I was out myself in a street pastor team on a bitterly cold Friday evening from 9.30pm until 4am.

We began with a stroll along Chapel Road to greet any drinkers that were out.

Some were curious and asked who we were.

We told them that we were volunteers from different churches who were available to help anyone who needed help or who wanted someone to talk with.

Soon we heard on the air-radio that someone was evicted from a club and was staggering down the road.

We hurried to the venue to see if we could be of any help.

Then we were told that a large group of teenagers were meeting at a disco so we strolled along and had a few friendly conversations with the young people outside the venue.

Some ladies were shivering but our aluminium blanket was not trendy enough for them!

An hour and a half passed and we went back to our base for a break before heading out again in a team of four.

The Pub Watch team called us as they were concerned that a customer was not able to get back to his friends safely.

We got to the venue as quickly as we could but by the time we arrived he had found them.

Around 2am, one of our members located an anxious lady who had lost her purse and was trying to contact her friend on her mobile phone.

Our member had a chat with her and she went back to the club for a search.

We waited outside for a while and then doubled back to see how she was and we saw her inside Subway so we knew that she had found her money.

We were hugged by two strangers who were pleased we were there for them.

We also picked up ten bottles, two glasses and 10 beer cans and deposited them in the litter bin, as they could be potentially dangerous if broken.

We saw a young lady running in bare feet.

We gave her a pair of flip-flop slippers and walked her home.

We saw some young men kicking the litter bins at each other.

As our roles were not confrontational we returned later to put the bins back.

A door man described that evening as the quietest that he had encountered.

We had a good night out on the town and were really looking forward to going home for a good sleep.


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