“The need for people to talk” is something said by so many, yet almost nobody follows through with. The much needed expression of humanity, often lost in the speed of life, of sharing what makes you laugh and cry, what gives you anger and fear; the overlooked suggestion of talking to others about personal problems has been repeated through many areas of my life. It was something, again, pointed out to me during an interview with the local minister of Hampton Wick Baptist Church, Sandra. However, where others will put no action behind their words, Sandra has pushed for movement. 

 

This church, located in Hampton Wick, is one of many trying to bounce back from the pandemic by starting up support groups for their local community. I had the honour of interviewing their minister, Sandra, who has been working at the church for over twenty-five years. She explained how, with the arrival of the pandemic, the services they had previously offered were closed down, in particular the ones aimed at the older members of the community. Now that the pandemic has eased, however, they have added two new groups aimed to help support those who have been struggling, whether or not it was due to the pandemic.

 

The first group that has been introduced is the mother and toddler group, Tiger Tots. This is a group that takes place each Thursday, during term time, from 9.30am to 12.30pm. When asked, Sandra informed me that, “In actual fact, our mother and toddler group closed down before, we just had no one to run it. I said very clearly that we should only open something that does not revolve around me because in the past much of what has happened has revolved around me. If I wasn’t there then it didn’t happen, and that's not healthy. It’s important that the work goes on even if I am not there, so I said I would not start up anything else unless it was run by someone else.” 

 

She then added, “I would be involved when I could but I wasn’t going to be the leader.” The church has been putting in a lot of effort to open back up and allow worship within the church to continue while the restrictions of the pandemic decline. For Sandra, prioritising services for those of the church meant that she couldn’t attend all of them and would have to work with others instead of loading it all on herself. 

 

What came from this was a “joint venture” where “totally out of the blue, I (Sandra) had a phone call from somebody I hadn’t heard from in years. In this area, his partner had started up a business linked to Bounce Party and the request was, ‘Can we (the caller) use your hall to create a new children’s toddler group?’.” This was “fantastic,” since now the church could start up their mother and toddler group again and Sandra would not have to carry the pressure of running the group by herself. It was explained to me that, “after a lot of discussion,” the group “Tiger Tots was born.” 

 

Toddlers have access to “a bouncy castle, ball pits, a sensory dome, and lots of things to ride on or climb on,” which let the toddlers have fun playing. “While it's very early days for Tiger Tots, I (Sandra) want to see it as an opportunity for children to enjoy themselves, yet also an opportunity for mums and carers and dads to have a place that is safe for the children; a place where they can also chat and talk about issues that they are facing at the time. Where we can support them—won’t necessarily have all the answers—but we can support them and encourage them and help them. Because so many people are facing so many issues, particularly now, after the pandemic so we do see it as very much a partnership, working with the folk there. They are more than happy for us to do that, to work with them to help the people who come (to Tiger Tots).”

 

The second group that had been started up, much newer to the minds of the church, is ‘Take Time Together’. A group that offers guided mediation and moments of silence where you can reflect within a “compassionate space.” It occurs every Friday, at 10.30am, within the church and is a “safe space, not just safe physically but safe emotionally; that they (attendees) can share, they can talk, they can just be quiet if they want to be; that it is an escape from perhaps a lot of what is going on outside.”

 

“I was keen to start something because we always used to have something specific to older people which we weren't, again, able to do. I thought ‘Well what we need to do we can't do ourselves’, so I contacted the local Anglican church at St John's, which has a lot more people than we have since it's much bigger, and said, ‘Can we work together?’”

 

Take Time is aimed at “any age”. She told me that “absolutely anyone” can show up: “we (the church) don't want people to feel ‘I can’t go there because I don't go to that church’. We want it to be a space that is open to anybody...we are not going to say to them ‘Oh well you must come to the church’ or ‘You must come every week’ or whatever.” 

 

“One gentleman came and we haven't seen him since. If that was helpful to him then that's fine, you know? It's not necessarily that we see this as a way of growing the church, it is a service that we want to offer to people outside if they feel it is of benefit to them.” This really stuck out to me, because nowadays it always seems that people have ulterior motives to everything they do. Yet here we see just a group of people aiming to support the community, their community; simply giving them a place to sit and breathe for a moment without the outside world to distract them. 

 

I think Sandra summed it up perfectly: “It won't be for everyone, but for some it may be of value. Make it so that they can actually talk. That's been so much on the television, I think, recently. The need for people to talk and to have that freedom to be totally honest. To know they will never be judged. To know that they can say whatever is troubling them. Nobody’s going to jump on them. 

 

They say a problem shared is a problem halved and it's an opportunity for people to just open up and talk.”

 

She continued with “That's all I want for the group. It's risky because you have no idea who’s going to walk through the door. You have no idea what their needs may be. So it is risky. As I say, we don't have all the answers but we are a group that is willing to listen. Willing to share. Willing to be a friend. Willing to support. Willing to pray for, if that's what they want. Willing to love. So much really what people basically need. Humans need to be loved, to be cared for, supported. It's what we want to be to people who are perhaps not finding it from outside. Even within their own homes, where they may have a loving relationship but need to talk to somebody who's out of the situation and not directly involved. We are looking forward to where it's going to go as we have no idea.” 

 

I hope that, in reading this article, you can become just as inspired as I am from this church's actions to better support both the emotional and mental health of their locals. They offer a free service that can be utilised by anyone and everyone. I employ others to follow in their footsteps because everybody has issues they need to get off their chest, and deep down, we all need to talk it out and take some time.