Street Pastors

I confess I haven't kept up with this blogging thing after starting at the end of last year! But have been prompted to do so by seeing some other dormant bloggers springing into action, and also today, I just felt the urge to write about one of the passions in my life.
Street Pastors is a growing movement across the UK, and now also in the Carribean, whereby volunteers form local churches go out into their local communities on Friday and Saturday nights to 'listen, care and help'. The premise is not directly evangelistic, but ineveitably people ask why we do what we do, and the conversations turn to the fact that our lives are motivated by the love that Jesus gives us for His world and His people. We started Redhill Street Pastors in Sept 2009, and each team goes out on a Friday night once a month, from 10pm-4am. With new volunteers coming on board, we hope to cover three Saturday nights a month by early summer as well.One of the strengths is that we come from so many local churches, Anglicans, Catholics, Methodists, Salvation Army, Baptists, New Frontiers, Strict Baptists,Pioneer and we have this one thing in common that we want to make a difference to our local community.
So just a few impressions of the first few months of going out. The overwhelming thing is that we are so well received by the local community; people are amazed we do what we do voluntarily for no money! They are so keen to talk and there is a sense that in our society the opportunities just to talk and listen are getting fewer and farther between. We have begun to build up relationships with some of the staff on the doors of the pubs and club, the taxi marshall, the security guards in McDonalds and also some of the 'regulars' out 'enjoying' themselves on a friday night.
The uniform is a great way of opening up conversations of what we are about and why we are here, and we are able to talk to people that in the cold light of day we probably would not connect with at all. And as we connect , and as people open up their lives, there is a clear sense of people needing purpose and direction, and trying to find it in the wrong places.
Finally, Redhill is a fairly quiet place and we don't have any of the real challenges that our inner cities face, but it is evident that alcohol misuse is a big problem even in a small suburban town. More of that another time!
It has been such a privilege to be involved in our local street pastors scheme and I am looking forward to many more late nights yet on our streets!