What lies ahead

Simeon who has been with us for a few weeks helping out around the farm went for a walk this morning and came back followed by a friendly old pit bull it's a got a collar so we can't keep it but we gave her water and now she's sleeping on the porch with Tom our own dog.

This is going to be a good week. Tomorrow Tracy and I are off to see U2 in Barcelona, their opening gig, someone bought us some tickets. We are staying in a nice hotel which will also be cool, it's our wedding anniversary next weekend so this is a great way to celebrate 17 years of marriage. The last time I saw U2 live was the final gig of their european leg of the Joshua Tree in Cork, Ireland, 1987. I now feel old...... My favourite song of that concert was "Running to stand still" I can remember Bono saying "Just let the words of this song ring out across this city" there was almost complete silence it was phenomenal.

You got to cry without weeping
Talk without speaking
Scream without raising your voice

I will then spend an extra day in Barcelona on my own waiting for our land rover to turn up, I'll probably go to the Picasso museum and find a few other galleries to mince about in. Owen and Jude Sweeny will hopefully get the car to Barca on time for the Thursday morning ferry and then I will spend 9 hours on the Med bringing it over, home by tea time.

The timing is fantastic as this week we do not have a team, the Irish team went home on Friday they were fantastic. I have had a few offers on the bibles front which is great.

Perspective

So today Farrah Fawcett died of cancer thats is sad, for her family and those who knew her, a long drawn out illness is harsh on everyone involved.

I feel also for the old ladies in Kisli district of Kenya who are being burnt alive for being suspected witches, it's horrific.

11 people died in another bomb blast in Bagdad this morning, more son, daughters, fathers, mothers slain, it's a painful world.

Death is one of the few certain things in life, it's horrible when it comes quickly or can be prevented.

I'm sad that Michael Jackson is dead, his children have lost a father and his music gives me a soundtrack to help remember one or two of my early teenage girlfriends. My sadness will be fleeting because I didn't know him.

Then I think of the fact that every 3 seconds a child dies on our planet of a preventable, curable disease, and I wonder "where did we all go wrong?"

Every year 15 million children die of hunger, why does that not shock me!!!

And today the millions cry, we eat and drink while tomorrow they die, fact is fiction, Tv reality!!

We've lost perspective, totally lost it, media driven celebrity driven culture, has scored a massive victory today all on the back of a troubled genius, who may have been odd but was just the father of 3 kids.

The Jesus Manifesto

Just read this Frank Viola and Leonard Sweet.

You can download the full PDF here some snippets here:

Jesus Christ cannot be separated from his teachings. Aristotle says to his disciples, “Follow my teachings.” Socrates says to his disciples, “Follow my teachings.” Buddha says to his disciples, “Follow my meditations.” Confucius says to his disciples, “Follow my sayings.” Muhammad says to his disciples, “Follow my noble pillars.” Jesus says to his disciples, “Follow me.” In all other religions, a follower can follow the teachings of its founder without having a relationship with that founder. Not so with Jesus Christ. The teachings of Jesus cannot be separated from Jesus himself. Jesus Christ is still alive and he embodies his teachings. It is a profound mistake, therefore, to treat Christ as simply the founder of a set of moral, ethical, or social teaching. The Lord Jesus and his teaching are one. The Medium and the Message are One. Christ is the incarnation of the Kingdom of God and the Sermon on the Mount.

I find Violas stuff a little negative and not always constructive. I have an early edition of Pagan Christianity, it was OKish!!! I don't mind negativity on one level, just when it's a big fat book full of it.

I'm not sure about Mr Sweet either, we tried to book him for a conference once, his charges where roughly £3500 per day, first class travel and the requirement of needing to stay in a 5 star hotel. I don't know why that put's me off his writings, a worker is worthy of his hire etc, but it does! My thoughts on Soul Salsa, where "trying to hard"

Anyway this document is good, you should read it.

Bibles and prostitutes

We have had a few more connections with these girls, they are very complex. They tell you their street names but then when you pray they write their real names down. We chat with them and then later in the evening we try to dissuade people from using their services! I think we stopped to lads this evening.

One thing we have discovered is they don't like just a new testament or a message version of the bible, they want full versions of the bible. I have to get some!!!

The other thing is that today 2 came of these ladies came into the centre and went through a chapter of the bible with Tracy, she then prayed with them both, and one of their prayers was that they would get different jobs. Obviously this for us was a little chink of light. Many of these girls are bound up in something that is so culturally removed from how we operate it's very difficult to know how to speak into it. We pray a lot about it. They do not have a pimp, they normally have a madam, they are held by debt but also by a thing called juju which hangs over their lives with a threat that if they don't do what they are told bad things will happen to their families, they really believe this stuff. So we continue to tread gently in this area, I am on the edge of feeling that if this goes any further I will have to stop blogging about it, as I don't want to betray confidence or over expose these ladies.

if you are the praying type please hold them in your prayers for us and please pray for wisdom and breakthrough for us as a team.

Anyway I am now going to see if I can find some free full versions of the bible. Maybe the bibles are the key???

Parenting

Little update on the car, it's on it's way just got to get it from Edinburgh to Essex then Essex to Barcelona. I have to wonderful people from N.Ireland Owen and Jud Sweeny are going to drive it from Essex. Jud will be with us for 6 weeks so that is excellent.

Still trying to raise another £500 but think I'm going to stop begging on my blog and start praying a bit more!!!!!

It's 5am I like this little moment before I go to bed, Blogging just gives me a chance to clear my head and off load a little bit. Sorry about the school rant, I'm not sure what I think about it all. Although I definitely fall on the side that a teachers job is impossible if not backed up by parents.

Parenting, how does that work?

The books don't make sense there isn't a one size fits all manual for the complex little humans we call children. A guy called John Wilmot said "Before I got married I had six theories about bringing up children; now I have six children, and no theories." For me as I have said before it's about making sure they know they can talk to you, that you'll always listen and them knowing that you love them un- conditionally. They also need your time, Jesse Jackson said "Your children need your presence more than your presents."

I like being a parent, it's mainly a joy and occasionally a test. Funny but my boys are shy, and people would think that I am not shy. I'll say what has to said and speak in front of people but actually I am quite shy. If I ever go to a party with you please don't leave me on my own.

I like meeting new people, just have to push myself to do it.

Anyway heres to parents everywhere, your job is hard but in the end it must be rewarding.

Sunday night Monday morning

Tonight I was on call so sure enough at 1.30am we get a call to take some young 18 year old girls and her friend back to their hotel, this all worked out ok and i surprised myself with the hotel staff by how much Spanish I knew.

Then came the worst scene of my summer so far, we saw a big lad with is friends who was completely drunk just lying in the middle of the west end. We went to help and he was just covered in puke. We lifted him up and he got puke all over my arms, then he slung his arm round my neck so i got puke all over my neck and then the worst moment came as we got him into the vomit van. Puke pinged up from his hair and went in my mouth........

I managed to spit it out but it left a bit of a taste, it's now 4.22 am and I am having a whiskey to kill the germs and wash my mouth out.

What a great start to the week, I am doing a wedding later on today so that should at least be vomit free. I am really looking forward to marrying a beautiful couple called Paul and Emma they are based in the Uk but have come here for the service. So I get the rough and the smooth. The sad and the happy.

Thats life I guess.

Winners and losers

I've just been to sports day at my sons school, it was a relief to see tug of war and other competitive games taking place. There where winners and losers, just like life. The school my boys are at do these days well.

I'm a big fan of sportsmanship but not a big fan of making it all equal. I loved it when Paulo Di Canio caught a ball flying into a box because he had seen a player fall over rather than just belt it at the net. Thats sportsmanship. Unfortunately Paulo also has extreme right wing tendencies which stop him from making my list of sporting greats.

I don't think girls should be in boys teams, thats imbalance. I'm not sexist just don't think it works from a physicality point of view.

I like rules and consequences; for instance if a child is late for school or a lesson they should be punished, if they are consistently late they should be kicked out, why? Well it's not because I am harsh or uncaring I would just want them to have a proper perspective on life. If you are consistently late for work you get fired.

Like wise if you are rude and disrespectful to your boss, you might not get fired but you'll definitely miss out on promotion, so suck it up and learn to be polite at school.

At school as in life there will be people who know more than you, don't answer back and question just get on with it, you'll have plenty of time to answer back and question later in life.

Respect those around you if you don't one day you'll get a slap, if you don't respect others I think it's time for a suspension....

If you start to smoke at school and they won't let you then don't do it, if the rules get broken you get booted out, just like the real world.

Schools aren't just about academic information being downloaded they are to help prepare people for the real world.

Thats why I like winners and losers because thats life.

Rant nearly over, by the way it's the parents responsibility to instill these values not the schools. The school just has to be consistent in upholding it's rules.

Perspective on growth

It is so easy to lose perspective on who you are and what you do.

I think this last 6 months have been the toughest of my christian walk and I am only now feeling like I am crawling out of a hole. My perspective had become a little bit warped, my grace levels a little bit low. Living on the farm has been a real source of inner tension.

The lack of contact with the outside world due to not having a phone has left me feeling a little isolated, married to the fact that after 4 years of being here I have started to realise that it's easy to be busy but actually feel lonely. This in turn has led me to having a short temper and slightly angry disposition. I have barked at friends and once or twice been totally out of order. I have carried my own sense of unease with me into other meetings and allowed it affect how I operate.

We project! You're stressed in one area of life then you project that stress into another area of life, using a different situation to give vent to your feelings about a totally unrelated scenario.

Anyway balance is being restored, I feel slightly broken, but in a good way. I have been learning more about myself and am having edges knocked off me!

Growth is hard, but I feel like it is also preparatory for a new level of effectiveness.

I have become resigned; resigned to the fact that God is in control and I am not, I can't fix everything, actually I can fix very little. Possibly it's fear, fear is the opposite of trust, the opposite of faith, fear stops us growing. It's like I took my eyes of Jesus and started looking at the waves and then I started to sink.

I'm reaching out again, returning to the place of surrender, living with the reality that if life is going to work I have to trust the author of life.

It feels good, in a tired way, you know that feeling after a long days physical labour? you're tired but in a fulfilled way, well thats me.

I'm still growing, I think the minute we stop growing and start feeling we have arrived is the point where pride has taken over. I once heard and older man saying "there's nothing more for me to learn" that is pride. I don't want to be proud, I humbly submit to the fact that I am imperfect and need to grow, and humbly trust that my father in heaven will help me.

Workers for the harvest

I recently did this little podcast for 24-7 Prayer I hope you like it I am a bit annoyed about the sound quality, it was a windy day. I'm just sitting outside my front door.

If I had a decent video camera and microphone I could do loads of different ones from around the island, I've had thoughts, about doing them from watchtowers, ancient churches, beaches, next to fig trees, by wells all that sort of thing. It could be fun.

Check out the other 24-7 Prayer podcasts, Pete Stanleys is brilliant on people trafficking.

Beedays

I don't think I did last night justice...

As well as the pregnant drunk 19 year old, we also took home a guy to his hotel who was really drunk. Helen and Steven took him up to his room with his friend and he said "I just need to use the loo" they took him into the bathroom and left him and he then excreted in the Beday!!!! Whilst they were doing that I sat with a guy in the lobby whose drink had been spiked I got him some water and calmed him down.

We then went to pick up the two girls who had dropped the pregnat girl off at the hotel, we found a guy who had just given up walking about 500 metres from his hotel so we gave him a lift back. On our way home we saw a load of prostitutes trying to get a guy to come with them I lent out of the widow and said "don't do it mate" we saw him a few minutes later and he hadn't done it!!! One of the prostiutes called me sexy and offered me some business, of course I said no. It's disturbing, you can pray with these girls one minute and the next they want offer you a blow job.

We then prayed for a bit and finished up in the centre, on our way we saw a girl sitting with her head in her hands, when we asked her if she was okay she said "yes, my friend has just gone up that alley to have sex with someone I am just waiting for her" We left her to wait.

We drove a little longer and saw a girl asleep in some bushes with a Spanish guy trying to get her home, he didn't know her, and was way to touchy, so Helen and Clare got her home and got rid of the Spanish guy.

Hopeless wouldn't be the word but you can see how occasionally it creeps up on you!!

22 hours

Had a 22 hour day yesterday, it was a little bit tiring.

It's great to have my friend Simeon out here, to help out around the farm, he is a real God send and in all honesty it was all getting to be a bit too much, farming, teams, centre and streets. Simeon has provided relief, fixing the road, moving stuff around, filling up the water butt from the well and more.

Two of my friends from the westend came up to help me knock down a wall yesterday afternoon, which was pretty hot and sweaty work, whilst we knocking the wall down we found loads of syringes stuffed in the wall, one of them was even full!!!!

Eventually we ended up on the street with our new team from Ireland, who are fantastic, I started of with Ruth from Cork and we got called into a bar were there was a young girl in the toilets puking all over the place, Ruth went in whilst I stood outside the cubicle in the girls loo trying to not look to uncomfortable. After sitting on the toilet floor with her and wiping her puke away Ruth eventually managed to get her out so that we could help her get home. She was a petite 19 year old girl, who was 6 months pregnant on holiday with her mother, grandmother and her little sister. She was completely wasted, couldn't remember her hotel name, had lost her family and had no charge in her phone, Ruth and I sat with her for a while, I had to go drive the van for a few other drunken situation, so I left Ruth and Clare with the young lady. In the end Ruth and Clare sat with this girl listening, talking, prompting, trying to discover her hotel, they walked her around the bay looking for prompts until after 3 hours they found her hotel. It was all they did for the evening but an amazing piece of work, salvation is about saving, these girls brought literal salvation to a lost, drunken, pregnant, 19 year old last night, who was so vulnerable anything could have happened.

Got home at 5 this morning...

Good deeds

What lies ahead, I am excited. We have just had our first team, 3 wonderful people from America. We had a fantastic time on the westend, praying and chatting with people, walking people home and piling people in the vomit van! We have a new 8 person team from Ireland with us today, which is great and very good for my accent....

We have had a bit more resistance to what we do but I don't mind that, those who know us still deeply appreciate us. We recently had one DJ in Mix Magazine call us "God botherers" !!! I suppose it was all down to the question he was asked and obviously he is a DJ so has never seen us at work.

The idea that when we take drunk people home or help people out, we would then preach to them is so alien to how we operate. We don't need to preach at anyone, we concentrate on "blessing not selling" plenty of people ask us about our beliefs and if they do we tell them, thats reasonable. If I asked you about your beliefs you would tell me and I wouldn't call it preaching. Anyway the idea that you take some girl home, she's covered in puke, almost asleep, possibly a little coherent then you try to convert her is ridiculous.

Another one of the DJ's said Ibiza looks after it's own, my question is "what planet do you live on mate?" In the west end most workers are very helpful and extremely caring, but they are workers which implies they are working, they just can't leave their jobs to get someone home, so they phone us and we help. We do look after our own mr DJ, I'm as much part of this scene as you are but I'm not in my booth living in some unrealistic bubble!!!

Here's a bible verse that under pins our way of working

Matthew 5: 15 -17
Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

It's all about letting our light shine before men we do this by doing good deeds, then in the midst of that we live with the hope that people will acknowledge our Father in heaven.

As a footnote: if they don't acknowledge my Father in heaven we will still continue to do good deeds, and we will do those good deeds to anyone who needs them regardless of race, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, occupation or amount of gratitude shown.

breaking the ground

This is a picture of me with my favourite piece of farm machinery, my rotavator!!!! It's a back breaker and a shoulder maker. This photo almost makes it look gentile but it's not!!!

In many ways this is what i feel happens when we pray, we break up the ground, we prepare the land, we clear the weeds, we make way for growth.

It's hard work and you have to keep at it, most weeds don't go away just by being dug over, you need to clear the roots, the same goes for prayer.

It's hard work and you have to keep at it, sometimes it's going well and you then hit the occasional rock which flings you about, but if you keep digging and preparing the ground eventually you will have a healthy fertile patch of land in which you can plant seed in. Then the rest is down to God although for a further analogy the seed won't grow if it's not watered and weeds aren't pulled up from around it. I guess I'm feeling that it's ok to sow seeds of prayer but we have to keep praying until the land bears fruit.

Breaking the ground is just the beginning.

we're getting there

Been a busy few days here, some great nights on the street and some excellent times at home.

It is my youngest sons sat tests this week, so generally a busy week. As the summer goes on we end up on the streets later and later which means getting the kids to school gets harder and harder, we only have a couple more weeks of this and it is the hardest part of our summer. Draining is the word........

Just had a friend out called Jon Peterson, it was great just to hang with Jon and get his wisdom. Jon spent 14 years working in the red light district of amsterdam, he lived there with his wife and 3 children so has a wealth of experience and knowledge about messy living. He's not really taller than me a friend took this of us at about 1am in the morning outside a rock bar called ground zero in the west end, jon was standing on a step, he loved being out on the streets.

Thanks to all who have donated a bit towards the car we are up to about £300 and I hear rumblings there are one or two people who would like to bring it over.

If you are one of those people please email on brian at 24-7ibiza dot com

Sorry this is just a brief update, I now have a few nights off so I will get back at it.

A Car story!!!!

Heres a little story, last week when I put on my blog about the Freelander, TD4, ES, Diesel, Manual 2002 plate the one thing I didn't put on was colour, my friend had asked me the previous day if I was going to be specific and I had said "well we would like a green one", and just kind of laughed!! I was going to put the colour on last weeks blog but bottled it......

Friday night I get a message from a lovely couple I know who are regular blog readers and great supporters of all we do out here, it turns out they where going to put their car on the market that weekend.

It was a Landrover freelander, TD4 ES, Diesel, manual, 2002 plate and amazingly it was green!!!! The other thing was that although they were going to sell it for a little bit more, they were happy to take £4000 for it!!!!

The picture above is of said car, how fantastic is that, we have a freelander. It's pretty miraculous that this has happened, the car passed it's mot last week, has great mileage and will last us for years here on the island.

Now I need some help. It's going to cost to get it over and I could do with some kind people who are willing to drive it to Barcelona or Ibiza but I also could do with some kind people who will help pay to get it over.

I have already had about £250 from last week now I need to raise about another £900. Can you help?

Just one night

I get amazed at some of the things that happen when we are out and about, other times you almost take it all for granted and treat it like it's normal...

The guys where all sitting around the kitchen table yesterday discussing the previous evenings street work. We have a team of 3 americans with us so there were 8 people out on the street, going out in twos.

Tracy and Bruce manage to help a Spanish guy who wass being held by two british guys and accused of stealing their money. It turns out he hadn't and that he is very upset about being falsely accused, as he should be, so they bring him into the centre. It turns out he has a little spiritual background and he believes in vampires, maybe even thinks he is one! He gets a little weird and as he leaves he says to Tracy "Your blood smells very sweet". He has obviously been watching twilight!!!

Meantime James and Christine are with some prostitutes having a chat whilst they hide from the police, not James and Christine the prostitutes... When the police leave the prostitutes move on.

Later in the evening James and Tracy walk home a couple to their hotel whilst walking back, the guy says "Do you want to see my gift" Tracy and James say yes and he then proceeds to do the most perfect Elvis impression they have ever seen!!! Thats his gift, God has gifted him with the ability to impersonate Elvis...

Another two of our girls get a worker trying to kiss them both and making lewd comments about their body shape, which isn't so pleasant, he's doing it to try and freak us out. I'm going to talk to him about it.

They also had another great chat with two girls who were very disillusioned with life.

People also kept stopping and thanking the team for the oranges that they had given out on the beach that afternoon.

One worker friend bought two of our guys some chips, someone else came up to them and because they had been giving out free oranges thought they where giving out free chips, so he just helped himself, they let him...

I could go on, this was just one night, 5 -6 hours.

If anyone asks why we are here we should say::::

"We are here to calm down Vampires! listen to Elvis! and hide from the police with prostitutes!"

Does that sound ok?

Heres our little summer long crew, these guys have come to serve for the summer and they are great.

The girls will hate this photo, but from left to right we have Clare Ison, Christine Scott, Me and James Godward. They are really making life much easier up here on the farm and they are all brilliant when it comes to the centre and the streets.

Clare is from near coventry and will be having a little break in the middle and then rejoining us until September, Christine is a nurse from N.Ireland who has taken a 6 month career break to be with us from May till October and James is here until August.

Weirdly James dad used to be my youth leader. I remember he took us all out as a youth group to Basildon when I was about 15, we were going home and one of our guys mouthed off to a drunk guy this guy thought it was me, chased me, pulled a knife on me and stabbed me in the head!!!! Russell, Jame's dad, saw it all, I can still remember him saying to the guy who pulled the knife "that isn't going to get you any where mate!" it wasn't a severe stabbing, he backed me into a corner, I banged my head on a wall, and as I jumped away from the wall his knife just clipped me in the temple! He looked more freaked out than me, so he ran off.

This was 1985, my stabber had a mullet.....

Anyway it's lovely to have all these guys here, they are a real asset.

Prayer rooms and prostitutes

Yesterday afternoon we were sitting in the centre when in came three prostitutes who some of the girls on our team had met the previous evening. They wanted to use our prayer room for prayer.

They asked if they could have 10 minutes alone and then if we would go in and pray with them. So at about 6.15 yesterday afternoon Christine and I found ourselves kneeling alongside 3 working girls calling down the blessing of God on their lives in our little prayer room.

For us this was exciting as well as challenging, last year we prayed with these girls on the street this is the first time they have ever come into the centre. It's always been a strong belief of mine, that our prayer rooms and buildings should be accessible and welcoming to all kinds of people and then here we are on our 5th summer of living here starting to see prostitutes come in for prayer. It has blown me away.

We then gave all 3 of the girls bibles, they wanted full versions, we found 3 and at the front they had a little bit to write in so we wrote "presented to ****** on the occasion of friendship and grace" They loved the bibles, we then had a little chat about the virgin mary and they went on their ways.

About 3 minutes later 5 of their friends came walking in the door all wanting prayer. We sat with them this time in the prayer room and prayed once more. They all asked for Bibles to, one wondered if we could get her one with daily prayers etc.. we found our 5 remaining full versions of the bible and gave them to the girls. I wish we had of had nice pink ones to give them, but they didn't seem to mind.

They then all left, promising to return tomorrow and asking if Christine would read the bible with them when they came back.

It was strange site to see all these prostitutes leaving our centre walking along the road with bibles tucked under their arms.

I'm sure God was smiling.