750 and Counting

Well tomorrow at last the staff at DCM get a break for Christmas. This last month has been hard work as it is the busiest period with people requiring food parcels, the Christmas rush on Street Pastors, deputations and preaching in Derby Churches. However the busiest period has been Christmas Connection as we have found presents for 750 children accross the City. We have partnered with over 30 churches and Westfields to find the neediest in our City a present.

As public sector jobs are lost and many families stare in fear into 2011 would you stand with us as either volunteer prayer partner or supporter as we seek to bring the Whole Gospel for the Whole Person to the Whole City... So may you know the miracle of Jesus in your heart and be born again the Christmas... To all of you from myself as Director, Robin the Operations Manager, and Sharon our other City Missionary, Trustees and volunteers we wish you a very very Happy Christmas and a blessed New Year.

News from the Streets

Well the Street Pastors have come through yet another Halloween weekend. Lately in fact since freshers week have been very busy in the City. Sadly despite all our efforts Alcohol related violence has risen and things are much more hostile on Friday and Saturday nights. On one evening recently we called 5 ambulances in 2 hours. The cases were for a 17 year old boy badly intoxicated with cannabis and alcohol. Another call was for a young single Mum fitting as a result of an Ecstacy/Alcohol cocktail. Then we are dealing with a man who's ear has been bitten through by someone in a fight. However we are convinced that Jesus is in all this. We believe that WWJB means Where Would Jesus Be.. We think the early hours of a Sunday morning he would be ministering love and care to people who need it.

This week at our Jubilee project we heard of a tragic tale of an impoverished single Mum who had been charged £150 bank charges by her bank for being a tiny bit over her £50 overdraft level. We made a complaint and were then able to help her clear her debts. In fact last week we were able to get several thousnad pounds worth of debt paid off for people thus getting them free and allowing them to sleep again. We have been so blessed in the quality of our excellent volunteers who serve the clients so well.

A huge thank you to all who gave to our Harvest Basics Bank Food appeal Chruches and School from all over Derbyshire gave so generously we estimate over £20,000 worth of food has been donated ot help us relieve poverty and to help make peoples lives better. Special thanks should go to John and Sylvia Gatt and Einir Cooper who along with the other stalwart volunteers Sue Smith, Sylvia, Karl and Andy and Ruth have done an amazing job in bringing in the harvest sorting it and administering it all.............. an amazing feat.

Recovery Project. we now have over 45 clients coming to this each week and are partnering with Restore to reach out to sex workers who come into the project. It is great to see this project which is a prtnership between Ozzy Road Church, YWAM DCM and now Restore take shape and begin to see lives turn around...... For myself Alasdair it is the highlight of my week !

The Healing in the Streets conference despite the down pour went really well with one lady being healed as we prayed for her and just now I took a call from a lady who we had prayed with on the streets the other day asking where she could find a church where Gods power was as she wanted to join a church where God was .......... providentially I had lots of choice in Derby !

Over 60 Christians from 21 differrent churches came together for the conference and we are so excited to see what God is doing in Derby through His church.... It really is the Hope of the World...

Please pray for the fulltime staff at DCM, the other day we calculated that we now have over 200 volunteers working accross the various projects we run and as you can imagine that takes some administrating and caring for.... So please don't fgeel forgotten we can just get very busy at times......

Healing on the Streets Training Weekend News

Hi Everyone,

Application forms will be with your churches this weekend please note we only have 100 places on this training weekend .. Yes 100 for the whole City ! So if you are intending to join the Healing on The Streets Team you will have to attend the whole training weekend on Friday and Saturday. So applications will be on a first come first served basis.

Application forms are available from your Church Minister so please contact them rather than us at DCM for application forms.

Conditions for application are as follows;
Recommendation of minister
Attendance at the whole conference
Sign up to minister an average of one Saturday per month from 12-3 pm approx

Every blessing and we look forward to seeing you at St Alkmunds Church on Friday 22nd of October at 19h30.

Ally

Street Pastor Car

While Ally is on holiday I have use of the SP car, yay!! I won't bore you with the details of how I came to be at the security gate at the University this morning but I was and I wasn't sure what to say to the guard to let me through! So I pulled up, wound down the window and before I could get a single word out he said to me, "Ah Street Pastors, are you one of the Street Pastors?" So I said "Yes, I help run the project." He said "Oh that's great, 3 people from my church are Street Pastors..." and so we talked for a minute, then he raised the barrier and cheerily waved me through. I couldn't help but think how cool it is that God opens doors, or should I say gates, for us!

Isaiah 45:1 "This is what the LORD says to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of to subdue nations before him and to strip kings of their armour, to open doors before him so that gates will not be shut..." (NIV)

In Christ
Robin

Healing on the Streets Conference Details Confirmed

Hi Everyone,

We can now confirm that the Derby Healing on the Street Conference with Mark Marx from Causeway Coast Vineyard is confirmed for Friday and Saturday the 22nd and 23rd of October at St Alkmunds Church, Kedleston Road Derby

Prices for the Conference are £25 per head. There are concession prices for, Students, OAP's Unemployed.

For more details or testimonies from other Healing on the Streets towns please see the following URLs.
http://out-there.org/
http://www.onevoiceyork.org.uk/story.asp?itemID=979&pcid=128

If you are a Church in the Derby area or an indivdual who would like to take part in the confernce and training Application forms are available through your church minister / leader and they will have them by late August.

Please note that application for the conference is only through your church leader. Should you wish to join Derby Healing on the Streets you will need to complete a CRB form and have attended the conference to be a part of the Team.
The vision is to have Christians from accross the body of Christ on the Streets of Derby every Saturday from November 2010.

Derby Healing on the Streets is part of Derby City Vision and is administrated by Derby City Mission

New Team for Austin Estate

We wanted to show you the new team of guys that we are working with in the SunnyHill area of Derby. We have recently obtained funding from the Police and are awaiting funding from Derby Council for our community football team. We have also been working with them and the commnunity safety partnership to see the local pub the Caxton arms restored as a centre in which the community meets.
We believe that Gang culture thrives in the context of community break down fear and deprivation therefore we work with members of the communities to help them rebuild and engage with the problems that they have. Creating aspiration and empowering people to make life better for the generation that follows.

Welcome to the New Street Pastors/ Training day with Les Isaacs

Ally Kay Director of Derby City Mission with Rev Les Isaacs CEO of Ascension Trust














Left to Right
Dave Simpson Derby Salvation Army
Andy Stewart New Life Christian Centre
Steve Tribe Belper Baptist Church
Angela Russell Ashbourne Road URC Methodist Church
Les Isaac Ascension Trust
Jim Kay St Alkmunds Kedleston Road
Dr Darren Leaning Woodlands Evangelical Church.



A big welcome to Derby's new Street Pastors as they begin their training with us. 4 of them will be working in our Estates Project and 2 of them will be owrking within the night time economy. They all bring real gifts and talents to the project and we are thrilled to welcome them. This now brings a total of 60 Street Pastors within Derby... Listening Caring and Helping our young people and communities.

Article from Todays Derby Evening Telegraph

Hi the Derby evening Telegraph have pblished an article on us here below. Just for clariffication we didn't spend £21,500 on a car we spent £3,500 slight differrence. We recieved a grant of £21,500 from the Criminal Justice board to recruit equip and train 15 Street Pastors and launch the Browning Circle project. The photo also isn't of Derby's Street Pastors.

Pastors: We bring peace to streets of the city

Street pastors

DERBY'S street pastors say they have stopped more than 850 revellers getting involved in drunken brawls in their first year of operation.

The Christian volunteers, who patrol the city centre on Friday and Saturday nights, say they have also picked up 4,688 pieces of glass and handed out 593 bottles of water.

The pastors say they try to calm situations which could lead to violence.

Alasdair Kay, who co-ordinates the scheme, said volunteers kept a record of "agitated" people to whom they spoke and, of 903, only 53 had gone on to get involved in a fight or arrested.

He said: "One of the things we do is let people rant and rave at us, as we are not going to react. We let them get it off their chest.

"What you find is that when people are drinking, something else misinforms their anger."

He said disagreements usually focused on race, girlfriends or family problems.

Mr Kay said: "They are the three main issues. Racial tensions are still a problem in the city, they haven't gone away. We get on the side of the person being targeted and tell people that they cannot say things like that.

"That is a lot of what we do. We also do simple things like tell them that there are CCTV cameras and police just around the corner and do they really want to spend a night in a cell? No-one really wants to do that."

Mr Kay said the street pastors were set up after two tragic incidents – the death of 17-year-old Shaun Dykes, who jumped from Westfield car park amid cruel heckling from onlookers, and the shooting of Kadeem Blackwood – in 2008.

He said: "After these incidents, I thought, 'we have to do something to make this city safer'."

The pastors were formed in February 2009, but have only kept figures since April that year. Pastors, who are trained in first aid, have treated 239 injuries – 111 of which needed hospital treatment.

The 50 volunteers meet for a briefing and prayer at 9.30pm and then patrol the city centre from 10pm until 4am.

Over the last 12 months, the street pastors have volunteered for 3,477 hours.

During this time, they had conversations with 18,347 people.

The pastors, who are supported by 25 churches in Derby, have also handed out 12,050 "spikeys" – which can be inserted into the top of a bottle to prevent people's drinks being spiked with drugs.

In addition, they have given out 1,405 pairs of flip flops to women who take their high heel shoes off as they walk home, to stop them injuring their feet on glass.

Following their success, the pastors were asked by police to extend their services to gang-plagued areas of Derby.

The group was given £21,500 to buy a car so that it could work in the Browning Circle area of Derby's Austin estate.

It was hoped that by providing a presence on Friday and Saturday evenings, the pastors could reduce tension and aggression and form relationships with young people and others in the community.

The project also aimed to develop a mentoring programme to offer non-violent activities as an alternative to anti-social behaviour, crime and gang membership.

Mr Kay said that when he helped establish the group, he had no idea it would be so successful.

He said: "I felt like I was up against a wall of scepticism – never did I expect it to have such an impact."

Mr Kay has since gone on to help set up similar schemes across the country, including one in Nottingham.

To find out more, visit www.streetpastors.co.uk

For the First time I have Hope

One of the things that is so difficult when blogging the work of DCM is to tell the stories of what God is doing in peoples lives but at the same time keeping confidentiality. So many of the people we help are so very fragile and some of the people who come to Basics Bank so desperately broken that if ever the found out that we told their story on the internet they would be hurt even more. It is a fine balancing act. However in one week last week we had 32 clients come through the door of our debt clinics. Stories of families living in total poverty sometimes a family of four living in one room, no furniture no heat, no way to pay the bills. In the last quater we have helped over 71 people with severe debt problems and 14 of those are now debt free thanks to Debt Relief Orders and the work of Andy, Ruth and Sharon.

We have taken the decision to seperate slightly the Debt, benefits and welfare advice from the food bank project and to rebrand the Debt advice project. In future the Debt benefit and welfare advice will be known as the Jubilee project after Leviticus 25 The year where people were released from debt and justice was restored. It was to this year that Jesus referred in Luke 4 when he said
God's Spirit is on me; he's chosen me to preach the Message of good news to
the poor,
Sent me to announce pardon to prisoners and
recovery of sight to the blind,
To set the burdened and battered free,
to announce, "This is God's year to act!" Luke 4 The Message.

Our heart in DCM is not just to preach a message of forgiveness but deliverence from the oppression of sin.

The other day Daniel Cullen went to speak to a Neighbourhood watch group in Austin Estate and shared about the work that Street pastors were doing there. At the end a man of 80 years old stood to his feet and asked if he could say something. He then began " I've been coming to these meetings for 20 years, on the whole I find them depressing, tonight for the first time I have hope for my community" Daniel phoned me to share this story it moved me to the depth of my being because that is our heart. We believe the local church is the hope of the world. when hope comes back in to a Community of dispair we're seeing the Kingdom come.

John Augustine phoned me to tell me about the Caxton Arms in the middle of Austin and how they had a prayer meeting there. The first night the new landlords opened the pub it's windows were smashed. When we heard about it the Street Pastors went straight round. They asked can we pray ? So in the middle of one of Derby's roughest pubs, heads were bowed and hearts were lifted to heaven asking for peace on the estate and for the community to come back........... let's watch this space for Gods reply !

Change that can touch a whole city

At the heart of what we are about as an organisation is a strap line that we really believe in. The whole Gospel for the Whole person for the Whole City. DCM believes in Holistic mission namely we care about every aspect of peoples lives whether it is housing, drugs, or other forms of poverty as well as the spiritual needs of people.

So these last two weeks have been key times that have led our trustees to make some key dicisions that will shape our future. To facilitate this we need to change our charitable status and also to create a company which will allow us to deliver social care to people who need it most.

We're are changing our constitution as well as our charitable status and at the same time creating a social enteprise........ what a mouthful. We will be contacting oall our supporters in June with the details of this for ratification at the AGM in September.

So Robin and I and some of the committee have been up to our eyes in company and charity law these last few days. We believe that at the end of this DCM could really empower the church in Derby to make a differrence and also be in a place to deliver key social care to people and even to sections of the community caught in powverty, crime and addiction. We are exploring some very exciting ideas like a winter Hostel for street sleepers during the winter months. More debt clinics especially in the Osmaston Allenton area. Alasdair is waiting to find out if he will join Osmaston and Sinfin neighbourhood board to have a say in the running of those communities. Next wednesday he is looking with other people from the community and voluntary sector at what will happen to the old Rolls Royce site in Osmaston.

Is this stuff important ? Well it's right in City Missions DNA, when you read the history of City Missions since 1826 we have been at the forefront of innovative social care. So to do this we need a governance and structure to facilitate the coming years.

We at last have a date for Healing on the Streets 22-24th of October at St Alkmunds church Kedlestone Road. Key speker Mark Marx from Causeway Coast Vineyard please put this date in your diary if you are interested in being a part of bringing Gods healing to the Streets of Derby.

Lastly could you pray for all the Street Pastors out in Austin Estate and the City Centre this weekend may gods love and peace be with all of them.

Alasdair

Where do you go to put your pain?

We were just coming to the end of our Street Pastor shift on one of Derby's estates on Saturday night when we came upon Mike (name changed) He was slumped against the rubbish bin gazing down the road while drinking his beer. "Who the F...are you lot" and suddenly he recognised one of the Street Pastors as a former boss who his brother had worked for.

We began to talk more and it transpired that he had been invalided out of the Army following injury in a bomb blast in Afhganistan. he then began to tell his story of life since his return it was like listening to the film "Born on the fourth of July" Struggling to reintigrate into family life, relational breakdown from his partner, loss of access of the kids because of anger issues. Times of heavy drinking all the signs and symptoms of unresolved guilt and post traumatic stress disorder.

It felt like re running the film of my life after Northern Ireland the uncontrollable rage, the drinking, relational break down instability on every front. Then the survivour guilt at people who have died and you suvived. Suddenly we had a 20 stone man weeping on the street as he shared his life. He turned to us and said it's like you are the first people who have ever lsitened to me. I then shared my story of PTSD and Northern Ireland and the journey into healing I had been on since comingto faith in Christ. We offerred to help him and he said at last someone understands me and what I'm going through.

So I would appreciate your prayers this week as we go to meet and listen some more and hopefully sensitively share with Mick some help.

We had another case of a guy who was lying bloodied in the gutter in the Market Place in Derby on Saturday night again his inner agony at losing a friend to Cancer erupted in rage and we were called to calm him down at 1.00 am as we bathed his wounds and cleaned him up and listened to him the truth came out and finally he cried............ so as we hugged this hulk of a man and let him get the pain out I believe Jesus was touching his life....

Jesus said come to me all who are weary and I will give you rest.. We live in a world of pain and Christ comes in our sufferring to meet us and show us that His yoke is easy and His burden is light.

If you are in pain today never forget that Isaiah 53 says surely he carried our pain.. he still carries it today.

The BBC One show Report on Street Pastors

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00ry9v4/The_One_Show_05_04_2010/

Hi if you go to this URL and scrool forward 37 minutes ew hope ot have the clip on the Blog as soon as we've converted the file.

Alasdair

Hi everyone,

We've just heard that we are on the BBC1 One Show on Monday 5^th April, 7pm.
We will do a full weekly blog once the show has gone out to talk about the whole exeperience and what it was like to have the Cameras on us for 14 Hours and for me ot spend hours being interviewed whilst doing a Street Pastor shift. An experience to say the least.

Could we all please pray for Sharon Cullen as she starts at DCM as our Missionary with responsability for Debt, Welfare, Housing and Benefits advice. A really specialised job. Also please pray for Robin as he begins to take on the day to day running of Basics Banks from the acocunts and management of the project.

Recruitment of a volunteer responsable for the Food Project of Basics Bank. We are still looking for someone with a heart for the poor who is prepared to give one day a week of their time to the running of this project. In addition it will need a very intense period around Harvest Festival as we have approximately £25,000 of food donated to us at that time.

It was a huge priveledge today to be present at Derby Cathedral at the Maundy Service in the presence of Her Majesty the Queen. What an amazing priveledge also to see people from Churches over Derby receieving a token from Her Majesty for all their service to the Church over the years. I was particulary moved to see a lady from Osmaston a deeply deprived area of the City recieve recognition for all she does. It put me in mind that one day we will all be in the presence of the King of Kings where I hope we will hear the words well done good and faithful servant.

This week Alasdair has been on writing leave where he has been working on his book "Tear down the walls, (bringing Good News to our communities)" it is due for publication in the summer and there will be more news on this nearer the time.

This Easter on Behalf of everyone in the DCM Family we want to shout a large... Christ has Died.... Christ Has Risen ... Christ will come again.... may you know His resurrection power living in you as we celebrate the greatest event in History.. Happy Easter

Alasdair

Life on £25 a week, a prayer and a bag of Chips..

I met Kev (name changed) this Friday lunch time as we were out on the streets of Derby. Kev had recently come out of prison and began to share his story with me. Born into a single parent family in Glossop he was raised in a home where he made it to school 3 out of 5 days a week and his special needs were never really picked up on. He said as I gave him a New Testament that he had read a book once, but hadn't bothered since. He told me that the place he had been living in was rat infested so he had to leave and was now living in Allenton. He had been sent to prison because one day the voices in his head and the anger got too much and he hit 3 people in a fit of rage.

At present he was living in a NACRO shared house and getting by each week on £25 a week. He told me where you can buy packets of Noodles for 8p a packet so you can eat each day.
I asked him what he dreamed of being one day. "A forklift driver" he replied, "I just want to make enough to live" he went on to say.
I realised he had barely eaten in the last two days so I went and bought him lunch. Do you ever pray I asked him. "Why?" he replied " is anyone listening". So I went on to tell Him how God feels about the poor and the lonely and said I would pray with him that God would intervene in his life.
At 21 Kev with a prison sentence behind him he is pretty well destined to a life of poverty, petty crime and if things go badly for him in Allenton the Heroin dealers will get to him one day. From there he will join the 2000 Heroin addicts or 10,000 alcoholics that have lost hope and numb the pain of the inner voice of dispair in Derby.

So I held his arm and prayed, I prayed about the inner fear he felt, the hopelesness, the job situation, relationships in his family.......... However the moment I gave him a bag of Chips it seemed as though the prayer connected. "Why would you do that for me?" he asked. My answer seemed so cheesy but I meant it. "Because I really do believe that If Jesus was here now this is what he would do" I replied.
Across our city and our nation are thousands of Kevs that need someone to step into their life and connect heaven to the Hell that is their life.

I spoke this week with a director of a BBC1 programme and she shared with me some of her opinions on Christianity. It was facinating to hear how she felt about so many things it was a truly pleasent hour in St Arbucks. She too had met a few Kevs, they're everywhere. She was asking the God question as well, I encouraged her to go on an Alpha course and get some answers to her questions.
In both these cases the same prayer filled my mind "God would you meet them where they are and reveal to them who you are?"

Rich or poor we all need to know that there is a God who meets us at our point of need.

Stories of Hope from Derby's Streets

This past weekend we had a visit from the High Sherriff of Derbyshire Sir Henry Evry. He has been so supportve of the work of Derby Street Pastors, so keep looking in Derbyshire life magazine for an article that could be coming soon. We also had a phone call from BBC1's One Show they are proposing doing a short piece on Derby Street Pastors, we'll let you know when they visit.

This last Saturday night was a tough night for Robin and his team as a girl that we have worked with for a long time attempted suicide. The team did a great job and manged to stop the bleeding and get her to Hospital. I met up with her later in the week to check her dressings and to get her to sign up and think about going to Rehab. She really does need help and needs to come out of a very abusive relationship with her partner.

Today we had hardly been out on the Streets 5 minutes when a conversation turned to salvation as a lady who confessed to being a church attender asked Christ personally into her heart. Many great conversations ensued this lunch time around the Hope bookelts we give out to people on the Streets.

Most of this week has been taken up around Gang problems in a local secondary school we have been scoping an after school project and have been pleased to engage with some of the young A1 gang members we meet on the streets of Allenton.

Please pray for our Street pastor teams in Austin, Allenton and the City Centre this weekend.

Alasdair goes to Grantham tommorrow to commission their new Street Pastors, please pray he will be an encouragement to them.

Great time on outreach in the city centre today sharing the Gospel with folk and praying with people to be healed I love it ! Prayed with this lady sufferring with real arthritic pain and she was so grateful and said she would see us next week for more.

However my my best moment was in the multi agency meeting this morning when a probation officer testified that we had been looking for this homeless Girl and I came to the drop in to try and find her she then said "Alasdair prayed and she came into the drop in" Wow said all the agencies including Police and Council Officers maybe miracles do happen Alasdair.. yes they do!

Tonight we have the Lord High Sherriff of Derby out with the Street Pastors. He has said that he would like us to meet all the Lord Mayors of Derbyshire to talk to them about seeing Street Pastors right qccross the county.

Many thanks to all of you who prayed for Alasdair after the recent vandalism on his Car. The Police have been wonderful in terms of securing out home by sending in the crime prevention team and also putting in CCTV. We are determined to keep up our work in the south Derby estates and we have sensed supernatural peace as a family.

DCM News, New Debt Worker Appointed and Healing on the Streets coming to Derby

Dear Friends of DCM. This weeks highlights have been Tuesday we launched the idea to Derby Church leaders to see Healing on the Streets come to Derby. Our desire is to see for 40 weeks of the year Christians from all over Derby trained in praying for the sick on our Streets. So please pray as a working group from differrent churches begin to meet together to plan and to pray for our conference. We will get back to you all when we have a date with details on how you can book in to the conference.

We would also like to announce with real joy the appointment of Sharon Cullen as our new City Missioner responsable for Debt, Benefit, Housing and Welfare Advice. Sharon will take up her post on the 6th of April and brings 10 years of volunteer experience with DCM as well as a whole raft of other experience dealing with victims of Doemstic Abuse, people sufferring with disability, housing and other welfare issues. Sharon is also a Street Pastor. Her appointmet is a little bit of a two for one as her husband Daniel helps to co-ordinate our work in Gang related areas of the City. Sharon worships at Emmanuel Community Church Duffield

Wow we've hit the French Press.. Some French Friends of mine sent me this article on us taken from the Independant on Sunday. So here it is in French!
Que Dieu protège les fêtards !
Sacs vomitoires et bouteilles d'eau ont remplacé la Bible dans leur besace. Les pasteurs des rues travaillent à la sortie des discothèques. Leur credo : écouter sans prêcher, raconte The Independent.
19.02.2010 | Emily Dugan | The Independent


© Droits réservés
La musique résonne dans le clignotement d'une lumière bleue. Nouvelle nuit de vice à la discothèque Syn, en plein centre de Derby. La lumière est celle du gyrophare d'une ambulance. On y installe une fille, inconsciente, affalée sur une chaise roulante. Sur le trottoir, une autre marche en titubant. On dirait qu'elle se rend à une audition pour Tarzan porno, à peine vêtue d'une robe léopard. "Si on m'interdit l'accès ici pendant trois mois", articule-t-elle avec difficulté en s'adressant à un videur bâti comme une armoire à glace, "pourquoi ne pas l'avoir fait la semaine dernière, quand j'ai essayé de vous frapper ?" La scène laisse indifférente un homme prostré au bord du caniveau, le visage en sang. Il attend de savoir s'il va être arrêté ou hospitalisé. C'est sa nuit de chance : il sera arrêté et hospitalisé.

Un vendredi soir comme un autre au Royaume-Uni, orgie de sexe et de violence. Mais où est donc passé Dieu, serait-on tenté de demander ? A l'évidence, il est occupé ailleurs. Heureusement que ses émissaires, eux, sont là, au milieu des policiers et des auxiliaires médicaux ; on les appelle les "Street Pastors", ou pasteurs de rue. Le peloton de Derby entre en action tous les vendredis et samedis soir. Au premier étage de l'église unie réformée, le directeur de l'antenne, Alasdair Kay, met de l'eau à bouillir en attendant l'arrivée de son équipe : James Jameson, 48 ans, directeur de l'unité d'hélicoptères de la police de Derby ; Amanda et James Anderson, un couple marié, tous deux d'une vingtaine d'années ; et Patrick Halls, médecin généraliste de 57 ans. On échange des histoires terrifiantes tout en buvant son café, comme dans n'importe quel service d'urgences. Puis John lance un "prions", après avoir fini de donner ses instructions pour la nuit. "Seigneur, nous prions pour que vous rameniez la paix dans la ville de Derby ce soir", commence-t-il avec optimisme, avant d'enchaîner sur une prière de dix minutes dans laquelle il cite chaque service municipal. Pourtant, la soirée se passera sans que soit jamais - ou presque - invoqué le nom de Dieu. "Nous refusons les candidats qui prétendent vouloir sauver les âmes perdues, parce que ce n'est pas notre mission", explique Alasdair, lui-même père de trois adolescents. Sur le chemin de l'église, il a déposé la cadette à sa fête.

Les pasteurs sont guidés par un principe : les patrouilles n'ont pas vocation à évangéliser. "On est là pour écouter et aider, non pour prêcher." La panoplie du prêcheur comprend une pelle et une balayette, de l'eau en bouteille, des couvertures de survie, des sacs vomitoires et des bouchons "antitraficotage" (pour empêcher qu'on verse une quelconque substance dans la boisson du client à son insu). Il ne reste plus guère de place dans la trousse pour le livre saint. Les pasteurs s'abstiennent de juger, cette attitude leur a même valu la sympathie du seul club gay de la ville. Les fêtards accourent pour serrer dans leurs bras les bons Samaritains qui passent.

Tout se passe bien ce soir-là jusqu'à ce que la deuxième équipe prenne le relais, à partir de 4 heures du matin. C'est à ce moment que les choses tournent à l'aigre. Patrick, le médecin, essuie le sang et donne de l'eau aux noceurs ivres. A tour de rôle, les pasteurs accompagnent les abandonnés et les éméchés jusqu'aux taxis. Les membres de la patrouille entretiennent des rapports étonnamment bons avec les videurs et les buveurs invétérés, mais ils avouent leur colère contre les bars et les clubs. Le Zanzibar sert à boire pour 89 pence le verre seulement. Le 181, comme le suggère son nom, propose toutes les boissons au prix de 1,81 livre. "C'est vraiment désolant", s'indigne Alasdair en secouant la tête. "Ce sont ces prix qui provoquent les pires dégâts. Nous avons démontré que, les soirs de promotion, les violences liées à l'alcool explosaient, mais personne n'y a mis le holà." Pourtant, les choses vont peut-être changer : le gouvernement aurait décidé de sévir contre les beuveries en retirant leur licence à ceux qui font des promotions irresponsables. Mais pour l'heure, aux quatre coins du royaume, des légions d'ivrognes sèment le chaos dans les centres-villes. Se dirigeant vers sa voiture au milieu des hurlements des sirènes et des cris annonçant une nouvelle bagarre, le révérend Alasdair se frotte les mains : "Eh bien, ce fut une nuit plutôt calme." Dieu regarde peut-être, finalement.

Hi Here are some great Testiminies from this weekends team great to God doing such great things through the Street Pastors



Hi Ally,
Following on from my text this morning here are some of the highlights from the City Centre on Saturday night. In the second half both teams had good spiritual conversations with a number of people. Andy Moorley may be able to fill you in on what happened on Giles’ team. Within my team we had good conversations with 4 people, on each occasion we were very much guided by the Holy Spirit to change plans and walk to a quieter area of the city centre for the time of night where we had the encounters.

Firstly at about 1-30 we spoke to a couple from Heanor outside Greggs. I spoke mainly to the husband who was telling me how much he has been impacted by the Channel 4 programmes on the History of the Bible and had a thirst for more information, encouraged him to try reading it as well as watching it. Didn’t have time to take it any further as they had to go and get the bus! Not sure how the conversation with the wife went, perhaps John or Kat could fill in on that, but gave her one of our contact cards if they wanted to follow anything up.

Secondly met a geology student straight after on the Market Place near Walkabout who said he was an atheist, but was really impressed with the good that Christians did in the world, but struggled to understand American fundamentalist religion. Said he was an atheist because he had read Dawkins and it fitted with his scientific reasoning and could never believe in a God. Told him that he should never say never as all 3 of us were in fact scientists also and suggested that he should try reading someone like John Lennox to get an alternative view to Dawkins. Also talked about the miracle of creation and when in the future he holds a new born baby he may change his views. He then left to rejoin some friends.

Finally at about 2-45am we met a young man called Luke and his girlfriend. After asking what a Street Pastor is he said he wanted to ask us a question. “In the bible story of Cain and Abel why was a mark put on Cain so that anyone who killed him would suffer vengeance 7 fold, which didn’t seem fair after killing his brother”. We were honest and said that we could not give a total answer of the top of our heads, however I went on to say that it illustrates that we have a God who is willing to forgive us stuff in our lives no matter how bad it might be. We didn’t go much further than that but he seemed happy with his answer!

On a broader note we also had two instances of the police taking a gentler line and supporting us with people who were very drunk that we were attending. Giles’s team had someone that the taxi’s would take as they were too drunk and when they couldn’t contact anyone on his phone the police got one of their cars to take him home. Also when we were helping a drunk and distressed woman outside Nono8 who fell over a police officer who was near by actually put the flip flops on her feet and helped her up so that we could walk her to the taxis. She told us that she had suffered 3 deaths in her family in as many months.

We are recruiting more Street Pastors

We are starting to recruit more volunteer Street Pastors. We should finally receive some funding we've been waiting for this week. We have approximately 10 vacancies, 4 are to work in the City Center and 6 are to work in the Allenton, Austin and Sinfin areas of the City. The patrol times for the City center are Friday and Saturday nights 10 pm til 4am, For the Austin, Allenton, Sinfin areas they are early evenings on Friday and Saturdays with the possibility of joining a mentoring program that we are beginning to run among young people in danger of entering Gang culture.
If you would like to come out as an observer of the Street Pastors one night. as a taster to see if this is for you please email Alasdair at the following email address, director@derbycitymission.org.uk

Volunteer Basics Bank Food Project Manager needed

Dear Friends of DCM,
With Andy and Ruth retiring from the mission in May we had to restructure the Basics Bank project. This has left a gap within the food project. The role is basically the management and distribution of food parcels to people in real need within Derby City.

The post will take up about half a day a week except around Harvest Festival when it becomes really full on for about three to four weeks. This is an ideal role for someone who is retired or has a part time volunteer role and wants to put their gifts and skills to the use of others in real need.

If it interests you and you would like to know more please contact. Alasdair 0n 07885858709

Dear Friends of DCM
Here are a few highlights of the past week.

We would appreciate your prayers at present.
I have lodged a concern with the Licensing committee of Derby City Council regarding a variation on Syn Night clubs license. Up to 1600 people visit this night club on a Friday and Saturday night. The plan is to host "Cage Fights" there, experience has shown that alcohol and violence makes for a dangerous mixture. So please pray that the council think hard and judge fairly on this.
Wednesday we were able to get at least one person that you had been praying for into a Hostel and some help with probation services. This young girl who has sadly had several trips into prison is at last safe and the charity "Womens work" will hopefully begin to channel her into the help she needs. I am often driven by William Booths words...

While women weep, as they do now, I'll fight; while little children go hungry, as they do now, I'll fight; while men go to prison, in and out, in and out, as they do now, I'll fight; while there is a drunkard left, while there is a poor lost girl upon the streets, while there remains one dark soul without the light of God, I'll fight-I'll fight to the very end!......

The fight is an ongoing one and we are determined to not give up in our belief that the Gospel is for the whole man..
Friday we met with other charities and council officials to look and plan together on what can be done with the destitution and homelessness among European Migrants. The government has implemented a "no help policy" and churches are actually the only ones in the position to help. Most charities are funded by 3rd sector funding so they are bound to do nothing. Meanwhile we hear stories of young people trafficked into the city fleeing to the streets sleeping in parks and taking shelter in Churches while we feed them as best we can.

It is possible that next year through the winter months churches might operate a night shelter to take the strain off the Hostels. Please pray that the Lord leads us in this.

Friday afternoon we interviewed two people for the post of Debt Worker and we hope to announce the appointment at the end of next week. We sensed as the interviews went on that Gods person was appointed.
Saturday, morning Robin and I met with Church leaders in Walsall to help them with setting up Street Pastors, it was a privilege to be a part of what God was doing there.

The weekend bought more violence on Friday night as the Street Pastors worked on Derby's Street. Our work among the street gangs of South Derby is going well. At times it is heart breaking to see young people as young as 11 or 12 being groomed into these gangs and my heart sunk as i listened to a girl of 12 talk to her friend asking if she had "scored some drugs"
Please do pray for Daniel Cullen and the team that work there among such challenges and need.

DCM News this week

Hi Welcome to DCM's blog

Check out our Facebook page to see when the Street Pastors went to visit Derby's Mayor. We had a great time !
Also do pray for us we have some exciting developments happening around Healing on the Streets. check out http://www.out-there.org/ We are starting to have some really exciting conversations with churches in Derby about how together we can bring Gods love and healing to the City. We'll keep you posted in the coming week on how things are going. However we are hoping to play a large part in putting this together.

We've also been having some really positive talks with the civic authorities within Derby City Partnership on stuff to do with Alcohol Strategy this week the statistics are scary and we do need God to break into people's lives in a powerful way. We want to see lasting changes in their lives. There are estimated to be nearly 10,000 alcoholics in the City the work to be done is vast.

Lastly we've shortlisted our candidates for the new Debt Worker post. Do pray that the person God wants is appointed to the the post.

We have BBC Radio Nottingham doing an interview for Lent on Alasdair on the subject of changed lives.

We are also getting a lot of new applications from people to become Street Pastors. If you are interested please see you churches minister and then contact us about applying.

Every blessing............ Alasdair



Lastly we have a fab new website so do check us out on www.derbycitymission.org.uk