A friend forwarded me this link to a brilliant Youtube advert. You might like to use it at an event or service, or just forward it to friends who might be intrigued by the message. The idea is very simple; a man finds a stethoscope in the street and realises that everything he holds it up to sings a song of what is inside. I am not going to spoil the surprise but there is an unusual quirky ending. Can you guess what is inside the man’s heart?
Stethoscope advert Read More »
As part of the Activate team, I wanted to write an article for this new website and at the beginning of a new year, I thought this would be a good time to look ahead and see if there are any new challenges we can take up. My cousin Roy once again travelled with a group to Lourdes and below he writes of his experience and all he learnt. It’s not possible for all of us to travel in order to experience new things or see God at work, but as you read his account, consider what you could do this year that will not only impact your own life, but that of others too.
It might be joining a new creative course at your local college (who knows what a difference it might make to one or more of the other students to have you there), volunteer for a local charity, go along to a local reading group or take up a completely new sport. A look at your local newspaper, notices in the library or leisure centre should give plenty of idea. Then let us all know how you get on.
Lourdes ’08 – A Personal Reflection
This was my second visit to Lourdes, both times as a helper on a Jumbulance. On this occasion I went with a group from Woodley near Reading. We were seen off from the local church, St John Bosco, with the enthusiastic support of schoolchildren from St Dominic Savio Junior School who all seemed to enjoy the experience of being shown around inside the coach and were intrigued by ‘beds in a bus!’ A number of the group travelling to Lourdes came from St John Bosco and there was immediately a good community feel as we were waved goodbye.
The group consisted of ten guests needing care and support (with various serious illnesses and/or disabilities), fourteen helpers, the local priest who was also helping, and two drivers. I was impressed by the love and care of the nurses and helpers, the loving commitment of the drivers and above all the courage of the VIPs. It was a great group of people to be with for these eight days.
The helpers included a core group who organise, fund raise, select and book appropriate hotels and recruit those who will go needing care. It is this group’s dedication that releases individuals to journey to a place that they could not otherwise get to.
It is a modern day pilgrimage with a mixture of people, expectations and faith. The whole trip reminded me of the story of Jesus on the road to Emmaus after His resurrection. In the story He was hidden for much of the journey but somehow He made Himself known as they shared together. This was how this trip was for me. We experienced God through Lourdes, the grandeur of the Pyrenees and each other.
As before, for me, the experience is difficult to describe as it works at so many different levels. Perhaps, this time, my emphasis was less on the personal challenges of finding my way around a new experience and more about a journey with a group in an experience which touches body, soul and spirit. Dom Antony Sutch speaking on Radio 4’s ‘Thought for the Day’ just twenty-four hours before we left on our journey described his own experiences of Lourdes. I was glad to be able to share his talk with the group during a Mass in the week. Dom Sutch reflected that Lourdes is:
“…… a place especially for the sick and disabled, but each pilgrim goes for their own reason: some because they are sick or helpers to them, some to pray for spiritual, physical or mental healing, some from curiosity, some for peace of mind, forgiveness, renewal of soul, some possibly not knowing why: one I know because his girlfriend was going. The effect on each is individual: one described it to me as “the most ghastly bazaar of Catholic tat and kitsch”; another as “a place of miracles, seen and unseen”; another as” touched by God where people don’t need to pretend.
…… I come back exhausted yet inspired. Inspired as the people are seen simply as humans, as Sons and Daughters of God: where human life itself is sacred whatever the scars, traumas, diseases and deformities of the body or mind: no distinction of person, even Cardinals are treated as human. The solidarity, mutual support and understanding engendered in Lourdes is to me, miraculous. The compassion and service to others palpable.”
(Thought for the Day, Radio 4, Dom Antony Sutch, 25 September 2008)
For me, this sums up the experience of Lourdes.
As we struggled to push wheelchairs through the crowded streets, with frequent pauses to make sure that the group was all still together, I reflected on how much Lourdes beneficially slows down the pace of life. We just had to ‘wait and be’ allowing God to be with us in the waiting and enjoyment of the place. Sometimes this was lost in the need to get somewhere, or ‘get to the front’. A sort of ‘consumer anxiety’ can take over but the story of Bernadette and her simple obedience to be in a place where God wanted her draws one back to just enjoying the moment. Lourdes and those who are ill can bring us back to that God-given quality of life of ‘just being’.
A day trip outside of the town of Lourdes was a visual aid to God’s presence in His Creation and we were given the gift of a beautiful sunny day. A Mass in the open air on a farm track by a mountain stream was special, somehow made even more so by the respectful walkers taking off their caps as they passed through our gathering and a post office delivery van causing us to quickly rearrange the seating arrangements to allow it to pass through! The improvised altar was the end of a trolley bed shared with a VIP and we just enjoyed God being with us anywhere, anytime.
Lourdes is a place where there are so many ways of being helped to find God. There must be something for everyone including non-Catholics like myself, or others who may possibly rarely or never attend church. There is the traditional expectancy at the Grotto, there are the big processions and groups with banners, there are the masses and benedictions, there is a quiet climb up the hill with the Stations of the Cross. There is water for anointing, the candles little and very large, the beauty of the small and large churches, the sense of a place of pilgrimage and prayer for one hundred and fifty years and, most of all, the people, the people, and the people. All languages, colours, sizes and ages. I found it an inspiration just to wander around and soak in the atmosphere of faith, hope, acceptance and love. A healing process in itself.
I found the daily procession of sick people most moving of all. It could have been only sorrowful and yet there was hope – hope that comes with the recognition that healing can be for the body but it is often more importantly for the soul and spirit.
In the Pope’s recent visit to Lourdes, he summarized this with the words:
“…… that the endurance of suffering can lead people to despair of the value of life. There are struggles we cannot sustain alone, when speech can no longer find the right words, we need a loving presence.”
For more details of the Jumbulance go to New Jumbulance Travel Trust Website http://www.jumbulance.org.uk/
Roy Gregory
October 2008
Lourdes 2008 – A Personal Reflection Read More »
It is 1am on a Friday night in Sutton, a south London suburb, where 4,000 people will queue to get into – then stumble out of – bars and night clubs over the next few hours. Most are young, drunk and potentially vulnerable.
Rosie has missed her last train home and wants to know where to get a night bus. Elspeth is dealing with a paralytic friend who cannot stand up. Claire is in tears because her friends used fake ID to get into a club and left her outside. There is not a policeman in sight, but help of a holier kind is at hand.
I am on patrol with eight “street pastors”: people so concerned about the numbers of young people out drinking that they head to high streets every Friday night to deal with the fallout. They are part of an inter-denominational Christian group of adults moving out of their middle-class, middle-aged comfort zones to make the streets feel safer while they are on patrol – and they boast some high-profile fans.
It’s absolutely fantastic the job the street pastors are doing,” David Cameron enthused earlier this year. “What we need is more people out in the community supporting the police, who can’t do the job of beating antisocial behaviour on their own.”
London Mayor Boris Johnson is also an admirer of the “extraordinary and inspiring movement” of street pastors, which he sees as a key part of reducing violence on the streets. “I talked to a few of the kids loitering around at 11.30pm, but two stick in my mind,” he wrote, after joining a team in Southgate, north London, during his mayoral campaign.
“One was a 15-year-old who bragged (convincingly) about the hundreds of offences he had committed, the drugs he had taken, and the relative failure of the police to deal with him. I could see all too easily how he would end up in prison, at massive expense to the state.
“Then there was another kid, in the same gang, who said he was doing an NVQ to be an electrician. He said he could not wait to earn so much that he would be able to show off to a certain policeman who had persecuted him. For him, I saw more than a glimmer of hope, and I saw how the street pastors were helping him.”
The experiment began in Brixton in 2003, based on a Jamaican model, with trials taking off in London, Manchester and Birmingham. Five years on, the street pastor project has spread to small towns and suburbs, where the civilian patrols deal less with gang culture and more with drunkenness and antisocial behaviour. This year, the number of areas patrolled has grown to 70, with 50 more groups planned by the end of this year.
Their help could not come at a more opportune time. As the Government prepares to unveil its Youth Alcohol Action Plan to improve education in schools and for parents, the alcohol consumption of a typical teenage drinker has more than doubled. In 1995, it was 5.3 units per week, but last year it was 11.4 units. More teenagers are drinking spirits than before: 63 per cent of 15-year-olds named spirits as a regular drink.
Frank Soodeen, of the pressure group Alcohol Concern, has nothing but praise for the street pastors. “The work they do certainly helps – getting people out of clubs, onto buses and into taxis is really important when they are drunk and putting themselves at risk,” he says. “The real problem is when bars and clubs are illegally selling alcohol to people who are too drunk to consume it sensibly.”
Many of the street pastors recognise this change in drinking behaviour and the atmosphere on town high streets in recent years. Nick Boddy, a church worker in his fifties and a street pastor of three years standing, says Sutton now seems busier with drinkers on a Friday night than it is with shoppers on a Saturday afternoon.
“We find little ways of making people’s evening better – even if it’s just having a chat. When there is a fracas, we don’t intervene, but we stand back and pray or call the police if it is really serious. Then we help calm the fears of the people around us who are frightened by the fight.”
I join Mark Tomlinson, the 49-year-old group co-ordinator, and his patrol partner Cathy Ayres. The group are the ultimate advocates for Cameron’s much-mocked hug-a-hoodie philosophy. Except to my surprise, it is the hoodies who are hugging the God Squad. “We love you street pastors,” passing groups shout, taking pictures with their mobile phones.
One grammar school girl, who was helped by a street pastor the previous week, says she had just joined a Facebook group in appreciation of their work.
The first person to benefit tonight is a woman in her early twenties who limps barefoot out of Vodka Revolution Bar, clutching sky-scraper heels. She tiptoes around broken bottles towards a taxi rank. Cathy, a primary school teacher in her fifties, fishes some flip-flops out of a bag to offer the shoeless clubber some protection.
Free flip-flops are the latest addition to the street pastors’ arsenal of goodwill. “We give them to young girls whose feet are hurting,” says Mark. “We try to chat to people to reduce their fear of crime here in the suburbs, where people’s worries can be as bad as people living in the inner city.”
Thermal blankets for those who did not bring coats have proved popular, he says. Pocket night-bus timetables are invaluable for helping disorientated youngsters get home. In the most serious cases, the pastors will bring a sleeping bag from their base at a nearby church for those with no other shelter.
Clutching a bottle of lager, Alex pulls his bike alongside Mark. He has known Mark for years and obviously admires him. “These are good, good people,” he says. “Who else do you know who will walk the streets on a Friday night talking to drunks? I’ve been in a bit of trouble and tried to turn my life around, but I haven’t done it just yet. But Mark I can talk to anything about. He’s such a good guy.”
Others share his surprise that people with comfortable lives sacrifice Friday night social plans to help the inebriated. But the street pastors have various reasons for their commitment to the scheme: some are inspired by the idea of ordinary people making towns safer, some worry about their own children out late at night and want to provide a safer environment for others.
Melissa Wynn, who works for an IT company, says: “We all want to get out of the cosy environment of our churches and homes to where we can make a difference.”
Peter Ticher, aged 80, is one of the group’s newest recruits. “I’m not scared of going out on the streets,” he says. “We hear so much about knife crime, but not one street pastor has ever been injured.”
As the clubs start throwing people out, we spot Tony – speechlessly drunk and clinging to a lamppost. A street pastor calls the group’s hotline to the police. “You wouldn’t believe how many ones we’ve had like this tonight,” says a frustrated paramedic, when help finally arrives. “Only one legitimate job tonight, a baby that couldn’t breathe. The rest of them have been self-inflicted by over-indulging in alcohol.”
Tony spits at the paramedics when they approach, so police are called to put him into the ambulance, in order that he can be driven home. “It’s an absolute waste of our time,” says the paramedic. “They certainly don’t tell you this in training. Tony’s had too much sauce and now he can’t walk. We can’t leave him lying here and no taxi will have him, so we’ve got to take him home.”
At first, the police and ambulance services were sceptical about the street pastors scheme, says Nick. “They were worried we would cause more work for them, if people targeted us or we got into trouble. But the shopkeepers, clubbers and bar owners are glad we’re out there to give advice,” he adds.
“Eventually, the police conceded we are helpful to them, because they can be freed up to deal with the more serious issues.”
Sgt Andy Barnes, who helped to brief the first Sutton street pastors, appears in a promotional video calling for more recruits. He praises the team.
“It takes a lot away for us really,” he says. “They are there talking to people, engaging with people. These are people who are often left by themselves, who are drunk, who are lonely – and who would take up an awful lot of our time.”
A Street Pastor's personal story Read More »
A Christian group that patrols the streets of a Kent town on Saturday nights to help stranded or drunken revellers is planning to expand.
Street Pastors have been going out in Maidstone fortnightly, but want to double volunteer numbers from 12 to 24, so they can go out weekly.
Kent Police said early crime figures showed a “marked reduction” in incidents when they were on duty.
“I, for one, am very glad they are here,” said Pc Duncan Pallett.
“They help in an amazing array of ways. Not only do they pray for people, but they offer practical solutions to problems.
“They can turn their hand to pretty much anything, be it calling taxis to offering ladies with high heels the salvation of flip flops.”
One of the volunteers, who are from local churches, said they helped with a variety of difficulties.
“A lot of people have purses stolen, or have problems getting a taxi home,” she said.
“They might have upsets with their friends and get abandoned.
“When my teenagers were growing up I used to lie in bed wishing there was someone out there to pick them up if they needed help.”
‘Take abuse’
A security spokesman for Jumpin Jaks and the Liquid and Envy nightclubs said the Street Pastors had spent time with the doormen.
“It is great because they have seen some of the abuse we have to take,” he said.
There was a training day held on 14 January but if you’re interested in the possibility of getting involved in your area then contact the Salvation Army HQ at Maidstone for more information about the work across the UK.
Tel -01622 681808 or visit them on their website – www1.salvationarmy.org.uk/maidstone
Volunteers must be Christians and complete a 12-session training course before beginning work.
Street Pastors to double patrols Read More »
Have a look at this fresh, well set up website from a great organisation – RUN
A growing network of churches passionate about mission, sharing common vision and values.
Encouraging churches to effectively communicate Christ to contemporary cultures.
Welcome to the 21st Century and a culture in which many people have little or no experience of church.
A society in which many are alienated by church culture.
These people are the unchurched – we’re here to help you reach out to them.
RUN aims to…
Envision – keeping you at the leading edge of outreach thinking and up to date with ideas
Resource – with high quality and imaginative ideas plus practical and stimulating resources in a range of media
Network – linking you with churches and ministries across the UK and beyond – sharing a wide breadth of experience and ideas
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