Another Night's Street Pastoring

Well have just got out of bed after an evening's Street Pastoring. Town was amazing as it was sooo empty. I am not completely sure why, however seemed to be hardly anyone in town.

It appears that there was  something at Mango and Calvin Harris up at the University. Mango was rammed and I think a lot of students were spending the last Friday of term up at the 360. I wanted to go to the 360 but was on duty. There was also a very bitter wind coming down from the NE and it made the evening tremendously cold.

So as you can imagine there weren't hundreds of people staggering about and falling over as there usually is on a Friday. We spent our time talking to the door staff and the street people. We were able to help a guy in a door way find somewhere to sleep for the evening and when we had done this he was off to his bed and bath like a rat up a drain pipe.

My colleagues spent sometime talking to a woman who wanted to off load about decisions she had to make in her life. I hope that she wakes up this morning with a clearer vision of which path to take with her life. We chatted to the Police, who confirmed our view about the emptiness of town.

Some of our colleague came across a man who had been attacked while he was sitting in a bus stop. Ambulance and Police called. Once they had arrived we let them do their jobs and moved on.

At about 2am the decision was reached to head back to home and then home. Walking up Queen Victoria St I saw a man slumped asleep in the doorway of a travel agent. We went up to him, checked that he wasn't dead, which he wasn't.

He was however considerably more than half cut. Myself and a colleague tried to chat him round. That is talking to him until he responds. This took about 5 minutes for his befogged brain to respond. It would have been longer, but another team member had started to pray.

The unconscience man started to wake up. Being up isn't the same as standing up. We had to persuade him to stand up once he had opened his eyes. He slowly uncurlled himself and stood up in a very very unsteady manner. We gave him a bottle of water and this seemed to revive him. We asked him where he had to get to, Spencer's Wood,  we pointed him towards to the taxi rank. Off he staggered smilling towards the taxis. Once we saw that he was ok, we went off home.

Another night over, bed at 3.30....

End to end game with half time delayed

End to end Street Pastoring evening last night. Town seemed a bit quite and bit subdued at first and then the first evening of the year where it wasn't a million degrees below freezing went over exciting.

I went out with a different team to the one I usually work with, due to a change in shifts. Out in town for the first hour or so a strange or at least a subdued atmosphere as I got to know my new sp colleagues and we did the rounds talking to the door staff.

First incident, a group of pnuematic young ladies standing around looking in to a drain... The traditional greeting of " you alright?" Illicited the answer that one of them appeared to have dropped their ID down a drain. I don't know why they would do that , but there you are. First Street Pastor stepped in and tried to open the drain. I had a go and neither of us could shift it. Game Over..

We couldn't help anymore so left them to it, we walked over to Mangos and we found a female student and her friends. The woman was having a panic attack and her friends were at a bit of a loss how to deal. Strangely enough we have just had First Aid training, so underpants over trousers we were able to help. She was pretty, how shall we say, collapsed in a state of being tired and emotional. It had turned a tadge cold and so we broke out the survival blankets and helped her to stop hypervenilating. When she had calmed down and sobered up a tadge, her frined popped her in to taxi and off they trotted. Strangely enough we bumped in to them again about 2 mins later with the woman hanging out of the cab honking up. Fortunately we were able to deploy the full cleaning kit and got her and the cab cleaned up.

Ok it wasn't all sick there was the woman who had collapsed by O Neils and whose friends wanted to get her to Harrow. Not an easy job....... We had to persuade her to get up and then we carried her as far as the IBIS, where one of her friends had a room and she bunked up there.

On a sadder note, at the very end of the night we came across a street person, who had collapsed next to a bin. Really tricky as he got colder and colder. We wrapped him in a space blanket and tried to persuade him to go home. Although it seemed as if he didn't have a home to go to.  What to do.... we talked to him but he more or less completely passed out, so we asked the police to help. They called an ambulance and they eventually decided to take him to hospital. I hope.... Really really difficult situation, where should he go, there isn't a night shelter..I am sure we will come across the situation again and will have to find some kind comprimise again.

The night ended on this note and we were all a bit subdued. I had to rush off to bed as I had to up early to work, but that's another story.

I like Pasty's

Its 2.30am and I've just seen a lad in the bus stop outside the Q bar looking, shall we say, confused. He sits on the bus stop bench with a thump and his checks billow.

I imagine that you know what happens next. Technicolour yawn, driving the porcelain bus home, talking to ralf, yes he throws up over himself and a portion of the bus stop. Probably not the worst thing to happen on Friday night, but he has now made himself unable to get home by taxi, as no one will take him, and perhaps he's been abandoned by his mates.

We walk towards him. In the Street Pastors kit we've got water, wipes, lollipops and if need be a space blanket. The later isn't needed but he gulps down the water to clean his mouth, the wet wipe sponges him down and washes his face so he looks presentable enough to get home. At the same time the rest of his mates turn up ad we check that they can manage and they whisk him off home.

The same place roughly, but a bit earlier in the evening. A lad is shouting the odds at the assembled Police officers and is very agitated. We move over to chat to him, to see what is going on. He tells us that he is f****** angry as he and his brother had been thrown out of a bar and the Police were talking to his brother and didn't want him to intervene. He on the other hand wants to sort out the problem with the Police. A lollipop and a chat persuades him that if he charges over to where his brother is talking to the Police, the Police are likely to arrest them both and the evening will be over, except for the hour or two he will spend in the cells. We chat to him, speak to the Police and after he calms down a bit his brother appears. They both stagger off in to the darkness to carry on their evenings excitements.

Apart from this we picked up loads of glass, gave out flip flops to those suffering from high high heel trauma and gave out loads of lollipops. Three am home on my push bike, tired tired tired and buzzed up by an exciting evening as a Street Pastor.

Happy Christmas- Finally

HAPPY CHRISTMAS
Spent this morning Worshiping the Lord today in Church. Ok not a terribly pc phrase, but that's what I did. This morning's Christmas Service was great it really helped me to put politics and life in brilliant perspective. The great thing about Wycliffe is that it reflects the community of Park quite well with a mixture of people and nationalities.

The Service made me ask myself why bother? Why do it? Why spend time being a Governor? Why Campaigning? Why being a Street Pastor? It is good to question your own motivation sometimes, especially when I have had a couple of knock backs recently.

So after spending a lovely afternoon with the McKenzie tribe, I apologise to my sister for mucking up her Facebook status, I was reminded. It is to be found in a bit of the Bible, a book of the Old Testament, Isaiah in fact.

Its not about me it is about the coming of Jesus, which we celebrated this morning at church.

I am sure that my political opponents will seek to use this against me and those that support me might be uncomfortable but it is still inspiring and I share it with you to see what you can make out of it.

The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD's favour and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor.

They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations. Aliens will shepherd your flocks; foreigners will work your fields and vineyards. And you will be called priests of the LORD, you will be named ministers of our God. You will feed on the wealth of nations, and in their riches you will boast.

Instead of their shame my people will receive a double portion, and instead of disgrace they will rejoice in their inheritance; and so they will inherit a double portion in their land, and everlasting joy will be theirs. "For I, the LORD, love justice; I hate robbery and iniquity. In my faithfulness I will reward them and make an everlasting covenant with them. Their descendants will be known among the nations and their offspring among the peoples. All who see them will acknowledge that they are a people the LORD has blessed."

I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign LORD will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations.

Another Evening As A Street Pasty

Suddenly its 3am and I am saying my goodbyes to my team of Street Pastors and am cycling slowly home after my second Street Pastor Session.

I was stunned at how many people are still about at 3am. We have been down at Gun Street and St Mary Butts for most of the evening. We had lots of people to talk to, street people, party people, police police, door people, alsorts. One incident sticks out. We were down on St Mary's Butts and there was a lad who looked very confused and his eyes were looking in 8 places at once. We went over to chat to him and discovered that he couldn't speak and didn't know where his mates were. A bit concerned we "talked" to him to try and bring him round, a bottle of water, some of which he drank and some he sprayed on his face. After, I don't know 10 maybe 15 mins he started to revive.

In the background of all this there was a bloke who was shouting and screaming at us while we were talking to the lad. We had a little team huddle to discuss what we should do and we decided to call up the town security system so they could keep an eye on us on the CCTV. All of a sudden I looked up to see a couple of the door staff with their arms crossed smiling and asking if we needed any help. They had heard me call up the CCTV and wanted to make sure we were all  right. It is always nice to know that you have friends.

With our guardian angels watching over us we kept on talking to our friends until he snapped awake, remembered where his mates were and rushed, well ambled off to meet his mates.

One short moment in a very fullfilling evening. I was utterly done in when I got home, and to get myself going in the morning, where I had a morning of politics, I ate a bag of Revels for breakfast.

Street Pastors Are Go

The first Street Pastors take to the streets tonight.

I won't be with them because my shift is next week, however I will be there in spirit. It is great to see the churches working together in the centre of the town. It is also good to see that we are well supported by the politicos of the town. You can see our Tory MP supporting us, as  I said to him, this will be the first time that he as a Tory has supported Richard McKenzie a Labour man. I won't repeat what he said.

In fact the picture, borrowed from the Evening post shows all the Street Pastors that could be there that evening, with the Police and Politico's that were showing their support for us.
As a competition can you spot the Parties that didn't have Councillor or local activist representation? Clue: LD, G

To read the whole story click here

Richard McKenzie Pastor

These are not words that you expect to hear in one sentence, Pastor and Richard McKenzie.

On Saturday I with the other Street Pastors was pastuerised and comissioned. So what is a Street Pastor? It is  a group of people from the churches in Reading who want to spend time in the night time throng looking out for vunerable people, people who are lost or emotional. We want to spend time working on the low level Anti Social Behaviour and helping the police with the more emotional problems that the Police can't deal with effectively.

Will it work, well we will find out soon. We have a lot of work to do to establish ourselves and to gain the respect of the night time economy.

At the Service we were joined by members of the local churches, police and some local politicians. Cllr Gul Khan, Deputy Mayor, spoke and even Rob Wilson MP turned up. Rob is a Tory and I was pleased that he was supporting an initiative that I was working in. A bit dissappointed to see that none of the Lib Dem or Tory Councillors turned up.

I hope to have some photo's of the event soon, but until them we are all excited to be going out to work in the town. The first group goes out on Friday. I am in the second group going out next Friday. Can't wait

A Fine Day For Campaigning

Been out this morning talking to residents in the Ward. Its a busy busy day, sax lesson, campaigning, a family celebration and a church service establishing the Street Pastors group in Reaidng. Thank goodness I went to bed early last night.

Talking to residents was really useful. I picked up a couple of issues to take up with the Council. More of later. It was a great morning, talked to loads of people and a good mix of students and residents. They were telling me about their concerns and the things that they want for the area.

Also talked to them about the Uni and its decsion to stop funding of the PCSO's Everyone I spoke to was against the Uni, I told them about our campaign and they were very supportive.

So off to church tonight for the commisioning service for the Street Pastors, wish me luck.

Street Pasty?

Some people know that I am training to be a Street Pastor. What is a Street Pastor? It is a group of people from the various churches around Reading, who will be going out on Friday nights to care for and calm the people enjoying Reading's night time economy.

What's this todo with Park Ward? Many of us in Reading's churches want to be involved in caring for the centre of town. Infact in one of this week's free papers was talking about the licensing committee's concerns about what goes on in the night clubs in town.

We aim to be walking around the town between 10pm and 3am on Friday night, minstering to Reading's Party goers, looking out for the vunerable and dealing with low level anti social behaviour and allow the Police to do their job. We want to show that the Church cares for all the young people and party goers in the town. I hope we will be able to do this in an open way, with humour and wit and without preaching at people.

So what will being a Street Pastor be like? Got to say I have an idea at the moment, but ask me in a couple of weeks to find out more about Street Pastors follow the attached link.

Who are the Street Pastors? They range from 25-70, men and women, and people from all sorts of backgrounds, teachers, business men and other sort of jobs.

We are having a service next week in Greyfriars to dedicate the Street Pastors, if you are about at 19.00 come along.