Chaplains’ Prayer & Info Johanna Childs East Scotland
Life is getting much busier now that restrictions are being lifted. Glasgow is no exception. Glasgow Central has a new Station manager, Drew Burns. Please pray for him and his new responsibilities in his role. Trains between Edinburgh and Glasgow are getting pretty busy and the opportunities to support railway staff are getting more frequent. My experience is that staff would easily share their experiences of lockdown and the effect it had on them. Listening to their stories creates opportunities to reflect on issues like loneliness, togetherness, life, death and the purpose of it all. I pray for wisdom to touch everyone I spend time with, with the love and grace of God. Dereck Grant North Scotland
Now, with lockdown restrictions lifting it has become noticeably clear that there are a lot of people struggling with mental health issues in my area. In fact, modern technology has helped me to stay in touch with people and my work colleagues. Still, people need to
know that we genuinely care about their welfare, so an encouraging text message to someone who has lost a friend, or a family member can make a big difference. However, there is nothing like meeting people in person and talking to them. Therefore, the more I talk to people the more I discover that mental health issues are worse than I could have imagined. For example, I spoke to one broken father who lost his son recently. Obviously, the father is struggling over the loss of his son. Yet, he believes that a simple faceto-face conversation might have made his son’s death preventable. So, my prayer is to be in the right place at the right time to help those who need to talk because it can make a difference! Angela Levitt-Harwood Great Northern, LNER, York to Kings Cross London
Recently my work has continued to be a mixture of supporting from home and getting out to visit my major stations and making reconnections. There has been a surge in requests for my help with facilitating memorial benches, plaques in memory of those who have sadly passed away, a memory wall and a clock to remember a muchloved railway employee. I guess the last year has brought into sharp focus loss
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