There are currently more than thirty street pastors in Leicester city centre. We meet Friday at 9.30pm at our base and take refreshment together and after a time of prayer go out onto the streets at 10pm. At around midnight we return to base for refreshment and after further prayer continue through till around 3.00-3.30am when the clubs have mostly emptied out onto the streets. We carry flip flops for the girls who may be in pain from wearing stiletto heels, some walking barefoot and in danger of broken glass and cut feet. We are there to be a listening ear, give directions, advice or be a shoulder to cry on. As we are gaining more street pastors we now also go out on the first Saturday of the month and hope to add further Saturdays as we increase our numbers.
We have had several well known dignitaries who have wanted to see for themselves the city centre at night and also experience what it’s like to be a street pastor. They accompany one of our teams as an observer and talk to some of those who are out late at night to see first hand what the street pastors do on a weekly basis and the sort of problems encountered.
Our street pastors are drawn from many Christian churches across Leicestershire from the city and many of the surrounding villages. All volunteers give up their time to take the love of God onto the street. Not that we preach! But we show compassion and help in any way possible. We are friends with many of the homeless who will tend to sit in a regular place and we carry hand warmers and foil blankets in bad weather.
We feel this is a modern approach in going out to a world with many problems to offer help where we can and to show that we care and not waiting for people to come to us, the church.
We are in the early stages of exploring daytime Street Pastors. A new training session is due to start with Sharing the Good News on 19 July 2008. We have ten new recruits who are beginning their training and we welcome enquiries by email, phone or in person at our office in Bishop Street Methodist Church.
|