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A packed Castlehold Baptist church in Newport came to witness the commissioning of 13 new Street Pastors and the first 10 School Pastors on the Isle of Wight.  The service included presentations from the coordinators of each project, the High Sheriff, Chair of Isle of Wight Council, Isle of Wight OCU Superintendent and Director of Parent and Community at Medina College.

Isle of Wight School Pastors will be one of small but increasing number of initiatives around the country supporting school communities. Here on the Isle of Wight we are delighted to be piloting this initiative in partnership with Medina College in Newport.

School pastors will be patrolling after school initially on a Tuesday, Thursday and Friday outside Medina College and on the routes the students walk home. School Pastors will be available to offer practical support by listening, helping and caring for students and people in the wider school community.  We will be working closely with the College and Police Safer Neighbourhoods Team to see how we can continue to best support the College community. Whilst school pastors are on patrol they will be supported by fellow team members who will be praying for them and the situations they encounter.

The new Street Pastors will allow us now to extend the Street Pastors scheme on a Saturday night in Ryde , so we can patrol 3 out of every 4 Saturday nights, plus give extra support to the schemes already running in Newport and Ventnor.

It was wonderful to have so many people there on the commissioning evening, giving their support to these wonderful people who give so freely and put themselves in sometimes quite difficult situations.

We’ll be looking for more volunteers to start training early next year, and it’s never to early to express your interest in joining the awesome Street and School Pastors team.

Isle of Wight School Pastors Official Launch – Mon 20th February 6pm @ Medina Theatre, Newport.

Isle of Wight Street Pastors are supporting “Reclaim the Night” again this year.

We have a series of exciting events coming up where you can find out more about what Street Pastors do and be one of the first to hear tracks from our new CD “Perfect Sense of Worship”.

We now have fifty Street Pastors and many more people support us in a whole range of ways.  Come and find out why.

You can hear about what a Street Pastor does, how they are trained and the difference it makes to our streets having Street Pastors out and about.  We’ll update you on progress so far with expanding the scheme from Ryde into Newport and recently Ventnor.  There will be information on what’s next for Isle of Wight Street Pastors, and we’ll set out how you could be involved, from becoming a Street Pastor or prayer pastor to becoming one of our regular financial supporters.

We’ll have live music with Street Pastor co-ordinator David Ouston playing tracks from the new album “Perfect Sense of Worship” and you can be among the very first to buy the new CD which will (hopefully!!) arrive just days before the first event. David will also explain why he wrote the songs and how he has been inspired by the people he has met on the streets of the Isle of Wight.  All income from the sale of CDs will go towards the work of Isle of Wight Street Pastors.

Whatever your interests in Street Pastors these should be great evenings, so whether you already know you want to apply to be a Street Pastor or you’d just like to find out what Street Pastors is all about, come along to:

Castlehold Baptist Church, Newport – Sunday 6th November 2012 (map)

The Apex Church, Cowes – Sunday 13th November 2011 (map)

St John’s Church, Ryde – Sunday 20th November 2011 (map)

St Catherine’s Church, Ventnor – Sunday 27th November 2011 (map)