From the Principal

Looking Backwards - To Our Year 12's

As a keen student and teacher of history I have spent a lot of my time looking backwards. Looking back in time, to eras, empires, and civilizations from the past. Trying to understand their customs, decision making process, family, social and economic structures, individual military defeats and victories, the rise and fall of powerful individuals, the wars they fought, won, and lost, inventions they made, laws written, religions they created, books they wrote and meals they cooked. I have spent many hours dissecting, pondering, and searching for important lessons to be learnt and then thinking how they can apply those lessons learned to today and the future, in order not to repeat the mistakes made and to ensure that the positive impacts for their time in some way positively impact our world today.  A passion and a pursuit that I hope and pray has not been in vain.

While I don’t know and in fact, let’s be honest you guys also don’t know all that the future holds, one thing I can say with a degree of certainty is that in the years to come you will all look back on your time at LCS and that you will all do some of the same questioning and investigating that I have been privileged to do in studying history – however for you it will be incredibly personal, for it will be your own history and story that you are looking into and trying to find meaning from. And my simple prayer is this, that as you look at your time here at LCS that your memories will bring to the forefront of your mind words like kindness, care, spiritual/emotional and intellectual challenge/stimulation and growth, laughter, friendship, achievement and most importantly that you leave us with a deeper understanding of the bible and the joys of what it means to live a life dedicated to Christ. Balancing this I know that there will also be memories of tears, hurts, frustration and even some disappointment associated with your time here, and that is OK. Life is never all one or the other it is a complex and intertwined mix of all the above.

Lastly, I want to say thank you. As you leave us for the next adventure, thank you for being a part of our community, thank you for the legacy you will leave and thank you for being you. In closing I want to share the following bible verse that has bought me much comfort over the years.

“'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future. '” — Jeremiah 29:11.”

Stuart Kent