Street Pastors for Harrow

STREET PASTOR VENTURE FOR HARROW

You may remember the enthusiastic presentation on Street Pastors back in August. The new co-ordinator is responsible for recruiting and setting up a team to serve in Harrow in 2012. 

So, having been accepted for the course, on 3 September three of us from Trinity embarked on our Street Pastor training at St Michael’s Church in Brixton.  There we met 6 others from Harrow churches and at least 60 from other churches in London.  This was the first of 12 Saturdays (4 sessions every other month) to train us for our role as Street Pastors in Harrow.

The training, in a truly ecumenical atmosphere, covers a wide range of subjects from listening skills, drug awareness and sociology to youth culture and community and is led by a variety of professionals in different styles, all interesting, some absolutely enthralling and many challenging our own prejudices and misconceptions.  As part of our training we also spend at least one night as an observer with a team (Ealing, Southall, Acton etc) to give us some hands on experience of staying up all night and meeting people on the streets. Personally, I never knew how vibrant and busy Ealing can be at 2 am on a Friday night and the number of buses still running! It is amazing how many ordinary people are keen to see Street Pastors on the streets and have deep questions to ask on any manner of spiritual matters.  It is a real privilege to be there.

Part of the pleasure in having the opportunity to train, is also the chance to form firm bonds with other members of our team and to share our own concerns and experiences. Harminder is always there with encouragement and guidance and to answer any queries.  As we grow together in learning more self-awareness and how to serve our community, we are immensely grateful for the support of the wider Christian community in Harrow and ask for your continued prayers. 

The Street Pastors were commissioned at a special ceremony at Harrow Civic Centre on Thursday, 26th January.

We are all excited about this new venture for Harrow and hopefully, the chance to show Christianity in action on our local streets at night. If you are interested in learning more information, the general website is www.streetpastors.org.uk or specifically for Harrow talk to our Minister, David.