Peter Harris

Primary school was a painful experience for me, for reasons unknown to me i became the kid they all bullied, i can't work out why as my self assessment says i was pretty awesome but none the less i coped it in primary school. Fortunately my family moved from Canberra to Sydney and a new start was in order at my new high School Covenant Christian School.

I have very specific memory's of a few of the early days at Covie and one that stands out more than any other was the day these new kids in my life tested the waters when it came to seeing if i was potentially the picked on kid. This is just the rigmarole we all went through when starting at a new school and Covie was no different.

Day three at the new school stands out for me, an olive skinned kid by the name of Peter Harris repetitively lined me up with harmless fun at my expense. He sat behind me and flicked things at my ear for what felt like hours. Why not? it seems humorous. I had lived with much worse in years past and remember trying to ignore it but as a child i struggled with my temper and remember hitting the snapping point. I had an apple in my entourage of food for the day, a very large apple (i don't know why, as i was not overly fond of apples)

I may be playing this up a little in my mind and Pete may tell the story differently, if he even remembers the event, but I distinctly remember the stunned look on Peters face when he relised he had just been taken out by a flying apple. I had taken enough and clicked. Not exactly lining up to join the Schools baseball team but on that day i had good aim and threw my apple square at Petes head and it found its mark. From that day on i never had another bullying problem at School.

Later in high school Peter and i became good friends and got sucked into some of the undesirables of life. Skipping Business studies to smoke cones was a semi regular occurrence and if you assessed us and our attitudes at the time you would be forgiven for predicting we would both end up in prison.

We are rapidly approaching ten years since i left high school and almost as many since i have seen Pete but i ran into him with a few other guys from high school earlier this week and was severely encouraged by his story.

Pete has, sometime in the last seven years turned his life around and has a new found inner fire for God. What an awesome God. Two guys walking a thin line between citizen and delinquent in mid high school have hardly seen each other for seven years, yet both discovered the calling of Christ in their lives and are passionately fired up for him and his callings in our lives. Pete represents the men of Faith we need. Real, down to earth, level headed Christian men who will change the world for God. He inspires me to keep fighting for my Faith and battle through the crappy times.We need more Peters.