Frustration and fulfilment

Two more chaplains arrived today, and whilst they were collecting their kit and being inducted into the venue (etc), Sophie and I went into town to buy various things to make the room more homely and welcoming - candles, flowers, tea & coffee making facilities, sweets & biscuits, and a prayer board, to name but a few. We also procured practical things such as local bus timetables and a map of Guildford, so that if anyone wishes to visit a local church or place of worship we'll be able to help them find their way there. These resources were all added to our 'Oasis of Silence' whilst I and 2 other chaplains attended the first of the daily Team Liaison Officers' meetings. As well as meeting these vital people for a second time - Dave and I had been with them and introduced the idea of chaplaincy to them at their training day a few months ago - and reminding them that we're here for them too, we also gave each of them a bundle of letters to pass on to their teams, one for each squad member. These were our attempt to make sure that each squad member has a 'personal' introduction to the idea of chaplaincy, the Oasis of Silence, and the availability of our facilities and services. For 3 of the squads, where English isn't a primary language, we'd had these translated into an appropriate language for them.
After lunch, I went off to visit the nearby Guildford Cathedral to re-establish a practical link between them and the chaplaincy team. Sadly, I came back to find the Oasis of Silence in total disarray - a lot of our stuff was being hastily packed into boxes and carrier bags and one of our sofas was being carried away down the street!! To cut a long (and not very pretty) story short, whilst I was away someone had decided to install 2 rather large vending machines in the room we were using. This meant that the remaining space was both too small and too noisy not just for the Oasis of Silence alone, but also for the 'resident' Muslims to pray in. What was worse was that this had happened whilst the Muslims were actually having a time of prayer. Several animated telephone and face-to-face conversations ensued, and we were given another room a few blocks away. It was exceptionally frustrating not just to carry everything from A to B, but also to have to spend a couple of hours remaking, redecorating, and re-resourcing a second Oasis of Silence within 24 hours. It also meant that we didn't get out and about to make contact with squads as we'd planned. However, we are now in a larger room, which has more potential and greater flexibility of use. We also have use of a smaller room on the same corridor, normally a student bedroom, for a Chaplaincy Office; so the outcome at 6:30pm, when I left to head off to the family home where I'm currently staying (another long story, possibly to be told in a later post), was not so bleak as it had appeared at 1:45pm. We were also pleased to learn that, despite being disturbed earlier on, the Muslims did still hold their late afternoon prayers in the former room - I guess though that sadly it will be very crowded for them on Friday when larger numbers may well attend.