request by Richard Pitt
 Prayer Team needed to support Street Pastors
Street Pastors have been out on Friday and Saturday nights since May this year. They are making a considerable difference to the people of Southampton.
In the first 3 months on the streets they have:
• protected 36 people who were vulnerable. This is usually women who are very drunk and are lost or on their own.
• cared for 72 people who were unwell through drinking too much
• comforted 41 people who were upset.
Every night that we operate there is a prayer team backing us up at the street pastor base. Many times the task presented to the street pastors has seemed impossible, and yet a successful outcome has arrived through the work of the prayer team.
At the moment we only have enough people on the prayer team to get two people praying at our base while the street pastors are out. If someone is ill it leaves one person praying on their own.
On one occasion the street pastors were trying to help a man who had been assaulted with a base ball bat. He had a broken nose, was dizzy and unsteady, but refused to go to hospital in an ambulance. The street pastors phoned in to the one-man prayer team (it was one of those occasions where the second person was ill). In a short while a friend of the injured man happend to walk past, and he was able to speak sense to him, persuading him that he needed to go to hospital.
That night was an extreme example of violence - most nights have been much more peaceful. In fact, the police have commented to us that things have been much better on the streets since we begun working. This is no doubt due in part to the prayer
teams.
These notes were made by Maggie Wheatley from our church on Saturday 8th August. She was having to pray on her own as the other person couldn't make it:
2345 - Girl (15 years) with learning difficulties - met by the team before - police rang
them to say she is out and needs to be seen. The team are going to search for her
but in the meantime are dealing with drunk young man who is being sick. Oh bless
them Lord in their task.
0022 - Girl found! Fight sorted! Drunken man sorted! Thank you Lord - YES!
0040 - Team arrive back for their break. Police confirmed that girl is home and safe.
Our existing prayer team needs another 12 people to join them. Each person volunteers to pray once per month. If we have 12 more people we will be able to have 3 people on the rota each night. Please think whether you could be one of them. And spread the word to anyone you know who would be able to join us.
Thank you.
Richard Pitt, Street Pastor Coordinator (Southampton)
Tel: 023 8099 9896
Email: southampton@streetpastors.org.uk
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