Little treasures on the streets

Regular readers and local members of Mothers’ Union will remember we collected flip-flops at our Festival Service in May. Some of these were passed via members to the newly launched Southampton Street Pastors. Their area co-ordinator Richard Pitt has recently been in touch with the following message and update:

“Thanks so much for the flip flops. They arrived safely and were beautiful. They were much nicer than the cheap ones we buy in bulk. They were given out like little treasures among all the normal ones… God is blessing us in His endeavours. Its wonderful to see the church getting out on the street and serving. Such a privilege to be part of it. My prayer is that we keep our ear attentive to his leading.

Thanks for the encouragement, and may you wonderful “mothers” keep up the good work.”

In their first two months of operation the Southampton Street Pastors have been working on Friday and Saturday nights between 10.30pm and 4am. There are 48 pastors on the team, from 30 different churches across Southampton, working in 10 teams of 4-5 people, each team working about once a month.

They work in conjunction with the police and night staff in the city centre, providing basic welfare support to any members of the public who may need it. Their purpose is summed up in the phrase “listening, caring, helping”.

Each night of operation there is a support team (totalling 28 volunteers at present) at Street Pastor HQ whose main objective is to pray for everyone in the city centre. They are on hand to pray specifically for any difficult situations that arise during the night.

In their first 21 nights of operation the Southampton Street Pastors have given out 188 flip-flops, helped 50 people you were unwell due to drink, protected nearly 30 vulnerable people, calmed 28 aggressive situations, and been invited to pray with 17 people. They have also cleared up nearly 500 broken glasses and bottles!

For more background click on the “tag” labelled Street Pastors (on the left of screen). If you wish to help the Street Pastors in your region, please go to the scheme’s website via the “link” (also on the left). They would also welcome our prayers.