A VOLUNTARY group that helps late night revellers in Chard says it is seeing the prayers of many people in need answered.

Chard Street Pastors , made up of members of local churches wh o have undergone training to assist drinkers in the town centre , can regularly be seen between 10pm and 2am on a Saturday night.

The volunteers have handed out 123 pairs of flip flops in the last six months to people walking the streets with no shoes come the end of a night in uncomfortable heels .

Group co-ordinator Lizzie Ingram says the group is happy to be helping people in the community.

She told the News : “We have been so welcomed in Chard and are delighted to be able to help anyone wh o is out enjoying themselves on a Saturday night or even when things have not gone quite as planned.

“We go out on a Saturda y with the suppor t of a team of praye r pastors back at the church and they mak e us tea and toast at midnight and field any praye r requests we come across on our patrol.

“Street pastors and praye r pastors are both essential members of the same team and we have seen many answers to praye r in the last three years .

“As street pastors we’d never try to preach to anyone or in any way be at all judgemental about other people’s behaviour. We believe it is a privilege to be out on a Saturday night available to help anyone wh o wants it.

“If people ask us to go away, we do. However, quite often people will ask us to pray about something, for example a family situation, and we would ring that request into the praye r pastors based in the church in confidence – and they pray.

“One night an older gentleman we came across had been in some trouble and was very anxious to get home but had no money for a taxi or his walking stick to aid him getting home.

“We rang the situation to the praye r pastors for them to pray and within minutes another man appeared with the man’s walking stick, offering to drive him home.

That was wonderful news at 1am on a Sunday morning.

“There are other examples of being in the right place at the right time to walk someone home or just provide a listening ear to someone in distress.

We also see many examples of the ways in which the people of Chard are very caring in the way they look out for each other on a Saturday night.”

The pastors try to mak e sure the streets are safe from things lik e broken glass and were asked to tak e on the challenge by local police and the town council wh o asked if the national initiative could be rolled out.

Over the past six months in Chard, volunteers have : n Put in 1,449 hours of work .

- Remove d 331 bottles .

- Remove d around 113 drinks glasses .

- Cleared up 64 occasions of broken glass .

- Dished out 52 bottles of water. n Handed out tw o foil blankets.

Anyone who would like to become a street pastor and is able to commit to the training programme , can contact Lizzie on chard@streetpastors.org.uk