Good Luck Charmer

I told Rachel I wasn't gonna blog about this but when I got home and was laying in bed last night, I just couldn't contain my excitement so here goes....

We have two friends called Matt and Emma. When I say 'we' i refer to we as Dina, Rachel and myself. Today Emma and Matt began their exams for the HSC which they've been preparing for over the last two years. For them, it's finally here! I'm not sure if they're glad it's here or not but i remember when i did my HSC, the first day of exams was not a great one for me. I had so much fear built up about it and about failing etc. I also remember that for two months after my results came back, i left them sitting in the envelope without opening it. It wasn't a pleasant experience - i was scared and nervous out of my wits. Pressure and stress isn't a joyous combination.

So...

I decided that the good luck greeting wouldn't just be a meaningless text message or phone call. I got the girls together and we made them up good luck presents.

We filled the little shoebox sized packs with gum, pens, pencils, erasers, clacking sparkies, rubber bouncing balls, stress balls, water, jelly bellies, candy watches, chocolate money, chapstix, lollipops....all sorts of wonderful things to take their minds off the stress and pressure of exam time!!!!

We put a nice little star, bow thing on the top, wrapped it in ribbon and off we trotted!

We started at Emma's house first (which we didn't realise might've been not such a good idea coz she talks to matt on msn) rachel dropped me at her house and i walked to the door PRAYING that the sensor light wouldn't be alerted to my presence. YESSSS....no sensor light! I put the pack on the doorstep and ran back to the car. From there we sped off around the corner.

Now, some of this stuff they don't even know but it's fun!

We had dilemmas about ringing the doorbell or not ringing the doorbell because we didn't wanna wake them the night before their exams but we also didn't wake their parents, especially matt coz he has a lil baby sister! So we decided that we'd send them a message instead and leave the present on the doorstep. Even if they didn't pick it up til the next morning, we decided not to wake ANYONE! So we sent Emma a message....

Emma, ding dong, i'm at the door, come and say hello!

We waited patiently until we saw a figure at her front door. Let me just say that we were crouched under the bush watching her. We looked two stalkers/neighbourhood thieves. She opened the door and a sensor light came on...what the?....she bent down looked at it for awhile and went back inside with her little present.

MISSION NUMBER ONE ACCOMPLISHED!!!!!! YESSSSSSS....

So we drove out of her neighbourhood and continued on towards mission number two: Matt's house. Rachel was being illegal that night on numerous occasions - behave woman!!!!

As we neared matt's house, Dina rang to ask what we were doing. So we did a swift u-turn (over an unbroken line - tsk tsk) and picked up our third guest for the evening.

We parked our car at matt's house (is this all triviality????) and went in for the kill. But alas, some guy pulled up near us and took out his little trike and a bottle of oil or something. But what scared us the most and turned us back to the car was that some of us thought there was a light on in their church bus. They also claimed to have heard the front screen door slam. So we got back in the car and proceeded to do a lap around the block. Nobody at the front door and no light on in the bus - hallucinating, just like House!

We parked again and this time put the present on the doorstep, still no sensor light but you could see eerily right through into their front room, my heart was pumping a hundred miles an hour....why did it feel like i was about to rob them?!

The difficulty with Matt's house is that there isn't much scrub to hide behind, we had a bit of discussion about where we were gonna sit etc and eventually came to the conclusion that we'd sit behind the 4wd across the road which was facing his house! So we sat. Again, we sent the same message to matt...

Matt, ding dong, i'm at the door, come and say hello!

Again, we waited. He came to the front door and just looked out the glass, panelled door for soooooo long!!!!! He turned to leave (obviously not seeing anyone) but came back to the door, much to our relief. He opened the door and found his parcel on the ground. He looked at it for awhile and then, much to our horror, he started walking directly towards us!

Dina nearly lost it and i was nearly peeing my pants! But lucky for us, he stopped after not finding us and then headed back inside. We lost it and thought it was hilarious and after a short time headed back to the car.

MISSION NUMBER TWO ACCOMPLISHED!!! YESSSSSSS.....

On the way home, we got really sweet appreciation messages from both students. We stopped in at karaoke for the last minute or so on the way home and then went home but not before naughty, illegal rachel was breath tested. The cop thought WE were drunk....i so wanted him to breath test us as well!!!!! Bad cop!

I was just so on a high that we'd done something nice and i guess i LOOKED drunk....but that's what having the joy of the Holy Spirit looks like right????

As i laid in bed that night, thanking God for everything and praying for all the ones i'd said i'd pray for, i couldn't wipe the smile off my face (i must've looked ridiculous!). Every now and then i'd replay everything in my head and chuckle to myself. For the first 5 or 10 minutes i couldn't sleep i was so happy.

You ever heard that phrase 'to be filled with an indescribable joy'??? Well that's what i was! I felt so accomplished and so fulfilled and satisfied that i'd done something nice for someone that my feelings of joy and happiness just couldn't be explained or described!!! It was truly a moment where to give was better to receive and i just wanted to keep doing it over and over and over again.

I KNOW how much it must've meant to those guys because i wished someone had done that for me during my exams and i know how grateful, excited and overjoyed i would've been! Matt said it felt like Christmas for goodness sake?!

Honestly, it made me feel warm and fuzzy on the inside to love and care for those guys and just to give them a piece of my heart in the form of a present. In their time of overwhelmedness, nothing could have been better about this world, that's how whole i felt!!!

On the flipside, it also made me think about the countless suicides that happen to students at this time every year and so i prayed to God that there would be other people who loved and cared for other students as much as we loved our friends. That there would be interventions into their own actions to prevent their young lives being lost! Something that went through my head was imagine if someone had delivered a parcel like that to someone who was about to put a gun to their head or a knife to their wrist or pills in their mouth! What would the outcome have been???

I know this sounds bigheaded etc but i was honestly so happy about how it made them feel and how it made ME feel to see them so happy!!!

I just want all my friends to know that i love them a whole heap and that no matter what trials or hardships or pressures or stress they might be going through, i wanna be there at the end of the day to put a bit of joy and happiness into their lives - to be that bright spark amongst a whole heap of shadows!

So i REALLY encourage you to do something practical for the people you love most because sometimes, our actions can speak louder than words and you never know just how much they could end up meaning in the long run!!!!

Love all you guys!!!
Alisha xoxo