Street Pastoring is something I really enjoy and am comfortable doing, I understand it is not everyones cup of tea, it is mine, I have been recently leading teams, which is something new and something which I am growing into and enjoying as well.
Last week I was out in Norwich city centre, it was a night of finding people on the floor, drunk, beaten, drugged or one guy had seemingly been stabbed, this is not always what nights are like, but this night was and what amazed me, was not the people we were finding, it was the passers by. As Christians, we are generally accused of being judgemental, in fact, during the day there had been a gay pride march, and as a team going out, we thought we were going to get it in the neck for being so judgemental ( were we judging?), we didn't, we only had some very positive remarks from the gay community. In general though, someone was on the floor, we would get people walking up to tell us, they deserved it, calling names, making really stupid comments and of course, when there were girls on the floor, there were blokes who wanted to come over and sneek a peek, there is nothing like an unconscious girl puking on the floor and several blokes hanging around to see if their boobs pop out or what knickers she is wearing.
As street pastors, we get a very positive reaction on the streets, but people rarely have something positive to or helpful to say to those we are helping, I say rarely, but last Saturday there was a passing fella who really took charge in the stabbing incident and when we were helping a spiked young lady, another girl came up offering to help, saying that we had helped her in the same way. I suppose in general I was just a bit shocked at peoples negativity and judgementalism, especially, as I have said, it is what Christians are constantly accused of.
There was also a young lady who we helped, who had been let down by the 'system', it has really started me thinking, I will explain more on another occasion.
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