During May there were:

• 2 Friday night patrols and 3 Saturday night patrols
• 5 Patrols totalling 15 hours of cover involving 15 Street Pastors
• 3 pairs of flip-flops given and 7 bottles of water
• 170 lollies and Love Hearts

Here are some of the ways Street Pastors cared, listened and helped in May:

• Returned a discarded shopping trolley
• Escorted a distressed lady to her hotel room
• Spent time listening to all sorts of people

Street Pastors found a discarded shopping trolley near Letcombe Brook in Smith’s Wharf and returned it to Sainsbury’s.

One of our teams met a distressed young lady coming out of a pub on her own. The team had seen her earlier in the evening with a group of friends, which were now gone. The lady didn’t know how to get back to her hotel room, so we escorted her back to the hotel lobby and spent some time chatting with her and praying with her there. Still not sure how to find her room, the lady asked us to contact her boyfriend and take her to her room, which we did.

On other occasions our teams met people who shared with us about things going on in their lives or asked us about our beliefs as Christians. A couple of older men asked our views on homosexuality, a lady told us of her desire to give up smoking and a young man, who said he was a seer, allowed us to pray with him as he was unwell.

Although our purpose on the streets is to care, to listen and to help, we’re always happy to chat with people, answer their questions, and if they wish, pray with them. While we’re on patrol we have a small team of people praying behind the scenes. When Street Pastors feel that there is a need that is greater than their ability or resources, they pray and call the prayer team to get them praying too.

Thank you to all the people that support Wantage & Grove Street Pastors, often behind the scenes and in many different ways. Keep up the good work!