At the beginning of 1994, at the tender age of 22, I had worked for a year in a Uniting Church in the Adelaide Hills, doing the usual youth worker things like youth groups, bible studies, yada yada yada. Before then I had only ever earned money stacking shelves at K-Mart, tutoring high school students in Maths and Italian, and translating the odd letter or two for smoking dosh, so this looked like a real like career-type job.

So when I moved to Melbourne I decided that ministry was the route to take. I scored another youthie-type gig in the city’s northwest for a while, and worked my way towards becoming a student of the reverendist arts. By 1995 I was a candidate. During all that time I knew I would not be made of money, that I would never expect to be completely comfortable financially, that I would have something new to learn about being without money from time to time. So when the Synod offered to raise my student stipend by way of a loan, I accepted without thinking too hard. After all, money is money and I should take it when I can get it.

Little did I know (well, little did I choose not to ignore) the bill that I would receive at the end of 1997. Can’t remember exactly what it was, but knew it would take a short lifetime to pay it off.

And Friday, I did. 10.5 years paying back the church.

Ah the sweet freedom.