King's News 33
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Graham Boot-Handford talks about plans to bring an exciting - and challenging -  initiative to the streets of Tavistock

You may have read in the Tavistock Times recently about the Street Pastors scheme and wondered, "What's that all about?". Well, Street Pastors are Christians who go out onto the streets during the late night and early morning hours as people come and go from pubs and bars, and act as Good Samaritans when needed.

One of the ways of helping is by giving out flip-flops to young women! On many occasions in the early hours the high heels that are the fashion become too painful to wear, so girls end up walking about in bare feet, in places where there is broken glass and all sorts of other mess around. The Street Pastors rucksack will contain a couple of pairs of flip-flops just in case!

What is so good about Street Pastors is that it is a way for ordinary men and women in the church to engage with our society, not to judge it but to help those in need. Our streets in Tavistock (and potentially the surrounding villages) are not as wild as some of the big cities, but being out there as a Christian presence can help to make a difference. It's providing a service to people, often vulnerable young adults who are on the streets when most people would rather not be.

Tavistock Area Christians Together (TACT) support this initiative. We're getting a Management Committee together and registering with the national body, who will then give us the training package. We are hoping to recruit and train volunteers over the summer period and go live sometime in the autumn.

 If you are interested, you can find more information at http://www.streetpastors.co.uk, or you can contact TACT representatives Roger Bird (tel: 01822 810003, or e-mail: rogbird@me.com) or me, Graham Boot-Handford (tel: 01822 841185, or e-mail: grahambh123@gmail.com).

Graham

Buy a book - help a hospital!

My wife Teresa and I, and team (Jo, Sam, Dave, Kathy and others) have run this table top sale come social now for the past two years plus a couple of months, and thanks to all of you who have supported us so well and faithfully enabling us to contribute to the wages of a medical centre Colin Bond (founder of King's Church) has set up in Uganda.

We specialise in second-hand books (fresh books each week) at affordable prices (20p for a paperwork, 50p for a hard book). Plus we normally have a selection of clothes starting at 20p per item and other quality items (whatever comes our way). We depend on people's donations and goodwill, which has not failed us. The donations we prefer are quality books, clothes and assorted range of items like unwanted gifts etc.

We also have coffee tables out and happily serve you tea and coffee, biscuits and things and within the friendly atmosphere people have started to enjoy relaxing and meeting with each other. We feel we are more than just another table top sale - we have become a regular meeting place for our customers in our unique atmosphere raising money for a worthy cause serving our local community.

Charlie
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