Claude Deschamps rscj With a group of students from the chaplaincy Claude at a weekend session organized by the chaplaincy

My seven years as student chaplain at Villeneuve d'Ascq near Lille (France) have been such a joy! www.meli.fr.fm

I love this form of service, which offers young people an all-round education by accompanying them throughout their courses, in close connection with their daily studies, their life on campus and in various colleges, their searching in the realms of heart, mind and spirit.

I come back to my community each time, full of enthusiasm, my heart overflowing with all the little signs of new life that I've been able to contemplate, and nourished by love received and given. That doesn't mean that everything is easy every day! Sometimes the young people are facing really hard situations of family quarrels, attempted suicide, extreme poverty, whether affective or material; the burden becomes a physical one which carries over into my prayer, but always with hope. This is sometimes an incentive to political action: last year an association was set up for students in difficult cirmcumstances who have no right to any university assistance. (2 young people from the chaplaincy council are on the bureau and the administrative council.) We have close ties with the governing bodies of the universities.

I love serving in a mixed team, men and women, chaplains and students from the council, these complementary approaches are very fruitful! It's an ideal way of accompanying the students as they assume responsibility, which is where their aptitudes are revealed, a place of growth in self-confidence and in their contribution with and for others. Many former students say how much their contact with the chaplaincy continues to help them in their work on a professional, church or social team - and in their relationships.

It is a very international community (on average 12 nationalities each evening session), where strong friendships are forged, and where each theme of society and of Christian formation has the added dimension of intercultural dialogue. I can gauge how much more sensitive I am to this, as the result of belonging to an international congregation.

In short, I see this service as a gift which calls on every fibre of my being as a religious of the Sacred Heart, all my creativity to discover and show forth the Love of Christ with and for young people. There are 43,000 students at Villeneuve d'Ascq. The harvest is very rich.