceful space for students to draw, read and involve themselves in quiet activities, away from the hustle and bustle of the playground. This has been quite a hit for some of our students and has even given leadership opportunities for some of our Year 6 students. We are thankful to Karen Pretorius, one of our Primary Within School Leaders (WSL) for setting this up for our tamariki.

Another Wellbeing programme has been implemented by Sue Morris, one of our Middle School WSL's. She has begun a variety of challenges within a fitness context for our Year 7 students. Sue decided to incorporate fitness training with Cross Country running. This has promoted high engagement and motivation for our students as they got to take part in, refine and then offer student voice on what could happen next. Student voice has been identified as a contributor to the overall wellbeing of students.

It is pleasing to note that even though we are still only meant to be at the initiating phase of familiarising ourselves with the concept of Student Wellbeing, we have still been able to implement some of our ideas too.

The Kahui Ako Team