Hope in Action

'I feel that God has got me in the place that he wants me to be,’ says Barbie Roberts, recently honoured for 16 years’ service as chaplain to The Salvation Army Employment Plus in Christchurch.

The sight of Barbie wandering the corridors of Employment Plus is a familiar one. ‘Sometimes the students joke and say, “Well, you’ve got a cushy job; you don’t do anything,” ’ she says. ‘But what they don’t realise as I go around the corridors is that I’m hesitating outside each classroom and I’m praying for those kids in the classroom.’

Faith wise, Barbie sees her role as being ‘Jesus with skin on’. ‘They know why I wear the [Salvation Army] uniform and they know who I am — or who I try to be,’ she says. As a chaplain, Barbie is a listening ear and a support person for learners, meeting them just where they are. She’s available to tutors and support staff too, ‘because their role isn’t always easy in dealing with some of the students that we have’.

But that doesn’t mean Barbie’s role is all smooth sailing either. About a year ago, one of the centre’s learners pulled a knife on her. ‘I wasn’t in shock,’ she says, ‘but I was so surprised that this particular boy was carrying a knife in the first place. I just sat there. I really tried to play it cool and pretended that he didn’t even have it.

‘I just carried on talking to him because I didn’t have access to the door at that point. I thought, “Well, this is stupid, because I can’t run away.” But we have to defuse the situation. In the end, he just threw the knife on the ground and burst into tears. We talked for maybe another half hour and he ended up in my arms on the floor sobbing his heart out.

‘He wouldn’t have touched me; it was a bravado thing. And after that he would see me anywhere in the building and it was like, “Hi Barbie!” You know, I was his best friend. Really, underneath it all he was really quite a nice kid.’

Spiritual Answers

She recounts another couple of stories. ‘We had a boy a while ago and he was a wee bit of a mischief maker. He really didn’t want to be here, but he knew he had to be. He was backwards and forwards into my room, and we talked about God and how God could change his life and how he could become a better person. And out of that, we were able to give him a Bible. This was an excellent outcome for me.’ That learner has moved on to another training provider, but ‘in a much happier frame of mind’, she says.

Another young boy was from a broken home and his mother took up with a new partner. ‘The locks were changed on the door without warning and his clothes were put out on the front door in a rubbish bag. That was the end of his home. He was 15 at the time.

‘We had quite a bit to do with that lad. Eventually his grand-mother, who was quite elderly, took him in. But he wouldn’t settle. We found out that his dog was still at home, so we were able to arrange for the dog to be taken off the property. For a child of that age it is very difficult with a broken home, but the way the relationship ended up was absolutely gut wrenching for him and I think in his bewilderment it sort of changed his nature.

‘At the end of the day, fulfilment is when I’ve had a student in here after several weeks and they give their life to God,’ says Barbie. ‘That, to me, is the top of the mountain, so to speak, but in saying that I don’t hesitate to offer a hug or to pray for them. They might go out the door and they put their head back in and say, “Will you pray for me?” They won’t come back in so both of us can [pray], but they know that I will do it for them once they have gone.’

Hope in Action

Employment Plus is The Salvation Army’s employment training arm and one of New Zealand’s largest private training establishments. It aims to be ‘hope in action’ for those cut out of an increasingly competitive labour market.

Its chaplains are confronted by a range of pastoral needs. If learners haven’t got sufficient clothing to change more than once every few days, then chaplains may be called upon to help out, for instance. ‘It might mean a food parcel because we’ve found out that they haven’t eaten for two or three days,’ Barbie says. ‘We’re very aware that if they don’t eat, the mind doesn’t function properly.’

Sometimes there are family relationship challenges to work through, she continues. ‘Perhaps they have been kicked out of their home due to their behaviour or their drinking. It might mean, for example, one of the female students has decided to go and live with her boyfriend against her parents’ wishes. That causes conflict and has to be gently dealt with.

Support for tutors can be required after a bad morning with students. ‘It might be an attitude—a conflict,’ says Barbie. ‘The tutor may have their own personal issue. So that becomes a situation where I have a listening ear if they just want to offload. Sometimes, like in any workforce, there might be issues like a personality clash. That doesn’t happen here very often, but it does mean sitting and talking and working it through.’

The 'Plus'

Major Glenton Waugh, the Associate Mission Director, is in no doubt that the service’s chaplains are ‘the plus’ in its name. ‘Overall, we have excellent staff who love working for The Salvation Army. Our staff and tutors love our mission statement: caring for people, transforming lives and reforming society. They see that they are doing their part in this — so they are key to what we do. But our chaplains are the “plus”! Our tutors do the employment stuff, but our chaplains bring the faith base and Christianity. Together, it’s a mission team with a holistic approach.

‘This is the ministry Jesus talks about in Matthew 25 when he says: whatever you do for the least of these, you do for me. It is a ministry given out of genuine love and compassion, without conditions or unrealistic expectations. It’s a sowing ministry, a ministry of presence’

By Ollie Langridge and Christina Tyson (adapted for web from War Cry magazine)