During March there were:

• 2 Friday night patrols and 2 Saturday night patrols
• 4 Patrols totalling 20 hours of cover involving 12 Street Pastors
• 2 pairs of flip-flops given and 7 bottles of water
• 325 lollies and Love Hearts given

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

• Cared for a man that had nowhere to stay
• Cared for a woman that had been injured
• Convinced a group of young men to stop arguing and go home

A man arrived in Wantage by bus and asked us for help to find an address. We looked it up online to find that it was in a village about 4 miles away. None of us were keen on the man walking there in the dark, but with no way of getting there the man faced a night on the streets of Wantage. We have some basic supplies for occasions when we meet a homeless person, so we provided him with a pot-noodle and other provisions. A member of the public bought him a kebab and offered to let him stay at their place; a kind offer, which sadly fell through. We later saw the man in a sleeping bag in a shop doorway.

We met a couple and asked if they were okay as the woman was injured. They said they were fine so we left them but made sure to go back that way soon after. When we went back, the lady confirmed that she was fine and safe. We later saw the couple trying to get a taxi and they were happy for us to help. The man stopped a passing car and got the lady in it and walked off. We spoke to the driver and, realising that he was not a registered taxi, we got the lady out and found a genuine taxi for her. It turned out that she knew the driver, which we were all very glad about.

One of our teams found a group of young men engaged in a protracted argument with a middle-aged man. We suggested to the group of men that prolonging the argument was pointless and that it was time to head for home. They agreed and made their way home!

COVID-19
Wantage and Grove Street Pastors Management Committee met on 17 March and decided to suspend Street Pastor patrols for the foreseeable future, in response to the growing COVID-19 pandemic.

Thank you to everyone for the kind words of support that we have received in recent days.