Lost & Found

The Year 6 and 7 camp at Ankara was in full swing. The floating obstacle course was testing my resolve to prove once and for all that I was still good enough, and young enough, to make it to the other side without losing my balance and falling off in a less than graceful fashion! What made it worse was the fact that many of the students had fleetfooted it through the maze and now stood victorious at the finish line having conquered the course. I handed over my glasses and hat and took my place at the start of the inflatable floating challenge.

With a rush of blood, I launched myself at the floating castle and jumped towards the narrow hole you have to crawl through. The momentum caused me to crash into the sides, instead of climbing through it. In slow motion, I lost my grip and rolled off into the water, much to the delight of the onlooking students.

My second attempt was just as clumsy! I ended running straight off the side of the castle. As I struggled to beat the challenge on the third attempt, I was interrupted by one of the students. He said, “Mr. L, I think someone just knocked your glasses off the chair and they fell into the river.”

I’m sure I had given my glasses to a friend to look after, but I thought I should check just in case. They had put my glasses on a chair on the edge of the river, but they were no longer there. The water was murky and about 1 metre deep. The search area was large with no visibility. After about ten minutes of searching, I thought, what am I doing? God will provide. I prayed, 'Lord, I need my glasses to see, please help me find them'. We continued to search with our feet and hands and then one of the boys who was helping asked, “Mr L, are these your glasses?" What a relief. It was a good reminder that God cares about the little things just as much as He cares about the big things. You just have to ask.

We thanked God in prayer right there in the mighty Murray River for the simple miracle He performed.

Thank you, students, parents and staff, for the great year and we look forward to serving you all again next year.

Chaplain Phil