Island Life Magazine Ltd October/November 2009 | Page 27
FEATURE
life
show them where. If they’re on their
own and the worse for wear we phone
a friend for them. We tell them where
they can get a takeaway; if they need a
light we have a lighter. We carry business
cards telling people where to get help
with alcohol or drug issues – it’s practical,
community based stuff.”
Then there are the girls who by 1am
find their high heels too wobbly and are
walking barefoot on the pavements, amid
discarded burgers, broken glass or vomit.
The Street Pastors will wrap shivering
girls in foil blankets (“just baste and roast
for four hours!” David says as he wraps
a girl, turkey-style) and offer them flip
able to say to a stranger ‘you alright
to talk to us – and it’s their first deep
flops.
mate?’ just to show we’re there if
conversation for years. A bloke having
needed.”
a fag outside the pub just opened up
“It’s a great way of saying we care,”
says David.
For Rebecca Kelly, one of the Seniors
the whole depth of his soul – then says
The qualities needed to be a Street
in David’s team, being a Street Pastor is
Pastor are quite specific. “You have to
about ‘walking our talk’. “If someone’s
be a Christian. You have to be a people
in the gutter you’ve got to get there with
David’s team are in their 50s and 60s.
person – you have to love people,
them.” She and David remain constantly
There is even one 85-year old. How does
particularly those in a distressed state.”
surprised at how much the people on
that go down with the youth on the
Not all the volunteers pass the interview.
the streets want to talk: “Society is
streets?
“You can’t be too shy, or too ‘in your
shallow,” says David. “Conversation is
face’,” says David. “You have to be
about rubbish. We find people who come
‘cheers mate, thanks!’”
Surprisingly, most of the volunteers in
“Actually there’s a sort of awed
respect,” says Rebecca. “They say ‘How
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