Prayer Team 2010

OH MY LIFE!!!!!

We've had the Prayer team out here with us until Saturday, and they were AMAZING! 5 of them are currently undertaking TRANSIT, a year-out with 24-7 Prayer, doing training and living in community and learning about the Bible and Christianity. The other person (Casey) has been to Ibiza on a prayer team 3 times before, so it's great to have her back again.

On Tuesday night we spent 6 hours in prayer and worship, having signed up to 24-7 'Prayer for Europe'. During the evening, we spent time worshipping God and lifting up Jesus and then we gathered together to pray for the nations of Europe that were on the list that week; Ukraine and Iceland respectively. I invited several people from the Anglican church and around 8 or so people turned up which was ace! They joined us for an hour in prayer for our Island of Ibiza and we were all very encouraged. This prayer for Ibiza will take place once a fortnight and I am well excited at the thought that every fortnight we'll be gathering in our Centre to pray for Ibiza.

On Wednesday we spent some time with Roy and Catherine Dixon on their land, praying over their vision to dedicate their land to God for His work. They bought the land many years ago with the hope to build on it, but the guy who sold it stitched them up and the planning permission they thought they had was a complete lie. We all went up to the land – which is beautiful – and prayed with them and asked God to bless them and the land and dedicate it to the Lord.

On Thursday we walked along the coast at Cala Comte (gorgeous beach) up to the watch tower there. We then clambered across the rocks and sat at the very tip and looked towards San Antonio. From there we prayed for San An. It was a special moment, and we read Isaiah 62 once again. This chapter of scripture has just been such a key part of this week, giving us an idea of God's heart for his world.

God's Power is just awesome!

How often do you read the stories found in the Bible - in the Gospels and in Acts and are blown away at how God's power totally transformed people's lives? I mean, when I read some of what Jesus or the disciples did I am flabbergasted at just the way God's Kingdom really did break in and arrive, with such power. Jesus never just used persuasive words, but always gave a demonstration of His father's power.

Check this passage of Scripture found in 1 Corinthians 2:1-5

"When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power."

The last few days we've had some amazing times of prayer. We're basically calling on God to pour out his power here in Ibiza. Today I prayed for God to really demonstrate his power through us. I'm hungry to see miracles and healings take place out on the streets and have insights into people's lives that I could not have other than God's Spirit revealing it.

Our message this summer isn't just about 'Repentance'. Yes, that's important – the need to be in right standing before God. But our message this summer will be coupled with powerful actions too. So many times I've been having great chats to some random person and it just ends up with me not knowing where to take the conversation. I really hope that this summer I rely on God's amazing power and just get praying for it for people.

Bring it on!

Encouragement

The last two nights we've had three separate holiday makers call us over to simply say 'thank you'. One girl said that last year one of our team had talked her out of taking drugs, and she's not touched them since, and that her mum wants to financially support our work because of the impact it has made. Cool!

Another guy said that he too was in a mess on drugs and that after being helped to get home last year, he decided to not do them again and hasn't! How cool!

As we end another season, it's great to hear this encouragement and to know that behind all that we do God is at work and changing people on a deeper level.

Final Team

At present we have 5 people here who make up our 7th and final summer mission team. Cue the cheesy, emotional music and the tears in the eyes. I can't quite believe that the final team is here and going on Friday! Basically i don't want them to leave.

This team have been flipping great! I told them that last night, but they think i say it to all the teams. I kind of do...but this team are great, and one reason i told them that is because they danced for nearly 8 hours in Space last night - good effort troops!

But the other reason i told them that they're great is that i feel that we've hit a level of intimacy and worship in our prayer room that we've not had all summer. If you've been out on a team and are reading this, it's because of you and all the prayers you've sown - so you can give yourself a pat on the back and take a 'well done' from me for good measure!

Just to give you a fuller picture of what i do, before we begin our streetwork at night we gather together (around 11:30pm) to pray and sing and read scripture - basically breath God in. The prayer and worship times have been on another level! Another level i say again with a shout! It's like God's presence is being poured out in a new way and we're worshipping God with new voices. It's unreal! But you know what's even better? We don't stay in our prayer room - we go out and breath God out, and his presence spills out to the people we talk to and help. I got to pray at least 3 times last week for complete random strangers about various things. It's so exciting!

Tonight I'm supposed to be on a night off, but sack that - I'm getting on it in prayer and am looking forward to seeing people touched by God's presence!

Gods PR

Here in Ibiza, most bars and clubs employ several people to act as PRs - in other words their job is to try to persuade you to go into the bar and buy some drinks, offering all sorts of drink deals and selling their bar as the best place to dance in.

The other night, someone said that we are PRs of God, and in a sense, she was totally right. We are not based at a particular bar trying to get people in (which makes me think of Church), and we don't have any alcohol to give, but we do offer many other things. One of the main things that we offer and which is such a witness, is a free lift to either the medical centre or to the hotel to people who end up getting into a drunken state whilst drinking in the West end. We also offer prayer, either by asking them to write it on a prayer request card which we'll pray for later, or usually we offer prayer right there and then on the street (which is by far the more exciting method).

So in a sense we are God's representatives, which on one hand is such a huge responsibility, yet on the other hand fills me with such excitement. What an opportunity to be a witness to the many people who come here on holiday? To be His voice, His hands and feet as we walk about. To share our story, to pray, to talk about faith and belief and life and death.

I LOVE IT!

Publish his glory!

I read this yesterday and thought it was really appropriate for our work here in Ibiza. It's from 1 Chronicles 16: 23-29

"Sing to God, everyone and everything!
Get out his salvation news every day!
Publish his glory among the godless nations,
his wonders to all races and religions.
And why? Because God is great - well worth praising!
No god or goddess comes close in honour.
All the popular gods are stuff and nonsense,
but God made the cosmos!
Splendor and majesty flow out of him,
strength and joy fill his place".

Shout Bravo! to God, families of the peoples,
in awe of the Glory, in awe of the Strength: Bravo!
Shout Bravo! to his famous Name,
lift high an offering and enter his presence!
Stand resplendent in his robes of holiness".

What struck me is that in a sense we are publishing God's glory here in San An, and we're also getting God's salvation news out and about on the streets. It's gets me thinking too about some of the gods that are worshipped here in Ibiza, and that they don't even come close to the God who made the cosmos. This scripture fueled my prayer time last night.

Prayers of Faith

"The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective" Jas 5:16

Last night we started the evening by praying that God would intervene in people's situations whilst here on holiday. We raised our faith as we reminded ourselves that God is at work here and can put a stop to situations before they even arise. This is what we're prayed for:

That God would stop someone from wanting drugs
That God would intervene with someone feeling pressured to have sex
That God would keep friends loyal and that people would not leave friends behind and on their own
That God would give people sense when they buy alcohol and that people would stop when they've hit their limit
That God would put a halt to men wanting sex with prostitutes

You know what? We've coined the phrase 'Messy Wednesday's' as Wednesday's involve lots of projectile vomiting. The reason for this is for hotel change-overs, so we find that most people that we help have just arrived on Wed night/Thurs morning, but they've been drinking from the moment they left their house, on the way to the airport, at the airport, on the flight and then once here they are straight out into the West End.

Last night was different. It wasn't so messy. We helped one person get back to their hotel. Usually we find ourselves involved with several groups of people needing help. I believe it's down to our prayers. God is intervening and answering our prayers of faith. He is at work and most of the time we don't even notice.

Team 2 of Summer '09

We've got a full house at the moment, with three summer volunteers living with us, and an extra special guest called Simeon - who is here for about three weeks. Great to have him here with us. Sunday just gone, we had a large community meal, and invited some workers up to the farm. It was a great meal, and we had some good laughs.

We've got a team from Northern Ireland with us at the moment, and after a good first week with them out on the Streets at night, we had a cracking weekend, and took the team to Pacha - which they all loved. It was to a 'Defected' night, and The Shapeshifters DJed. Many won't know nor care who they are, but if you want to know - they smashed it (played some amazing choons and created an immense atmosphere in the club)!

If Carlsberg did mission teams....

(Sorry for such long Blog-silence btw).

Saying Goodbyes...until next summer.

'I hate goodbyes....be strong'. (What film is that from?)

So it's that time of summer when many of the workers here in San An are leaving to go back to the UK. Many go back to jobs, to Uni, to look for jobs, to make fresh starts. Some know exactly what they'll be doing, others have no clue. I've heard a few times the line: 'time to go back to reality'.

It's quite sad for me to be saying so many goodbyes to such quality people. Many have become friends and ones that i'll miss. I've seen them nearly every night, danced with them, eaten with them and generally hung out with them. There have been some great times. It'll be hard in the winter, with no tourists nor workers. But loads of them are coming back here next summer for the season, and that means we can continue where we left off. I'm well excited about that.

We've also seen the last of the summer mission teams that have come here and served us. We've had 7 teams in total, and in numbers that is roughly 50 people. All have given their holidays, their annual leave and their money to come and help us, and it's been awesome. The impact that they have made is immeasurable. The prayers prayed, the conversations, the time and energy helping people and being kind.

It's also the time of year when the clubs start to close. Many of the big nights are having their closing parties in the coming weeks, culminating in the mother of them all: Space closing, on Sunday Oct 6th. That is going to be very special, a real end to the season here.

Last Team of 2008

We have 9 people here with us for only 6 days, and they are from various different parts of the UK. Makes a change from all the Irish teams that we've been having, no disrespect. It's quite a short time for us to have a team, but the impact they're making is already significant. They have thrown themselves into the work here on the streets and into all other aspects, and it's such a blessing.

I was out the other night and we got called over by a guy with his friends. He asked us if he could buy some tickets for a club, thinking we were club reps, but we told him we didn't sell tickets and explained our work. He then promptly asked if he could pray for us. So the three of us got together and prayed. But before he could pray, we asked him if there was anything we could pray for him. He gave us several things to pray for, and there and then we started to pray.

I love being able to pray for people, for anything as simple as having a good holiday to praying for a relative who is ill. It's such an awesome thing to be able to do. The guy was so chuffed he had stopped us, and he said he was so very happy that he had stopped us. We laughed, and told him that we were even happier to be stopped by him.

Es Vedra

The current mission team that have been with us for 10 days. They're great people, some very good friends. All posers...like me!

This is called 'Es Vedra'. It's one of my favouite places here in Ibiza. It's basicaly a huge rock that is apparently the third most magnetic place in the world. No one lives there, apart from the odd animal here or there.

The reason i love this place is that last summer, on my way back from taking someone to the airport, i had some time to kill and so made my way through the winding roads and took in this amazing view. It was awesome, seeing God's creation and just drinking it in. I spent time thinking and praying about possibly moving out here and working with the 24-7 Ibiza team. I wasn't here long, but just long enough to say to God that i was willing to follow Him and follow His call to come to Ibiza. To go on an adventure!

And here i am!

All things new

A new week is about to begin and we have a new team who arrived today fresh from Northern Ireland. There are 6 of them and they're staying for about 12 days. I think they're going to really enjoy themselves. They all seem open, lovely, friendly and up for it: all good characteristics to survive a 12 day mission.

I came to Ibiza in 2004 for the first time on a 24-7 Prayer mission team. I loved it soo much. I then came back the following 3 summers, and now i live here, so i know what they're about to experience, and i'm sure they'll have such an amazing time.

I did the team briefing today. Was a little nervous, but think it went well. Told them about who we are and what we do. I've heard Brian Heasley do it countless times, and have taken copious amounts of notes too, so i felt well prepared. I even threw the odd joke in too, just to lighten the tone.

Once the team got to their hotel, we had a huge Sunday roast, and had 3 friends come along too. They all work in San An and i think they well loved getting a proper feed. It was a lovely end to the day. We swam, we ate, we laughed.

Love it!

40 KG of Oranges

I have never bought 40 KG of Oranges before today...that's quite a few oranges! But they weren't for me, nor for the team with me. We bought them to give away, and that we did.

There is a short-term mission team with us from Ireland for 12 days, and one of the tasks that we gave them was to give away Oranges at 2 of the beaches that are popular with many tourists and workers from San Antonio.

So once we split the oranges between us, we headed in two teams to the beaches. Once there, i kid you not, it took about 10 minutes for all the oranges to go. That was that! People came from everywhere and wanted one, and one for their friend. It's such a great way to bless people and to simply be kind. I love doing it, as the simple act of giving something away creates connections with people so quickly. I had about 20 oranges that went in 1 minute. Many of the workers who sunbathe on the beach that i went to know about 24-7 Ibiza and that we give away Oranges from time to time and they love it. For many, it's the only fruit they'll have eaten in days.

It was great to bless people with something for free. It always suprises people and makes them think. The only reason that we give to people who ask why we do it, is that we want to be kind to people. Many people ask us why we want to be kind and give something away, and that always leads to deeper conversations about what we do and why we do it. And i love those conversations with random people.