07/08/2026
Team B with Cherry, Chinedu, Cynthia and Gert went on patrol to West Green Road on the first Friday of July. As is his custom, our faithful and much appreciated Street Pastor Chinedu arrived a bit late. After Gert had read a few verses from John 17, where Jesus's prayer is recorded, the patrol kicked off at around 11:15 pm. Because of the rather warm night many people were out and about and many of tmen were watching from the pavement the entertaining World Cup football match between Argentina and Cape Verde. Noth withstanding the heroic efforts by minnow Cape Verde, Argentina settled in extra time the final score in it’s advantage (3:2). We collected over 100 empty bottles and by 1:00 am Saturday morning Cherry concluded this outing with prayer. The second patrol in July was 2 weeks later going to Tottenham High Road. At the meeting point at Bruce Grove Train Station Nicholas, Rebecca and Gert waited for the arrival of Alice. Because she hadn’t shown up yet at 11:00 pm, Nicholas suggested we should start walking towards the Police Station hoping we would meet up with Alice on the way, which unfortunately didn’t happen. We therefore walked back to our meeting point to see if she might have arrived in the mean time. Still no Alice and just when we concluded Alice wouldn’t come any more, she called Nicholas saying she was now at the Police Station. While Rebecca and Gert waited, Nicholas hurried back and after abound 15 minutes he returned with Alice. As the Team was now complete, Nicholas read a few verses from Psalm 103 and after having said a prayer, we kicked off this somewhat delayed patrol at around 11:30 pm. At the Quebar lounge we had a chat with the lone security guard who expressed his frustration about England’s lost World Cup match against Argentina, which in his opinion, was due to its too defensive tactics. Continuing towards Tottenham Hotspur’s imposing stadium we notice the presence of a mentally disturbed person loudly talking to himself while wandering up and down in front of the stadium. Often we've encounters with mentally disturbed persons on our patrols; it's frustrating not being able to offer any support. There's definitely something wrong with the support, or lack of it, these people are being offered. Apparently, the Police receives thousands of mental health callouts a year, which clearly points to a lack of capacity in the NHS to deal with growing mental health demands As we were now not too far from Rebecca’s place we walked her down to the front door and only continued our patrol once sure she’d gone inside. On approaching the Stadium we could again hear the disturbed man; you can’t help but feeling rather helpless for not being able to give some support. Too often we come across on our nightly patrols people who clearly have mental health issues and you sometimes wonder if they really receive the care they need. Upon arrival at the meeting point we got into Nicholas’s car to take Alice home where she concluded this patrol with prayer. All in all it was a rather ‘uneventful’ outing, which in itself isn’t a bad thing! The third patrol in July was a combined Team A and Team B patrol on Saturday 25th July to Green Lanes, with all team members present! When Chinedu arrived as last person, Nicholas read a few verses from Ps. 103 and after a short prayer we set off at around 10:30. It was a rather warm and balmy night with many people out and about enjoying the fine weather, or having a meal outside one of the many restaurants. The 'Salisbury' in particular enjoyed a large number of visitors. We finished this last patrol before the August break at around 11:30 and Chinedu concluded the outing with a prayer.
