It’s time for another update from the Street Pastors in Stratford-upon-Avon. Winter time is definitely here, we’ve even seen our first bit of snow! Our Street Pastors have new winter hats this year which are a new design and I’m pleased to say that they are keeping them much warmer on their night-time patrols. Whilst town has been relatively quiet on recent Friday evenings we are expecting an up-tick as people start meeting with friends and colleagues for Christmas drinks and meals out. If you are going out to celebrate Christmas and bring in the New Year please do remember to take care and look after yourself and your friends when out and about.

Wishing you all a blessed and peaceful Christmas from the whole Stratford-upon-Avon Street Pastor team.

How we’ve Cared, Listened and Helped

There are many patrols when we’re not very busy but there is always something that happens on each patrol that makes us know we want to be there for our community, here are some extracts of those moments from the patrol reports:

…CCTV contacted us to ask if we could support the staff at the Coach House on Rother Street with an elderly gentleman who appeared to be quite confused. When we arrived we spoke to the proprietor, Linzi, who explained that the man was no problem but he was extremely vulnerable. He was carrying a large amount of cash and she was worried for his wellbeing. He said he knew where he lived but was unable to remember his address. Linzi did know the way so we walked him home together. It was very clear that he had dementia. On arriving at his home Linzi made him a hot drink. He was very grateful for the support and tearful when we left him…

…With town quiet, and the night quite cold, we popped into Avon Spice to get warm and say hello to the manager. We were made very welcome and given a naan bread. There was a customer waiting for his take-away and seeing our uniforms, he asked us what we were doing. SP-”R” explained our role as volunteers from various churches, helping those in need on the streets at night. The man then opened up about a serious situation – he said he had witnessed his girlfriend’s suicide on social-media. He was clearly traumatised and needed someone to talk to. We realised this was more than just a chat with us and that he needed some serious professional type counselling. SP-”T” followed this up after the patrol and contacted a lady from the bereavement team at St Gregory’s who has taken his contact details to arrange a meeting…

…We decided to do one last circuit of the town before signing off. However, we then heard a call on the radio that someone had discovered a man collapsed outside Ask Italian in Bell Court so we headed in that direction to investigate. We found a man lying face down on the bench between Ask Italian and the Argentinian Restaurant. With him was a member of staff from Ask along with door staff from Bell Court, Keys and All Bar One. All Bar One had called for an ambulance and had been told about an hour. We helped secure the man from falling by propping up some chairs from outside the restaurant up against the bench, covered him with a space blanket and got a scarf under and over his head. His breathing was quite shallow and then very rapid and he appeared semi-conscious, mumbling “Help” and “Walk” but not responding to any conversation. One of the door staff located his phone in his back pocket, which was fortunately unlocked, and ascertained his name was “Carl”¹, but none of his contacts responded to us calling them. After about 2o minutes of trying to get a response from Carl, SP-”T” called 999 to chase up the ambulance response time. During the time on the phone Carl did sit up briefly and then there was concern his pulse and breathing had stopped. 999 were just advising SP-”T” to send someone for a defibrillator when police officers and paramedics arrived and took control. With Carl now taken care of we advised one of the police officers we would withdraw and after a brief visit to the Keys to advise the remaining doorman that his colleague was liaising with police and paramedics we signed off.

…As we were heading towards MacDonald’s for a break we had a call from CCTV asking whether we could investigate a report of someone having fallen in the road at the top of Ely Street. We arrived to find that two men were looking after a man who was lying on his back in the road. They had contacted the ambulance service and had been advised that it could be a 3 hour wait. The Police had also been made aware of the problem given that he was lying in the road, but they did not appear willing to close off the street at the High Street end. One of the men was particularly talkative with the collapsed man whose name was “Rick”¹. There was no sign of blood and no obvious signs of injury. We chatted to Rick and also with the two men, one of whom soon disappeared. A large quilted blanket had been obtained from a resident on Ely Street before we arrived and this was covering Rick. After about 15 minutes of chatting a Police car arrived and the officers asked Rick various questions about possible injuries and were able to ascertain where he lived and his identity. The officers decided to try and move him and managed to support him onto on his feet and to put him directly in the Police car and take him home. They would also re-direct the ambulance to visit him at his address. They thanked us for our help and we updated CCTV…

¹ Note: Name changed to protect privacy.

Prayer Points:

• For the teams out on Friday evenings Caring, Listening and Helping
• For the homeless and those without permanent accommodation as winter weather arrives
• For our emergency services who care for and protect our community
• For the door staff who watch over their customers and, as above, those they encounter who are in need of care

Social Media

As we enter the Christmas season our social media posts reflect the increase of socialising and parties with tips on how to stay safe. Please follow us and share our posts.

• 
• 
• 
• 

If you are a practising Christian, aged over 18 and feel called to step out onto the streets to be the hands and feet of Christ; and also his eyes, ears and mouth too!  contact our co-ordinator, Linda, by e-mail at stratforduponavon@streetpastors.org.uk

2 Timothy 1:7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power and of love and a sound mind
	@Stratford		@spstratford
	streetpastors.org/locations/stratford-upon-avon		stratforduponavon@streetpastors.org.uk