The final weeks flew by. We did the last of our perspectives. Looking back they were a little bit of a drag. But somewhere along the way they did a bit of magic in me somewhere. I want to take on the world, live a missional life, here in a comfortable home, but also in the wide wide world. How can we as christians just sit around and do nothing with what we have been given? Lets use what skills we have to impact the world around us! Lets pray! Lets read our bible. Lets laugh about how we can take the discriptions of the song of solomon literally and think he’s courting a woman who is a gazelle with honey dripping out of its mouth and myhr coming out of its hooves! Ha ha. Poetry is fun to rip to shreds mercilessly (also keeps some particularly raunchy imagery at bay.)

When we werent studying (Which wasn’t really all that often to be honest) We were running around like headless chickens with blood shot eyes (yea, without a head, but with eyes never the less) staring into computer screens (Yes, Running around, but also being in a static position.) wrestling with non commital programs to make the year book and end of year celebrations a possibility. Ok, quick side note about the year books for the gappers that read this. I was talking to John (If thats his name), the head honcho who deals with all the cash at GCIM, about the pictures. A few picture files were missing from the year book. It was a giant montage of the begining of the year and the Philipeans. Ok so they were apparently ditched because they were so full of kick ass awesomeness that they weren’t able to be sent over email (Since their file size verged on mammoth.) the girls spent FOREVER doing them. So I think he’s gonna try and print em off himself and send them all to us. So maybe we should be prepared for a little surprise in the mail. Woops. Its not a surprise anymore, well act surprised, so you don’t hurt his feelings or something.

Us guys got devious, and a little bored. So we decided to take the girls shower curtains (The showers are in like a corridor so they need to walk past each other.) and then steal their lights out of the toilet, and then the lights out of their room area places. I can’t remember if it was before or after that Amy got a pair of Peakies boxers, and a pair of Jess’s grundies and stuck them up the flag pole. Unfortunatly for them the camp inspector came that day to check some stuff out at camp. And to him putting undies up the scout flag pole is like sacralage. He was FUMING, muttering under his breath etc. Oops, oh well. Guess the christian gap year program won’t be going back to Albany. ha ha. Oh yea. Then we got a pair of amys delicates and pinned them to the ceiling so it looked sorta like a half naked person stuck to the ceiling of the dining room. Funny idea if nothing else. We did a few more but they were a little to mundane to write down. But lets skip forward, back to the narrows. Us guys went to have dinner with Steven and Trisha (Our host parents from doing kiwi fruit.) While we were gone the girls collectively pranked the crap out of us. Im actually quite proud of them. It started with Frank noticing the glad wrap on the toilet seats. and the red bloodied tampons hanging on every single object, and the pads screwed up and pushed into our beds. Girls in general, don’t bother with the glad wrap on the toilet seat trick, it doesn’t really work with guys, We don’t really use the seat. And its survival instinct to look in the toilet first, some guys don’t flush. ha ha. Then we found confetti all through our bags, its spread out all over my room at the moment actually. (Don’t worry, I actually vacuumed it up.) Then we found and disarmed their (was it?) disinfectant in the shower thingies, oh no, were gonna wash ourselves even more while washing ourselves! Not well thought out ah well. Then there was the salt (or something, I never tasted it) on our tooth brushes (Teeth brushes?) Now that one was a good one. But we didn’t fall victim. Now my Fav one they did to us was the Vegemite on the light bulbs, it started smelling funky in our rooms for a while before we figured out what it was. We just nabbed their bulbs and switched em… move back to when frank found the glad wrap in the toilet. Its time for action! Us men had to take a deciseve counter attack, IMMEDIATELY, no time to loose. So we used the glad wrap they so handely left us and got peaky to (Girls, your aloud to skip to the next paragraph if you don’t want to read about vulgarity.) take a massive crap in it, and then put it in their sink. The girls came out from watch Mamma mia, seeing we had found their tricks they all were giggling and hiding in their room, I guess they didn’t know what to do. Then they started to go into their bathroom. I followed with the camera. Their faces were hilarious! They gagged, they screamed, they ran in shock, They exclaimed, oh my goodness it was worth it. sigh..

That story over lets go back to Albany. Im skating around the building, down a narrow path with a hand rail to my left, my board quickly picks up speed, the gravel, doubled with the incline going to the left makes my board slide out from under me, my legs at about knee hight slam into one of the posts for the hand rail, they then come back onto the path and help to slow me down. A piece of gravel sits neatly at the end of a streak of blue jean scraped onto the concrete. Yay a new hole. I lie on the ground yelling profanities. Frank runs around the corner, ” and you wanted me to do that lying down on the skateboard??” “YeeeeesssAAah.. Hang on.. I just gotta walk it off.” I try standing, “AAAH, I can’t walk it off!” I say as I give up that bad idea. So I then spend the next few days hobbling around like an old man. Stairs were particularly embarrassing to get up and down on. Heh heh. It still sorta hurts when I bend my knees. But don’t worry I’m still skating strong. As J was saying about Emo’s skating “Yea, of course Emos skate. Its like a new method of self harm.”

I dont know what to say now. Things happened so quickly. So many precious memories I should probably write down Im going to leave unspoken, and unwritten. They were good times. We did the end of year celebrations with our parents there. At the end we gathered around and sung. We sung our hearts out for the lord and each other. The girls cried, the guys laughed and played it off. But inside all of us were loosing a huge part of our lives every time someone walked out with all their bags. I lost the community that we had that day, and for 10 months before. People that I had grown with, people that understand EXACTLY where I’m coming from, know almost exactly how I have changed. They shared the life changing God experiences with me. They shared the millions of laughs we had. From Mount Eden to Thailand, they were there beside me. Egging each other on to do Gods work. If at the begining you had asked me if Headspace would change me, I would probably say yes, on an academic level probably. But I didn’t think my heart would be ripped out and replaced with an entirely new one. One which would want to serve God hard out. To do his will. To do the huge great big things he wants me to do. To live in a godly relationship, to live a godly life. I didn’t just give one year, I gave my entire life. If I had full control over the catch phrase of Headspace it would probably look like this.