Norwich street pastor answers Caribbean plea

 

DEC 2007: Norwich Street Pastor Steve Wigby found himself on a plane to the Caribbean after answering a plea for help to support the same Christian social action initiative out in Antigua.

 

Steve is one of the Street Pastors who, thanks to the backing of Norwich churches, have started appearing on the clubland streets of Norwich on Friday and Saturday nights to help people who need someone to give them support or a helping hand.

 

Steve ended up in Antigua in September after answering a plea for help from Street Pastors founder Les Isaacs.

 

On his first morning, he was woken with a phone call at 5.30am and whisked off, not to a prayer meeting as he’d expected, but onto Breakfast TV which helped ensure he got a warm welcome wherever he went.

 

One of Steve’s jobs was to help the local administrator by setting up some systems, which proved to be a challenge. “Nothing gets done till a week on Wednesday at the earliest, so you can get extremely frustrated with them – but you can’t get angry because they are such lovely people.”

 

Steve was pleasantly surprised by the strong government support that Street Pastors enjoy: they pay the office rent and the organiser’s wages as well as providing computers and the use of a minibus.

 

A key part of the trip was meeting and going out with the Street Pastors. “They have 46 recruits and they go out every Friday in teams of 10 or 12. Their vision is to have 300 pastors so they can have a team of 10 out every night of the month,” said Steve.

 

It’s very different on the streets too – it’s much warmer so everybody is outside and there are widescreen TVs and loud music everywhere. Half of Antigua’s 75,000 people live in the capital, St John’s, so it’s very concentrated. 

 

“There’s a real problem with guns, drugs and knives,” said Steve. “But I didn’t feel intimidated by the gang culture, even though the gangs call their territories names like The Gulf, Bosnia and Afghanistan!”

 

One of the things Steve liked was the willingness of people to talk about Jesus; they’re much less disparaging about faith than many people in England, and they’re very open to hear the gospel.

 

When he wasn’t working, Steve had some wonderful times with the people he met. One of the features of Antigua is the old English harbour where Nelson had protected the sugar plantations from French invaders. “My host family couldn’t get over the fact that I came from the same county as Nelson!” he said. When he had time off he went to the beach, drank milk from coconuts straight off the tree and had a close encounter with a shark.

 

“I learn to have more pore patience and to totally rely on God,” said Steve. “Even in difficult situations at home, I’ve felt a little bit in charge, but out there for the first three days I felt I was clinging onto the life raft, but then I was on the bridge – with God.”