Fin

So I sat in my seat for one final graduation ceremony. Decked out in a vile marriage of academic and clerical robes. There I was for one student in particular.

This particular student walked into chaplaincy for breakfast one day about three years ago. We spoke once or twice and then he had a very bad couple of weeks, he'd broken up with his girlfriend and decided to leave University. He rang me from home and told me that he had dropped out. His room was a state he said, his kitchen was covered in dirty pots, he was lonely and it was all getting on top of him.

I thought and prayed and then I asked him to come back. I told him I'd do my best to support him, and if he could stay till Christmas he might actually make it all the way through.

His Dad agreed to drive him back one Sunday afternoon, I agreed to meet him the other end and then once in, I helped him tidy his room and did his washing up and then he cooked a meal for both of us we sat and ate. And I, and my Free Church colleague did our best to support him over the next three years.

On Thursday I clapped as he crossed the stage in front of me. He got a First. He also has a fiancée. And he's doing a PhD.

I do the whole Christian thing, I do the telling people about Jesus and sometimes just occasionally I just help someone.

It was a fitting end to my job at the University of Southampton