“I remember you … You were my favourite adult at school”

Tom Magill’s unexpected meeting with an old student is a bold reminder of why your support matters so much 

The setting: Bunnings, 2025. The familiar smell of soil, hardware and industry.

When Tom entered this most Aussie of spaces, he expected to walk away with something useful (perhaps even a BBQ sausage). What he didn’t expect was to have his heart warmed and his spirit lifted.

The official Bunnings greeter smiled and welcomed him into the DIY lovers’ paradise. He smiled back. But then he paused. 

He knew that face. 

“Do you remember me?” he asked the girl, whose name he knew, even without reading her name tag, was Lucy.* 

Lucy’s official Bunnings’ smile broke into an even brighter, more natural one. 

“Of course I remember you,” she said. “You were my favourite adult at school.” 

Tom and Lucy chatted for a few minutes about how high school was going, about Lucy’s job, and about her plans for the future. The groundwork for the ease of this conversation, however, had been set years earlier, when Tom was the chaplain at Lucy’s primary school.

Lucy, as Tom remembers it, would chat to him in the playground about her struggles. She was also part of one of Tom’s groups, which focused on building friendship skills.  

“I suspect that the freedom the chaplaincy role provided to just sit and listen … was a really helpful thing for her,” says Tom.

Tom sees listening as pivotal to the chaplain’s role.

“The chaplain can say, ‘I’m not a teacher, I don’t have to stop this chat so I can teach the class, so tell me more. That’s my job … to make sure you feel safe and heard … and feel hope that the future will be better than what’s happening for you now. I’m on your team.’”

As it happened, in the future, Tom met Lucy in Bunnings, and she remembered his kindness, and, whether she articulated it or not, the way he reflected Jesus’ compassion to her. 

“For me, ultimate well-being is found in a relationship with Jesus. He says in John 10:10 that “he came so that we might have life and have it to the fullest”. And so, I tried to model that,” says Tom.

Perhaps you too have a good listening ear, or want to support people who do? To find out more about chaplaincy and how you can support children and young people to be truly heard and seen, visit: su.org.au/careers/

*The student’s name in this story has been changed.