Another difficult night. That’s not to say that there weren’t some positives to be had from this week’s drop-in in Old Woking – some good conversations early on, some encouraging signs with one or two of the youths, and a very positive visit from Woking Borough Council’s anti-social behaviour officer.
The last thirty minutes was tough however. A lot of disruptive, unruly behaviour which eventually resulted in £100 of damage from discharged fire extinguishers, a lot of threatening verbal abuse, a break-in into the building site next door (resulting in more damage), and oh yes, urination up the outside of the Church wall!
I hate it when we end up being policeman, constantly monitoring every move in case of potential damage. I hate it more than the actual damage/aggro/language because it completely wipes out any chance we might get of having a decent conversation or in fact, any kind of meaningful interaction.
By the end of the evening we had had to “red card” two more members (two week ban). For those who are generally well behaved you begin to wonder what kind of effect the repeated aggro on Tuesday nights has. Following on from the evening in the drop-in, I had a disturbed night’s sleep- I felt oppressed even in my sleep.
So once again we ask ourselves, how should we respond!? Positively of course! We have to remember who we're representing. We need to recognise as much as ever that we are in the midst of conflict. We know that three or four of these kids are actively engaged in occult activities and we see that that influence manifests itself sometimes on a Tuesday night.
We had an encouraging letter this week from a member of the Jesus Army in London Walled City
As I write this we are still deciding whether to bring forward the closure date of the drop-in by a few weeks (we would normally close by the time the clocks go forward so that we can back out on the streets). We need to be really wise about this, and thoughtful. We're not wanting to give up any ground that's been gained.
Paul
