Katherine

What is it like doing Street outreach with Street Connect? 

I go out every week in the city centre with a variety of staff and volunteers. I used to give out soup and rolls and prayer in the homeless ministry, but with Street Connect I’m talking to people who are struggling with addiction and signposting them to where they can get help. We invite them to SC’s Saturday night drop-in café and encourage them to connect with us, not just asking their name, but do they want to give us their number and we can talk again. It’s the follow-up, the encouragement to connect and move forward with their lives that makes Street Connect different to what I was doing before. So many people on the streets have some sort of belief in God, but I believe it’s important to bring God’s encouragement & value no matter how receptive people are – asking their name is a powerful thing, stopping to chat, crouching down or kneeling at their level to talk to them, entering into their space – this gives them respect, dignity & value. Most people welcome prayer and we can speak value into their lives through prayer.  

I love going out – it’s different every time – a lot of it is the Holy Spirit’s leading – I love the way He surprises us. With Street Connect I feel protected to be part of a team working together. We always pray before we go out. It helps me to rest in the Spirit and hear better what God is saying and who He is leading us to: 

One day I was out with James and we met a man in a poor state mentally. We tried to connect with him but although he was happy to talk, his head was in a different world. We were just about say God bless and move on when a woman came over asking for a light. I then started to focus on her, and she really opened up about her life struggles with alcohol and abuse. I told her a story about another lady I’d met in the street who told me: This is amazing – I had just prayed and then you came up and told me God loved me. She went on to really turn her life around and is doing so well. I said: you could pray the same prayer as her – I just need you to give me a hand God – and this lady in Glasgow prayed with me and then just wept in my arms – I don’t even know why I’m crying she said, as the Holy Spirit touched her. I always have a Father’s Love Letter or John’s gospel with me, so I was able to give her some literature as well as direct her to Street Connect. She gave us a big hug as she left us. I don’t know where she is now, but I just planted a seed. My job was to spread the fragrance of Christ. 

Another time I was out with James again and we met a man who was desperately waiting for a house. He’d been on the housing list for ages. We asked if we could pray and I prayed for him to get a house. The next week he came up to us and reminded us we’d prayed for him. He was ecstatic: “I got told the next day I got a house. I’ll be getting the keys in a couple of days.” It’s amazing how God works. 

Have you learned anything new? 

For me the whole addiction thing is new. I was aware of poverty and homeless people, many in desperate circumstances, but I’d never really talked with people about addicition before. That’s the beauty of teaming up with Street Connect – you’re doing outreach with people who’ve been there and got the T-shirt. They know exactly what it’s like and that really matters to the people we talk to on the streets. I’m in awe of their stories – I wasn’t aware how long it takes to turn your life around – rehabs, the whole process – it really opened my eyes to what’s possible. It’s very humbling too: I often feel that I’m poorly equipped to do this job – here am I a middle-class English woman offering help to people on the streets of Glasgow – but I’ve learned that God doesn’t care about your background, whether you have nothing in common or everything in common – what matters is being willing for Him to use you. I need to get over myself. It’s not about me – God will use anyone who has the right heart.  If you let Him fill you and trust Him to work, He just uses you to release His presence and His power. 

Has what you’ve learned with Street Connect impacted your life elsewhere? 

Street Connect has become a part of my week which I just enjoy. I have a real heart to see people saved – to “plunder hell and populate heaven.” I even ask God to help me witness during the bus journey in and out of the city centre and I’ve had some good conversations, but I need to be braver on my own on the bus than with a team on the streets. Caring & serving is part of my life – caring for the little fish, the marginalised, the forgotten people in our society. As such, Street Connect is part of my story as God teaches me to lean into Him even more as I serve. He’s led me to start a small non-profit service of my own called Beautiful Feet  (after “How beautiful are the feet of him who brings good news” Isaiah 52:7), just launched from my church last November, stepping into the gap left when the health board stopped offering free podiatry services to the general public in 2013. He supplied a small team of 5 practitioners and an excellently qualified admin/treasurer and, as with Street Connect, we offer hope and prayer as we serve. God inspired us to contact the Head of Podiatry in Glasgow who said it was brilliant we’d got in touch because his team were desperate for charities & community services to link in with for folk who couldn’t afford to go private, so we’ve had lots of referrals – but that’s another God story.