Thanks to Keith from the Christian Police Association for chatting with us at The Gathering 2024.
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You can tell by the noise this is Andy B back at the gathering in a field in this wind and Christian vision for men 2024 if you've not got here and you can I really would urge you to get here I've met so many people that say it's changed my life it's such an amazing place I have to come every year I come back every year I bring more friends every year so there's a little out of it for me Andy B for the gathering which is fabulous and we've introduced some great people so far with Andy Godfrey sorted magazine with his new book as well Steve Horn from Mercier Nigel from Adventure Plus John E.D. from St. Andrew's bookshop Derek M from Jesus in the end Jesus the evidence and write that before me a new guest although actually I've interviewed what it seems to be your boss we won't go there hello Keith hi how you doing great to me cool now just tell us a little bit what's the organization you're representing today right so I'm here from the Christian Police Association I'm part of the team that comes here every year we've been coming since 2016 the CPA is all about bringing Christ into the police service and building bridges between the police service and the community just to make life better for everyone really and I believe you recently retired you're now a man who is free yeah I retired on Monday Monday was my last day as a police officer after nearly 28 years in two police forces and I'm not regretting it the 28 years or the retirement the retirement yeah no it was time to go it was time to go yeah fair enough so 28 years you've been in the force for a very long time you've seen so much has come and gone I'm going to imagine put you know put my neck on the line here but I would imagine that Jesus actually has been a consistency through that time yeah absolutely so my my first police station full time was Hemmel Hempstead in Hertfordshire big shout out to anyone from Hemmel Hempstead and I was known as Dibley as in the vicar was my nickname there I was known as the Padre across two of my units I was the Padre of custody I was the Padre of the roads policing unit and I've been well known as a Christian cop but the one thing it's been consistent has been what I've been able to lean on especially when I've had troubles having been diagnosed with PTSD twice and lost some colleagues very suddenly in plane crashes and stuff like that I've been able to lean on my faith also encourage others to do the same and I've seen as you've seen lives changed here I've seen lives change within the police service with people who were on the verge of suicide come to Christ and live out full policing service with no problem whatsoever so God has been good and Jesus has been at the center of it all for me yeah fantastic and police service I mean you're always going to get slated for this and that because ultimately the police are the one people that can stop us from doing stuff which actually by the way little Andy Meetip is possibly quite a good thing and so have you got some highlights from your time in the force you think you know what I know with some bad times and some hard times and some good times but that is a moment when I just think that was worth getting to work that day right so before I before I was a regular officer I was a special constable in my hometown of Watford in half-chief two years and one evening I came across a homeless man sleeping in the I'm gonna wage myself here the door of CNA in charter place in Watford and it was a freezing cold night and I checked him and asked him if he was okay and he said no I'm I'm alone and I'm homeless and I'm tired but I'm all right and I went down to the local McDonald's and I bought him a meal and a hot drink and bought it back and he was dumbfounded this guy why have you done that for and I said well you're alone you're hungry you're cold I'm a Christian it's the right thing to do and he said to me he said what's your name and I said it's Keith and he shook me by the hand and he said I'll never forget you and I dismissed it that phrase anyway about 10 years later I was on traffic I was a regular officer I was on the roads policing unit on traffic and I was working in my hometown of Watford and I was in accident and it was snowing and a bloke walked past me in a suit with a briefcase and he stopped and he tapped me on the arm and he said you're right I said yeah well it's bit chilly but I'm all right and I've missed for dinner you know her you know and he walked off up the high street and about 10 minutes later he came back with them at Donald's and he put it on the bonnet of the car and he said that's for you and I said why have you done that for? and he said you don't remember me do you? no he said my name's so-and-so and 10 years ago I was homeless and I was sleeping in the door of CNA and you fed me and he turned around and I never saw him again and I stood there going what just happened where I think sometimes as Christians we don't see the fruit of that good work but in that moment I knew what I'd done 10 years earlier as a 20-year-old was absolutely the right thing and God paid me back out of nowhere and I still to this day I'm dumbfounded by that so there's been really great days in the police where I've had some really great conversations with people about the gospel and been able to share the gospel with people in custody who normally don't talk to the police and here at the gathering people don't like talking to the police you're right because we never stop anyone to congratulate them on their driving but you come here and people want to talk to you and you can sit down have a tea and a coffee and a chat and I've seen people's lives changed here so yeah it's not all been great but there's been some really good days yeah I'm sitting there crying because that was a story I didn't know where it's gonna go but I knew where it was gonna go I remember one time I actually was in town my wife was better than this than me I had my boys we had a rucksack with some food and there was a homeless guy and as I walk into the street I just saw people they weren't kicking and they weren't cursing and they weren't shouting and they were just treating him like some sort of animal and I knelt down a soundoff law my boys sat around when we got out some little pancakes we gave him some water and I think he was so shocked not that I gave him something which I think some people do actually I sat down the phone next to him and chat it to him which I've not done before and it was it was such a powerful moment for me to just think I need to do that and that is that is very often the thing that it's the people I think it's Christians we are called to I always think it's the good Samaritan view of how we should be which we're called not to cross the road we're called not to walk away we're called to go up to these people and say right I see you now we see you what can we do to help you and I tell the story of a guy who came into custody so as a custody sergeant all I did for four years was not bad people up and spent more time with them with my own kids as I always used to say and one day a guy came in and it was again middle of winter and he'd been arrested for shoplifting at shoe zone other shoe shops are obviously available but shoe zone not and he'd stolen a pair of you know if I say deck shoes canvas deck shoes seven pounds worth of shoes why I've done that for it so because I'm homeless have my shoes stolen and he was walking around the town with newspaper and cling film wrapped around his feet and you know right get a doctor out his feet were in a terrible state what size you feed me on mate eight right and I hunted I didn't go and buy him shoes I hunted around the police station and down the back of the lockers I found a box with an old pair of magnum boots in it that had just sat there and I went to my boss and said you see these they were stuffed down the back of a locker I'm giving them away and he went why there's a home that's broken custody is that his shoes nicked right and I went to my locker and I got my spare pair of socks out of my locker went down to custody right put those on there's your socks there's try these on there till they fit right leave them outside yourself you can have them when you leave and he said to me what are you doing that for why well what do you need shoes what have I got shoes they are be blessed and whenever I saw him after that years later I was I went to watch Watford football club yeah I am the Watford supporter by the way I went to watch Watford on a day off and I was walking down outside outside the football ground and there was a blow sat on a wall and he went oi sarge I still got my shoes and he was still wearing this pair of magnum boots that had lasted him all that time because there's need there I'm not saying that the stealing was right I understand why I stole but that's not for me to judge it's for me to go what's the need have a pair of shoes be blessed make your life better and as cops and as Christians that is what we should be doing I can sit and talk to you all day long quite happily but I need to move on so thank you just give us a little bit about the CPA so how did you find out more about that and maybe they're a police officer when they're thinking do you know where do I get support from all they're thinking what's all this about just where do people find out more information right so the CPA it's all about bringing Christ into the police service if you if you are a Christian cop listening to this and you're not a member of the CPA I'll just say firstly why not do you know who the other Christians are in your police force probably not if you if you just google Christian police association uk you can go on the website go to join us click join it's one click there's a form you fill it in when you click send it goes to CPA headquarters we do all the work when I say we are adventing to all the work on the scenes it will go to the branch leader in your police force who will contact you you don't have to do anything else and actually you gain support from knowing the other Christians around you because there will be for people in churches there will be a cop in your church who's struggling probably because a lot of us are or were put them in touch with the CPA get in touch with the CPA so that you get the support of other Christian cops around you know where you're coming from and know what you're dealing with it's changed my life being involved with the CPA absolutely without our it changed my life and my view of policing and how I've addressed my work as a cop by being more involved in the CPA and I can't I can't sell it enough and you did a good job doing so and one of the things that strikes me when you look at the examples of Jesus in scripture is he didn't just say to people right get all your needs repent yeah maybe but actually he would say okay what's your need and often it was healing but he would deal with the need and once you deal with the need all of a sudden it gets easy to talk to the person and I guess with the that guy in the police station without his shoes yeah stealing's wrong it's always gonna be wrong you can't justify it's wrong period but there's a need there that can be met and if we need the need meet that need well it won't have to make a pair of shoes really yeah that's that's and that's the point it's very often there is a there's a reason behind why someone is doing what they're doing and it can be whether it can be substance abuse or or or poverty sometimes we need to meet that need and you know in my new job now I've retired I'm going to be running a food bank in my local area in Scotland so I'm going from helping people but with a big stick almost to now helping people just because it's the right thing to do as a Christian running a food bank and helping people who are and getting into the real crux of why people need that help so yeah it's um I would just and I could just encourage people just to pray for your cops that's really really important if you're a Christian listening to this and you're a praying Christian which you should be remember your cops because that's why Keith thank you so much for that time did you know pure 24/7 radio has a shop well we do you can buy merchandise while supporting the work that we do here simply head over to www.pure247radio.org/shop that's www.pure247radio.org/shop (upbeat music) (upbeat music)
