Written by: Barnabas Fund
Article source: JOY! Magazine
“Our school is the only true Christian School in Bethlehem, all our friends and classmates are Christian. We pray in Aramaic, which is the language of Jesus, and we are very fortunate to learn this.” These are the words of Aram, a Year 12 pupil at St Aphrem’s School in Bethlehem, which has been providing Christian children with an outstanding education in a loving Christian environment for 16 years.
Students receive an excellent start in life
Christian children in Bethlehem face harassment and discrimination in their daily lives, and non-Christian schools can be hostile places for them. Other Christian schools are too expensive for most Christian families, many of whom are too poor to have hot water or heating in the winter. Some parents cannot even afford to buy their children pens and notebooks.
With the support of Barnabas Fund, St Aphrem’s can offer minimal fees so that even children from the poorest Christian families can attend. This excellent start in life will enable the students to get better jobs and, in turn, be able to support their families and strengthen the whole Christian community, which has many unemployed.
St Aphrem’s was built mainly with funds from Barnabas and opened in September 2003 with just 15 kindergarten children. Now it has 660 pupils, aged from three to 18. It employs 65 teachers and other staff, providing much-needed jobs for local Christians.
Pupils score clean sweep in sports competition
There’s more to St Aphrem’s than its excellent academic results. In a “Game of Sports” competition for children in Years 6 and 7, involving a number of Christian schools, St Aphrem’s came first in all games (basketball, football, table tennis, tennis and running) and won the overall First Prize of 200 tickets to a safari aqua park, where the entrance fee would normally be too
expensive for most students’ families.
Students are also encouraged to think of others less fortunate, with a recent project by Year 11 pupils raising money for a home for disabled children.
A safe refuge
One parent of three boys praised St Aphrem’s as “a refuge from the severe community Bethlehem is developing”, referring to the harassment often experienced by Christians in daily life.
Another parent said, “This is the place where I see my children are safe. In such a time as this, when we see our Christian communities getting less and less in number, less and less fortunate in society, less and less opportunities of employment, I find St Aphrem’s a refuge.”
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Date published: 17/10/2019
Feature image: Children from poor Christian families receive an outstanding education in a loving Christian environment at St Aphrem’s School, safe from the harassment Christians face daily in society at large
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