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 27