God is at work! At our June 18th prayer meeting we were introduced to Simon Ellingham, Croydon’s Town Centre Unit Police Inspector who has been in post for more or less the same time as ICTIAC has been up and running. (I year) Simon wanted to encourage us to keep praying. He told us that he hadn’t been aware of ICTIAC last October when we met into pray for a Safer Croydon but since late October/November there has been a dramatic improvement in crime rates in the town centre, which is attributable to more than good policing: God is at work! Robberies have almost disappeared; they’ve hardly seen any gang violence – something that had been a big problem before - and street drinking has been substantially curbed. He acknowledged that our Street Pastors (launched last December) have also played their part in this. A few weeks ago the Croydon Advertiser wanted to write an article about a ‘plague of alcohol’ on the streets of the town centre, but on the evening they went out they couldn’t find a single incidence. Simon suggested instead that they write an article reporting ‘no robberies in Croydon last night’ but apparently that sort of news won’t sell papers!

Judi Lane, 22/06/2008