24-7 communities

Flying out tonight, thunder and lightning going on so it should be a bumpy one!!!!

We are leaving our boys with Bruce and Helen for 3 days whilst we go to a 24-7 prayer communities gathering in the UK, it's going to be busy but fun. A great chance to catch up with loads of friends at once.

Tracy has only ever been to one 24-7prayer gathering and that was called "I am 5" when we were commissioned to go plant a community in Ibiza. So 4.5 years later she is looking forward to another one.

Just chatting with my son and he asked me "what do you reckon is your best ever post?" I don't really know, if you've got the time I would value your input on this one...

I probably won't blog again until Thursday night.

So please tell me, what do you enjoy the most? what should I do more? what should I do less?.

I am off to pack and get ready to take off in a thunder storm........

Meat

I love meat.

This an Argentinean barbecue, I feel this is the way forward when it comes to food

Gracias

Took a guy to the hospital the other night who had been drinking for 12 hours and then took 7 ecstasy pills! He was in a very bad way, but the great doctors and nurses at the health centre got him sorted. We had to look after his to friends one of whom was completely wrecked and other one was fine. A few hours of running around and dropping off and they were fine. We had a real rarity they came to our centre the next day to say thank you! This doesn't happen much and it's not why we do what we do, what was even nicer was the fact they had come all the way over from Ibiza town to say thank you.

Someone who we had up for a meal sent us this the other day "thank you to you and tracy for the dinner , fags and a good day !!!much appreciated" for my american readers "fags" are the cigarettes I bought him!

Someone else we helped said this in an email about our team "you've shown me there are still amazingly special people in the world whos selfless acts of kindness touch the lives of people who are often unaware of their true worth...thankyou all so much I can never express in words how much the support of the team has meant to me" as I said we don't do it for this but a little appreciation helps us keep going.

With regards to my fine for the little taxi thing, we are working on it and someone is sorting it for us. Thanks for your prayers and encouragement.

Church as refuge

Tracy and I took a friend to the airport last night, he had been working in various bars out here over the summer and slowly got sucked in to drinking. In fact it was pretty scary to see him deteriorate over the summer just from alcohol abuse.

Our team has really helped him, he has been able to come in and shower in our centre use the phone sort out his emails and eventually get someone to pay for his flight home. He was in such a muddle we took him to the airport helped him get his bags checked in and insured he got through security. We have prayed for him and with him a lot and last night before he left we prayed with him once again.

He doesn't want to come back, unfortunately for him San Antonio has chewed him up and spat him out. So many workers cope admirably here, occasionally you get people who have a drinking background or have under researched how hard it is to get a great job here and they struggle.

When our friend got in the car last night to go to airport, he said "at last, I feel safe" he obviously had never seen my driving, but I knew what he meant.

Isn't this what church, the community of Christ, is meant to do? Provide saftey, refuge and help for the broken, scared and vulnerable.

The old 16th century church in San Antonio, pictured above, is just around the corner from our centre. Hundreds of years ago the island of Ibiza was quite susceptible to marauding pirates. The church was built with fortifications so that when the town was attacked the towns folk would run into the church building for safety, protection and refuge from attackers. The church was built in such away that it could defend itself and keep all within it's walls safe. This protection was not just in a passive way as a place to hide but also in an aggressive way with places to fire on the attackers and hurt them back.

I like that picture of church.

I hope that we are recapturing a little of that same spirit in all we do here. I want people to come into contact with christian communities and say "at last, I feel safe"

Fined for helping

Just received notification from the local council that they will be fining me 6000 euros for an alleged illegal taxi incident that happened in July.

I wrote this on July 14th:

"In the midst of this crazy fantastic week, we dropped a guy of at 5 this morning and I then got stopped by the police and accused of being an illegal taxi!!! It was a bit strange the guy we dropped off was so drunk and covered in vomit the police asked him if he had taken payment and he said yes, he probably didn't want to get in trouble but it caused me a load of problems, you get a 3000 euro fine and car confiscated! for a few minutes i thought i was going to get properly arrested especially when he phoned for back up., anyway, as if i would run an illegal taxi with a logo on the side and 3 girls in it with a bucket and be able to hand the guy a business card and all the rest.....It took a bit of their time and my time but I think they believed me in the end. They let me go said they would talk to their superiors but told me I could keep doing what i was doing..."


I can't believe it, it's going to cost me just to get this sorted!!! There is no way it was illegal taxi'ing.

Thats just about tipped it over for me, I've had enough of this place and it's crap administration. I can't even read the document it's in catalan, but thats my fault not theirs. It's not in the name of 24-7 ibiza its in my name which is good for the organization but pants for me.

I don't even know where to start to get this sorted, I am tired and now I am totally stressed

Ibiza Highlights

All our teams have now left, which is sad but also good. 7 teams over 14 weeks who put their heart and soul into all they do.

Prayers have been prayed with hundreds of people, it still amazes me that a generation who don't go to church still love to pray. I am constantly bewildered at how our prayer request forms work, it's not a formula but the idea that you put date and name and then fill in a little box seems to work. Most people want prayer for family, future, health, relationships and not so surprisingly the remembrance of the dead.

One of the other things that we do is listen! People want to be heard and we often find they share stuff with us that they haven't shared with other people. We have so many stories of deep stuff people have shared with us none of which would be appropriate to write here.

Of course we also rescue vulnerable people, this has continued to happen a lot, we enjoy helping although if we have an evening where we don't have to take anyone home we are very happy. We need to remind ourselves that the majority of people who come here may have a bit to drink but most don't end up in a complete state.

We still have another week out on the street and the centre will remain open until the end of October, so we haven't finished yet.

I am in favour of missions teams, I know some organisations that treat them like a bit of a pain, but honestly they enhance what we do here. They enable us to operate with greater effectiveness. They give us the opportunity to inspire and encourage them, but in reality they inspire and encourage us more.

Got a really busy day today so will write some more highlights throughout the week.

Middle of the road

When I drive back to the farm from San Antonio, I have to take a beautiful windy road, that has some very sharp bends and is barely wide enough for two cars to pass. I often meet an old man slowly driving towards me in his Renault 4, he always drives in the middle of the road and I always have to pull out of his way to let him pass. His Renault 4 is old but in very good condition. The reason he's kept it that way is because he has stayed away from the edge and probably never driven it very fast or far. It looks good, it's a classic, it's lasted a long time.

For me it has become an interesting little picture of church. Driving along slowly sitting in the middle of the road not taking to much risks is not a bad strategy if you want your church to look good last a long time and become a classic. Believe me there is no cynicism here when I say this, this is not a bad way for church to operate for a few decades.

At some point however the car will cease to be useful and it's driver will die and if they have both played it right will be remembered with fond regard.

Maybe thats what would have happened to the church if it had stayed in Jerusalem, or if Peter had stayed on the roof in Acts 10, or Paul had decided his Damascus road experience was just a personal encounter, maybe if Stephen had just gone for the middle of the road he would not have upset the Jews and got stoned to death.

Somehow the middle of the road and church doesn't sit right with me. I love that quote from Helen Keller that said "Life is either a daring adventure or nothing" that's what church should feel like, a daring adventure. Yes of course we need to be a haven and a safe place, but please not in the middle of the road.

We should drive a bit faster, take a few more risks, maybe incur a few more bumps and scrapes because in the end this will attract new younger adventurers who will want to see if they can push it faster and take the bend that little bit quicker. Middle of the road will get there safely but it's not attractive to a younger generation. They won't want to ride in our cars they will build their own!

Anyway I have to go, hope I don't crash today!!!!!


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Camille Pissarro

Camille Pissarro (10 July 1830 – 13 November 1903) was a French Impressionist painter. His importance resides not only in his visual contributions to Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, but also in his patriarchal standing among his colleagues, particularly Paul Cézanne and Paul Gauguin.

He said this:

Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where other people see nothing.

Organic church

It's been a pretty busy couple of weeks and I don't mind admitting that the end is the hardest for us. The boys go back to school so your body clock gets even more shot to bits than usual.

I've changed my links on the side basically kept all the same links just wanted it to look different and also got a little fed up of clicking on links and reading the same story that was there the previous week! So now you get what's fresh and new at the top.

I've deleted a few, basically used a 6 month rule, if it hadn't been updated in 6 months it got deleted.

Thinking about a new design completely but realise that it would take a bit of work and don't really like any of the ready made templates.

We've got about 2 more weeks on the street and then Tracy and I are attending a 24-7prayer communities gathering in England, we have a guy coming for a day called Neil Cole. He wrote a book called "Organic Church" which I really enjoyed.

Some good quotes from his book:

the great commission says that we are to ‘go into all the world’, but we’ve turned the whole thing around and made it ‘come to us and hear our message’. we expect people to come to church in order to come to Christ, and the people of the world want nothing to do with church.

…instead of bringing people to church so that we can then bring them to Christ, let’s bring Christ to people where they live.

…we must take Christ into people’s lives, and it must be in the context of relationships. …the heart of our message is that God didnt’ expect us to come to him in heaven. he came to us.

My personal favourite for obvious reasons!

we should take the light and jam it right down the throat of darkness. …our greatest significance is found in the darkness, not in the light.

You can check Neil Cole out here at Cole-slaw

Ride the storm

My friend Stephen took this last night, we have been battered by thunder storms all night and now it's morning it's still going. Pretty spectacular stuff up here on the mountain, we have a week of wet weather predicted. It's beautiful, but I guess if you are on the team for two weeks it could be a little frustrating. The rain is reminding us of our holiday in Ireland this year.



When I was really young, I attended Castlereagh Baptist Church, in Belfast one of the first Sunday School songs I ever learnt was:

"With Christ in the vessel we can smile at the storm, smile at the storm, smile at the storm,
With Christ in the vessel we can smile at the storm as we go sailing home"

It was always one of my favourites

More on clubbing christians

Came home today and there was one of these sitting at the top of our drive!! It's a hoopoe.

I used to be a member of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, but I let my membership slip.

Nick made some very good points yesterday, which I wholeheartedly agree with.

One other observation that I would like to make is "Why do we have to make something spiritual to legitimize it?" and why do we have to make only certain things spiritual and other things it's ok just to do?

We have to argue the case for clubbing but no one argues the case for watching TV?

Christian Clubbing!!!

I know many of my readers will find this hard to believe but there are still christians out there who think other christians shouldn't go to clubs. Whilst I am a respecter of opinions I find the logic and theology behind this kind of thinking very hard to understand.

Why do christians go to clubs?

1. Here's the main reason and it's exactly the same reason as everybody else: To have a good time, to dance, listen to great music, to hang out with friends and meet new people.

I all honesty I am tempted to just stop there, but I won't.

What other positives do I see? Well like many other clubbers most christians I know who go to clubs do so in a drug free way, I think people need reminding that we are just as capable of having a laugh as the next man and we can do so without the need for any pharmaceuticals to keep us going.

Clubs are a great place to dance get lost in music and have a bit of a worship and a good old pray. No one can hear you! and during those anthemic moments when everyone lifts their hands up you can be lifting yours up to God!!!

Arguments against!

Jesus wouldn't have gone there!

Nonsense... This is like that old pathetic thinking that says something like if you break the speed limit Jesus gets out of the car, or if you go to the pub don't expect Jesus to go there with you!! Not quite in line with such Bibles verses as "I will never leave you or forsake you"

By attending clubs we endorse the bad that goes on there.

I was recently at a N.Ireland football match (thankfully not last nights sorry affair) by attending was I endorsing the sectarianism that is highly evident in a reasonable amount of the crowd? It's here I would like to make a plea for some consistency amongst the objectors! Does working for a bank mean you endorse a capitalist world view! Where do we draw the line.

If people see us attending clubs we could lead them astray and cause them to lose their faith.

If some young person who you are working with goes of the rails because they saw you going into a club, I would be absolutely amazed! Then I would question whether you had ever discipled them correctly in the first place. As a christian leader my job is not to teach people to stay away from the world but to teach them how to live as a christian in the world.

It doesn't look right!

I wonder if a prostitute washing Jesus's feet with her hair looked right? Or Jesus going to a tax collectors for tea looked right? People who have this kind of attitude are the sort of people who would be crying crucify him.

Clubs are dark evil places.

No darker or evil than anywhere else! Anyway weren't we called to be light in darkness? There's probably more darkness in 50% of christians search history on their computer than there is in a club.

I could go one but the reality is that christians who object to going clubbing have arguments that are riddled with inconsistencies and attitudes that are pharisaical.

Here's a dictionary definition of pharisaical: Hypocritically self-righteous and condemnatory.

Now thats the kind of christian I don't want to be........

Prostitutes kneeling

If you put Ibiza prostitutes into google I am number 2 on the list. Not that I was googling for prostitutes just noticed that I get a lot of hits from this one phrase. Needless to say they don't hang around long.

It's hard to tell wheter the prostitution situation is better or worse in San Antonio this year. These girls are mainly west african and they hang out around the edges of the west end. Normally towards the end of the evening you see much more of them. They harrass really drunk guys who are on their own and generally try it on with everyone who walks by. They predominantly offer oral sex although I have noticed more this year offering full sex. Many guys loose their wallets to these ladies.

We were walking home a few nights ago when i got approached by a prostitute, I obviously spurned her advances but told her about what we do and who we are, she then asked me if we had any condoms. Now I struggled for a minute thinking, "why don't you buy some?" but then thought "well if your not going to buy them we will give you some" at least this way we offer protection to the prostitute and the customer. Does this mean I am legitimizing prostitution? I hope not, it is a situation that makes me very unhappy, and it is also very complex. The police in San Antonio seem a little useless at dealing with the problem primarily because the girls have all the correct residents papers and never have any money on them so it's very hard to actually get a conviction.

So yesterday we had 3 prostitutes come into our centre asking for condoms, so I got them a bag. They then asked for a bible each which I know is weird, but I gave them all a bible and a bag of condoms. These girls would appear to be able to separate their faith from their profession and I don't know how!

One afternoon we had three in the centre all wanting prayer so we knelt with them in the prayer room and it struck me as ironic that they would kneel to talk to God in the afternoon and then kneel to perform a sex act in the evening.

What I am convinced of is that God loves these women, he sees these women and he knows their stories. He's there when they kneel to pray and he is their when they kneel to give oral sex. I would imagine the latter breaks his heart but he won't turn away or hide his face from them even in that dark moment.

Mercy triumphs over judgement

seven

Team 7, our final team of the summer are here. Thats over 50 people who have come out this year for two weeks, given their time and money to be here looking after drunks, praying, dancing and generally serving in all we do. It humbles me.

Once again team 7 are a great bunch and were instantly thrown into the messiness last night, it doesn't have to be busy for it to be messy. We did a lot of taking home last night thankfully no more pooh, just a bit of vomit which weirdly I think is a better smell than pooh, but thats a personal preference.

A few things spring to mind at this time of the year one question is "are we really making a difference?" you can on occasion feel like you are swimming against the tide and that what you do here just scratches the surface but what we do matters to the people we do it to. We can't help everyone but the people we do help are grateful. I do on occasion hear the line "you should just leave them, they have done it to themselves" and I can, to a degree, understand these sentiments. Yet I do have this overriding feeling that in the words of John Farnham "we are all someone's daughter, we are all someone's son" even if people to get it wrong and slip up they deserve a little bit of love and help.

The other thing that I am really glad about is that I get to do all this with my wife, I enjoy working with my wife. Occasionally it can mean that work dominates our conversation, but this to me has been one of the greatest things about living in Ibiza, working with my wife. We've just had a great weekend together hope you like the pic.

Poo

Tonight was messy! We are on our 6th team and these guys have been great.

Our evening started by approaching a guy slumped in a chair out side a restaurant and offering to help him and his friend home. They refused.

Some of the team went back a little later and this time they agreed to be helped. When they went to get the guy up they realised he had pooed himself, it was all over the chair. We got him in our wheel chair and then down to the van and took him home. In all honesty it was the worst smell I have ever smelt in the van. The poor guy was absolutely messed up. The van is still smelly now and I am of to have a shower.

It disturbed me. Which is good, we must never become so hard to this stuff that it doesn't affect our emotions.