24-7 Euro Gathering in Amsterdam

This weekend I'll be in Amsterdam for the annual 24-7 Prayer Gathering. I'm well looking forward to being there and seeing lots of friends and hearing some great talks and hopefully being encouraged. Am feeling really knackered after a busy summer season and i hope to enter a time of rest; rest for my soul. I read in Matthew 11 about Jesus giving rest for the soul. The Message puts it in such a beautiful way: 'Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest...learn the unforced rhythms of grace.' Wow!

The theme for this year is taken from Phillipians 4: ‘Forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead. I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called us heavenward in Christ Jesus.' I love this bit of scripture so so much, and can't wait to hear more.

The Prayer Wall

Here are some photos of loads of prayers in our Prayer room at the Centre. As you can see, the prayer wall is full of prayers written by workers and holiday makers alike. We have the wall split into sections; prayers for health and protection; for family and friends; for work and finance; direction and future and for everything else.

Whenever we are out and about on the streets and we take a prayer request from someone, we immediately pray for it before putting it up on the wall. It's great to see the wall so full. Quite often workers pop their heads in and read all the prayers and sometime end up writing one themselves. I can't tell you how great it is to see people connect to God in this simple way. Awesome!

The Highest and The Greatest

I love this song by Tim Hughes, and I'm learning it - hoping that i won't kill it - which i usually do to decent songs! The lyrics are awesome and i think they are totally appropriate to the place that I work in. Young people from all nations gather here in Ibiza to worship, and it'd be amazing to see people lifting up the name of Jesus. It's an amazing cry to all the nations to bow down to God. I do hope that one day people here in Ibiza will cry to God 'You are the greatest'.

Verse 1
Wake ev'ry heart and ev'ry tongue
To sing the new eternal song
And crown Him King of Glory now
Confess Him Lord of all

Chorus
You are the highest
You are the greatest
You are the Lord of all
Angels will worship
Nations will bow down
To the Lord of all

Verse 2

A day will come when all will sing
And glorify our matchless King
Your Name unrivaled stands alone
You are the Lord of all

Oh let ev'ry heart
Let ev'ry tongue
Sing of Your Name
Sing of Your Name
Let ev'ry heart
Let ev'ry tongue
Sing sing sing

Lifting you high, higher and higher

Space Closing Fiesta!

Space Closing was great today. It's the party that officially ends the clubbing season here in Ibiza. Not only does Space hold about 3000 people, but they open the car park at the back that holds at least another 5000 or so.

These are some of the DJs we saw - firstly Sneaky Sound System, who seems to be making a big name for himself (really filthy big beat music), then a live set from Pendulum, both outside and the latter one in the heavy rain - but we got handed some rain coats at the entrance - which were much appreciated. It was funny dancing in the rain. We then headed indoors to the Sunset terrace and stayed there for ages. It has such a great atmosphere, and the vibe is amazing.

Back outside to see Wally Lopez before heading to see Tom Novy smash the sunset terrace. He plays such groovy, uplifting tech-house, the kind that makes you smile and put your hands in the air. The more i hear House music, the more i like it with melody; need it to be uplifting and with vocals thrown in for good measure. Best choons today were 'Open your eys' by Snow Patrol and 'You've got the love' by The Source. Awesome choons. He finished with 'With or without you' by U2. Yes!

We missed loads of other DJs as we had to be back, but it was great to get to the closing party of the year. It really is the party to finish on and celebrate such a great summer.

Last night of Streetwork

On Friday night we walked the streets of the West End for one final time. Helen had a great idea to buy some pick 'n' mix sweets and we walked about handing them to workers, which they loved. I was up for going out to 'Wonderland' @ Eden as Faithless were playing but i was just not up to it. Feelings of tiredness and the emotions of the season winding up and saying goodbye to some special people meant that all i wanted was to get some rest.

Having had some rest yesterday, and spending some quality time with God, I'm feeling much fresher, which is just as well as today we're heading down to Space for the Closing Fiesta! We need to be in before 1pm, which is always wierd to be in a club for that time, but it means cheaper entry. I just hope that it doesn't rain, as much of it will be outside and the weather has been pony lately! The line-up is unbelievable - as always - and I'm well looking forward to having a boogie. Am hoping to bump into loads of worker friends and enjoy the day together.

Dancing to a different beat - Part One

I am dancing to a different beat.

Of course, we are all listening to the same DJ and the same beats, yet at a deeper level we are dancing to a completely different beat. When i say we, i mean Christians.

What i mean by that is this: when it comes to clubbing i think that Christians are to be set apart and to be radically different - so much so that it makes people think and stirs questions in them. So much so that it enables people to connect with what it is Christians are celebrating when they go out to a club and go dancing. So much so that our lives are a witness to those around us and a testimony to something far greater than the night itself .

At the start of the summer, we got to know a guy who was a friend of one of the workers. He was here for a few weeks and we ended up bumping into him a few times. Whilst out with us in a club, he didn't drink like he usually does, and he ended up having a great night. He put it down to being with us and around us. We loved the night, the music and the atmosphere, and i think it was a huge witness for him to see similar people just having the best time without the need to be on some form of drug. That night he promised himself that he wouldn't head out the following weekend and get smashed like he usually does.

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.

Awesome Weekend!!!

Sunday just gone was awesome as we got to baptise Christine! She lives with us and has taken a work break to give 6 months to the work of 24-7 Ibiza. I think someone threw the idea out about getting baptised and along with lots of encouragement and maybe a dash of good-pressure, she decided nothing would be better than to get baptised whilst serving God in Ibiza.

What made the day really special for me was the company. Some of our best friends who live and work here for the summer agreed, albeit slightly reluctantly, to come along and witness this strange Christian tradition done Ibiza style.

Our guests came around our house for food first (which always helps) and then we all piled down to a beach to dunk Christine under the sea. It was a really great day, and they were all pleasantly surprised by the whole symbolic act of Christine publicly declaring her belief in Jesus.

There's nothing more exciting then baptising someone here in Ibiza. I wonder who'll be next?

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!