Whats next???

For the first time in ages I have had a proper illness, I got some sort of strange flu virus back in the UK which has necessitated antibiotics and bed rest, coughing my lungs up and general weakness and tiredness, thankfully this has all now passed leaving me a little weak but fine.

At last I am also able to furnish you with an update as to what I will be doing upon my return to the UK.

After much prayer the suggestion was that I take on the role of leading 24-7 prayer in Great Britain I have agreed to this and am very excited about the possibilities.

I will start on 1st September as GB Director and team leader.  Although we will live in Diss, I will spend some time in the 24-7 Prayer Guildford office each week working closely with the GB team - GB being England, Scotland and Wales.

I will also lead Just 24-7 - a team seeking tangible ways in which we can make a difference in the lives of the poor and disadvantaged.

In addition I will continue to be the point person for 24-7 Prayer in Ibiza, Ireland and Burgos (Spain) – which I have been doing for a while.

I will also be part of the 24-7 Prayer European communities team.   This means supporting and strengthening 24-7 Prayer communities in Europe, including the UK.

Apart from that, I am hoping to help my friends Steve and Andi on their farm project in Diss, feeding animals, cleaning pens etc, which might sound messy, but actually excites me!

So as you can see I will be a busy little bunny, I am excited and challenged by the year ahead.

What about this Blog? Well obviously for now I will keep it going, but I may start a curious in England blog or something like that!

Happy New Year

Another year draws to an end and I feel it has been a good one. I am very excited about the next year, excited for new beginnings, excited to be handing this work in Ibiza on, excited about returning to the UK.

We have been in England for 2 weeks now and are looking at it with a view to living here.

One thing for certain that we will miss about Ibiza is the light, it's not so much the temperature that we will miss more the very bright clear days. There is a lot of grey in the UK!

Really want to say thank you for following this blog, it will continue throughout 2012 and hopefully you will follow our journey back to the UK and stand with us as we see what is next!

Peace, love and a happy 2012 to you all.

Gently Whisper hope

Gabriel and the Vagabond by Foy Vance


There's a man in the corner and his clothes are worn
And he's holding out his hand
You could see in his eyes as the people walk by
He knows they don't understand

Ya see they just think he's gonna take their money
And go and spend it all on dope
Then a man stopped by and I saw a smile inside him
As he gently whispered hope

Well the tramp started to cry, just kept saying,
"Why? why? why?
Could you see I'm a dying tonight
Well I'm 32 and I've got this one pair of shoes
And a bad taste in my mouth
I think it's clear to see that even God don't love me
Or else why would He leave me this way."

Then Gabriel just smiled and said be peaced my child
Salvation is here today

He got up to his feet and he sang Hallelujah
People were turning around in the street
He looked them in the eyes and he sang, 
"Hallelujah
There's someone here that you gotta meet
Someone you just gotta meet."

When the vagabond turned around well without a sign
Gabriel just smiled and disappeared
Then he looked to the crowd and they were laughing out loud
But he could not see them fore tears
When his vision came round
There was a young girl on the ground
I knew she was fine and hard to cope
She never was a fighter until he laid beside her
And gently whispered hope

They got up to their feet and they sang Hallelujah
People in the street were turning around
They looked them in the eyes and they sang, 
"Hallelujah
There's someone here we have found"
They sang,
"Hallelujah, Hallelujah
We are the voices crying in the wilderness
Hallelujah, Hallelujah."
The people in the street started their sins to confess
And a chorus of,
"Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Every knee will bow and every tongue confess
and the voice of one crying in the wilderness
crying 
Hallelujah, Hallelujah"

Seized by the power of a great affection

In the last chapter of the  Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning he talks of a phrase used to describe being “born again” it was this “I was seized by the power of a great affection”. 

That is why I am who I am, that i why people decide to be christians. They have been seized by the power of a great affection, they feel His passion, the passion that the son sacrificing God has for them. His passion that our lives should not be mediocre, His passion to see us become all that we can be, His passion that allows us to be our raw unadulterated redeemed selves. His passion should grip us it should drive us. 


Personally it is His passion that is my crutch when I am weak, His passion that allows me to speak to Him and tell Him all that I am. His passion that sees all my weaknesses yet somehow still considers me worthy of his love.
An Old Russian proverb “Those who have the disease called Jesus will never be cured” Please no one try and cure me I am happy being infected by Christ. 

Lets never be to cool to be passionate about His passion for us and His love for the world.

I am seized by the power of a great affection.


Forsaking what is behind lets us press on to take hold of that for which Christ took hold of us, don’t settle for less.

Be seized by the power of a great affection.


Originally posted in a slightly longer and more self referenced style on this blog in November 2006

Book writing

I have just got back from a very hectic week out and and about in the Uk and Ireland.

Getting ready to return to the UK for Christmas on Saturday which should be fun, I am speaking at our old church DC3 on Sunday and then we are at the carol service in the evening. It's hard to feel Christmassy here it's cold but not icy, sort of jeans and jumpers weather.

One of the reasons for lack of blogging is that Tracy and I are writing a book about our last 7 years here in Ibiza. I know it is something I have talked about from time to time but now seems like the right time. It feels like a giant debrief from. This blog has proved very helpful in gathering coherent chronological information from our time here.

Sometimes I want to preach from the chapters but I think the best way is to let the story speak for itself and allow people to take what they want from it.

Some potential chapter titles:

Gay Man Dancing
Vomit Van
Prostitutes and Roses
Can Strippers Use this Place?
Sorry to interrupt your meeting!

I am struggling to think of an actual title? Maybe we should just call it Curious in Ibiza?

What makes a good leader?

One thought on this one is honesty. 


People want honesty not holiness. Holiness is over rated, not as a spiritual concept but as a leadership characteristic. 


There has been a line of thought in the past that a leader can never appear weak or flawed that he has to stand out as an example of holiness. 


Now I know we can quote various verses on the subject. 


But a brief glimpse at any leadership in the bible reveals flawed weak leaders, in fact I am not sure how many senior leadership teams would have elected David to be on their team, or Moses! 


Murderers, cowards, adulterers.

Standing between the living and the dead

Intimacy and involvement is a much used phrase within 24-7 prayer, it's the phrase that gives real life to our movement. I believe this is a really exciting time. God is still looking for a people who are both intimate with him and involved with the world. 

There is a call upon each one of our lives to be an intimate prayerful people, who touch the Father’s heart and experience the transforming power of his presence. There is also a call upon each of our lives to be an involved people, who prayerfully take the Fathers heart to the world and introduce others to Jesus and allow them to experience the transforming power of His presence in their lives. Thats what I love. 


24-7prayer then by default is not a tabernacle model of prayer, it's an incarnational model.
We must be careful that we don’t try to spread the gospel without the back up of prayer, the power of the Holy Spirit and the transforming power of having been in His presence. Likewise we must be very careful that we don’t pray, experience the Holy Spirit and become transformed by His presence without ever being compelled to fulfil the biblical mandate of spreading the gospel.

We need to be a people who do both, it would be completely wrong to say “I pray, others reach out” or “I reach out, others pray” a Christians life needs both intimacy and involvement. I think even the phrase prayer missionary leaves a little bit to be desired.

My faith is two pronged and I don’t think we can choose to go for just one prong! Read Matthew 22: 37 -40 we are called to do both,"love the Lord your God with all your heart and Love your neighbours as yourself." 

We can’t just be presence seekers; we also need to be presence bringers. We need to be striving to do both together at all times.

I heard a guy called Bill Wilson speak once he talked from Exodus 16: 42 – 50. in which a deadly plague is spreading throughout the children of Israel, they are literally dropping like flies in front of Moses and Aaron, Aaron runs to the Altar, the place that represents the presence of God, he gets some incense and fire from the Altar and runs into the middle of the people and stands with the incense and the plague stops. It says that he took the fire and “stood between the living and the dead”.


We must be a people who get fire from the presence of God and then stand in the middle of a dying world and bring life. We are called to stand between the living and the dead but we can only do this if we have got the fire from His presence.Aaron carried something that he had got from the presence of God into the middle of a very dark and desperate situation and the plague stopped. One man ran into the presence and then ran into the dying world around him and made a difference. The fact that he ran suggests urgency, lives depended on his speed, on his commitment and his awareness of how dreadful the situation was.

My prayer is that I become like Aaron, that I am filled with a desire to run to the presence of God and that I am also filled with enough compassion for the lost and dying to run with His presence into the world.

Intimacy and involvement. Prayer and action. Faith and deeds. They kind of all go together.