WOW What a Night !!!

Our first night (Friday, 16th October) was certainly what you would call exciting! Finally hitting the streets with a little nervousness, excitement, the feeling of the unknown, but sensing God was with us in a very real way!

The wife of one of our prayer pastors (Michael Charles from St. Catherine of Siena Church) had a vision for us that we would be going out behind the sword – the Word of Truth. We were reminded of the command God gave Joshua: ‘to be Bold and Courageous because the Lord your God is with you’!

Before we hit the streets, we had a briefing from Simon (the PC who spoke at the Commissioning Service). Simon brought his whole team with him – eight other PCs and PCSOs. We all had tea and biscuits at St Laurence's which was a real encouragement – it wasn't a them-and-us mentality, which is amazing, and the unity and partnership that is already evident between the police and ourselves is certainly strong and we should thank God for it!

After all the briefings, dishing out the uniforms and the kit, and drinking hot chocolate and eating cake, knowing we had a lot of prayer support, we headed out into the night...

We had a vague idea of the route we were going to take – up Friar Street, along Station Road, back round to St Laurence's, then back up Friar Street, onto West Street, St Mary's Butts, Gun Street, along to The Oracle, and back and round to Friar Street. This was the kind of route we took — ish!

There were seven of us (plus one observer from Our Lady of Peace); we had three pairs and I was walking between the pairs. The first part was initially to greet the door staff and say “Hi!” to those we passed. All through the night the door staff were really very open and welcoming towards us, talking and chatting very easily. The manager of the De Ja Vu actually ran out of the bar and hailed us down to thank us and chat to us (Bill's the chair of the Pubwatch Group). This is another big thing to thank God for – other places, including Basingstoke, have found this very hard and only now – a year on – have they softened their attitude towards the pastors! This is a great opportunity for us to build good relationships with the door staff – remember and write down their names!

Our first incidents included tending to a girl who had injured her ankle and ensuring she got home OK; chatting to quite a few people throughout the night who couldn't get into the clubs due to being drunk and not believing they were (even those who couldn't string a sentence together thought they were sober!) – trying to help them locate their friends and offering mobiles to do so; dealing with the aftermath of a punch up outside The Purple Turtle – didn't get involved ... called CCTV who were already onto it, hung back and located a group who were a bit traumatized – helped them find a taxi home. We helped a few lone women throughout the evening – ensuring they were OK, with friends or to get a taxi; helped one by talking to her to ensure safety from guys pestering her along The Oracle.

The funny incident of the evening was on giving away my first lollipop – it was to a guy whose birthday it was – his 21st – he was quite drunk but with a friend who was relatively sober. We were outside The Purple Turtle – he dropped his lolly, leaned forward to get it, completely lost his balance and co-ordination, hit his face on the pavement which left him with a cut eye and nose. This gave the doorman much amusement and he may tease and banter with us on this incident for a while: “it was all alright before the street pastors came along!” You have been warned!

Generally the reception was great. The police (not just the town centre team but from the wider team) and other people were welcoming; providing chats with those interested or sober enough to read our caps and coats.

Our prayer pastors (Michael, Colin and Tony) were awesome and such a great encouragement – thank you! Colin had a picture of a dove and sensed that God was saying we are like doves – bringing in a tide of peace to recede the tide of bitterness/ ill feeling/ drunkenness.

This is a great start to the project.

To find out more, please email me – Matt Hearn – @
Or you can visit the national website @ www.streetpastors.org.uk and look up Reading!

Many thanks and God Bless!

Matt Hearn
Reading Street Pastor Co-ordinator
C/O Greyfriars Church, Friars Street, Reading. RG1 1EH
On behalf of Reading Christian Network, Churches together in Reading, and Impact Reading – a Christian social action network for Reading and surrounding areas.
For more information on Impact Reading, visit their website @ www.impactreading.org