Latest from Norwich street pastors in Antigua
 Street Pastors Paula and Martin Callam from Norwich report from their mission to establish the Christian project in Antigua.
Hi everybody from an unusually wet Antigua, over two days recently there has been several very heavy rain storms resulting in rainfall of 6.5 inches. This has caused flooding and some damage to property in low lying areas though since we live on a hill we have not had any problems.
The hurricane season officially starts in June and forecasts are that it will be very active this year.
Please remember those have suffered damage in your prayers and give thanks that much of the damage appears to be minimal. Please also continue to hold the Caribbean in prayer with regards to hurricanes and the local governments as they try to make provisions for dealing with these kinds of emergencies.
The four new Street Pastors have been added to teams and are just starting to go out on the street. We are running another core training for new Street Pastors in June.
Please pray for the new Street Pastors as they integrate into established teams. Pray also for those who are considering becoming Street Pastors. Please continue to pray for the established Street Pastors that they will continue in their enthusiasm and commitment.
We have arranged some new extension training on Gender Based Violence and Human Trafficking which is being provided by one of the Government Ministries. We had the training on Gender Based Violence last month and the session was very informative and well attended.
Please pray for the people who are delivering the training, thank God for the willingness of these agencies to help and support Street Pastors. Please also pray that the existing Street Pastors will be able to get to the training and will be encouraged and informed by the training. Please pray that we are able to arrange more training.
We are meeting with a number of church leaders and trying to arrange to speak to churches both to inform people about what Street Pastors do and also to raise some financial support. The aim is to raise sufficient money to be able to fund a local coordinator to run the Antigua & Barbuda Street Pastors Initiative. To do this we need the support of the local churches. In the Caribbean culture this means face to face visits and a certain amount of persistence and assertiveness that is not natural to us. Martin had a meeting with the Anglican Archdeacon, who is very supportive of the work of Street Pastors, as a consequence of which Martin will be speaking at a meeting of denominational leaders at the Christian Council and also to a meeting of the Anglican clergy.
Please pray for good contacts with the church leaders and opportunities to speak at a variety of churches.
Martin is also meeting with representatives of the media to promote the work, the next training session in June and our fundraising events.
Please pray for good opportunities to promote Street Pastors, some contacts have been invited to join a team at night to see the work, pray that they take up the invitation and give us good coverage.
We are continuing to work on a summer programme of volunteers from the UK coming to share skills in Antigua i.e. sports coaches working alongside the Police with young people. The Police have given some dates and have put together an outline programme of activities. To date we have received no firm applications from volunteers for this programme.
Please pray for us as we consider the feasibility of this project.
We intend staying in Antigua through the summer this year and returning to the UK in late September for a six to eight week break.
If anyone would like to keep up to date with the couple or support them either by prayer or donation, contact them at antigua2@streetpastors.org | 