COLLEGE CAMPUS NEWS
We’re here to listen...
“There’s no programme as such
– we just utilise the foyer area
at the Kilmarnock campus. We
come here once a week, usually
on a Wednesday lunchtime from
12:30pm until about 2pm.
“The amount of people we see
varies. Sometimes it can be as
many as 20, sometimes as little
as 10. It just depends what else
they’ve got going on at the same
time.
Standing in the middle of the
Kilmarnock campus foyer,
46 year old Baptist Minister
Tendai Mbaserah is flanked
by David Lacy and Simon
Tulett.
They are talking to students. They
are listening to students. They are
high-fiving students as they walk
past. Tendai explains why they feel
the need to do this.
“Here at Ayrshire College we
come once a week to hang around
with students, to say “we’re here
to chat”, because you are mindful
that people are going through
stressful times either with exams
or maybe things to do with their
relationships with family, loss.
“So we say we’re here to chat
to people and to listen. Because
sometimes people just need
someone to listen to them. Then
we offer prayer if anyone wants
us to pray for them and their
situation.
“That’s why we’re there. It’s about
building relationships with the
students and just to be a helping
hand.
34
“...simply we are
here if you
need to chat.”
“Most of our time there’s been
incidents where people are talking
about the stress of exams. We
put up a notice asking if anyone
would like us to pray for them and
someone wrote “please pray that I
will do well in my exams”.
“Others will ask for prayers
about their family members who
are feeling unwell, I remember
talking to one of the mature
students about the fact that her
family member had just been
diagnosed with cancer. And how
they as a family are grappling
and struggling with it – so they
just asked us to pray for them as
a family as well as for this person
who’s going through a difficult
time.
“There have been occasions as
well where people have come and
shared about how they have lost a
loved one, and they are struggling
with grief. And we’re there to say
“we’re h \