Hello! This will be a short update just to share a couple of quick news items and make you aware of how you can choose to receive my Friends International news AND/OR my blog posts about coaching in your inbox. I’m grateful for your support but don’t want you to feel like I’m spamming you with content!
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In Friends International news, we’re now a couple of weeks into the new term and the campus is very busy. We welcomed over 260 students (we lost count) with free pizza and some information about what we do as Friends International staff and chaplains in the Religious Life and Belief Centre on campus.
Our first trip of the term is this weekend and we’re heading to Brighton. Our trips sell out in seconds and we always have a long waiting list in the hopes someone cancels.
We’ve been delivering welcome seminars to students through welcome week and I am about to deliver a seminar on Cultural Intelligence to dieticians in the next hour while writing this.
I’ve also started coaching sessions with students and trainee chaplains and have had really positive feedback so far. I’ve also really enjoyed the interaction and getting to know the students in a different way that also supports and empowers them.
With the support of several male volunteers, we’ve started up a men’s group for students in the hopes we can provide a community that goes some way to combat male loneliness and isolation amongst international students. The women-only group is very successful and started out small so we’re hoping the struggle to get blokes along despite saying they are interested is just teething issues for a new group.
There are a lot of opportunities for sharing faith and friendship here, the issue is time and resources. We’re very lucky to have a strong base of volunteers though we’re always on the lookout for people interested in welcoming international students.
Thank you so much for your ongoing support and encouragement.
Phil