During December there were:

• 2 Friday night patrols
• 3 Saturday night patrols
• 1 Thursday night patrol
• Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve patrols
• 8 Patrols totalling 37 hours of cover involving 27 Street Pastors
• 22 pairs of flip-flops given, 3 space blankets and 330 lollies and Love Hearts

Here are some of the ways Street Pastor teams cared, listened and helped in December:

• Cared for a confused elderly lady
• Helped to diffuse disagreeing groups of people
• Cared for a young lad who had damaged his hand

One of our teams found an elderly lady who couldn’t remember where she lived. After a short mystery tour we called the Police who were able to give us her address. We took the lady home to her son who was shocked that she was even out let alone lost!

We patrolled on a Thursday night as a one-off in December having heard that groups of young people were out and about in different park areas. We did meet a small group of young people but perhaps non-stop rain all evening had convinced others to stay home.

‘Black Friday’, the last Friday before Christmas, passed without incident for our team – well done Wantage & Grove!

Street Pastors patrolled for a few hours on Christmas Eve and were on hand to help prevent a heated disagreement between two groups developing. We also cared for a lad who had injured his hand. We provided a space blanket to help keep him warm and fashioned a rudimentary sling from another space blanket to help keep his swollen hand raised. We waited with him and a friend until his parents arrived and took him home.

We also patrolled on New Year’s Eve and cared for a young woman who was drunk. A number of her friends came along and took her home in a taxi.

Best wishes for 2016 from all of us at Wantage & Grove Street Pastors.