A night on the Toon - November 2009
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A night on the Toon
When the Lord placed Street Pastors on our hearts in 2008 it brought about a new meaning to ‘taking your wife out on the town on a Saturday night.’
We applied for Street Pastors together, were interviewed and have attended the first four of ten training sessions, involving two full days and two evenings. The sessions were based around the background to Street Pastors – the do’s and don’ts, - and a full day with the police. As with any Ministry a lot of prayer was shared amongst the team which very quickly knitted closely together.
The first evening out was very much as we expected; we knew which team we were in and who was our senior Street Pastor; we met at the Cathedral for 21.30 and prepared our bags with water, chocolate, flip flops, plasters, tissues, and space blankets. At 21.45 we had approximately 15 minutes of prayer before departing.
The radios are charged, the bags packed, the Street Pastor jackets on, the final cuddles and ‘God Bless’ and the teams head out onto the busy streets. There are usually 3 or 4 in each team and the most Street Pastors that we have been out with has been 6 so that was two teams. One Saturday night there were just the 4 of us and that was a hard night!
You immediately became aware of the vast numbers of people. The police told us that 60,000 people come into the city at a weekend. We have met Stag and Hen parties from all over the country and last weekend from Holland.
Street Pastors fill the gap by giving the pastoral care that the Police are unable to provide. Our reputation for helping people is growing and we receive respect from the Police and door staff as well as the public. We get stopped all the time and asked “what is a Street Pastor?”. We have great pleasure in telling them where we are from and what we do. The response is very encouraging and, following recent TV coverage, we get the “We saw you on the telly” comment often now The public are amazed that we are volunteers and do this because we love people as Jesus loves us.
Once out you soon see the effects of ALCOHOL; people being ejected from pubs/clubs, laid out in the street, being sick, fighting ,and everything that you can imagine. What really surprised us was how many young people are left on their own, deserted by their friends in no fit state to get home, and often have lost their money and phones.
It is just so wonderful being able to help someone, a stranger to Newcastle giving them direction, helping people of all ages get home safe, and when 4.00 am comes round we go back to the Cathedral, put the bags away, tidy up and together pray for people we have helped, we give thanks for our safety and for all the Street Pastors that have been out across the country.
So on a Friday and Saturday from 10 pm onwards, please pray for Street Pastors.
We feel so blessed that the Lord has called us to this Ministry but we can do nothing without prayer.
Jackie and Chris Lincoln (Members of Trinity, the Church on Gosforth High Street)
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