A dream from 2006

I wrote this in a journal in early 2006 and found it again yesterday!

I have a dream.  It’s a big dream - in reality it could almost be an impossible dream -but I am not prepared to live with the word impossible.  I’m going to live for my dream.

The dream is this: it’s of a vibrant, year round, praying and worshipping community here on the island of Ibiza. A community that is passionate about being kind and doing good for others, a community that does not live for itself alone.  A community of Jesus followers who love this island and want to bring His flavours to it.

This community will have a home, a building; it will be a large multi-purpose building, a tool that will define what we do here on this island.

This building will provide a place of refuge and spiritual reflection.

This building will allow us to run a multiplicity of courses.

This building will be actively used all year round.

This building will be a facility for the people of Ibiza.

It will be a place for the young to use after school or at the weekend. It will be attractive to all age groups.

We will host xbox clubs, pool tournaments, relaxation sessions, Spanish classes, coffee mornings and poker nights.

It will be a facility for information and advice about life on this island, an access point for workers.  Not just a place to use the internet, but a place of support when people are in need.

Sexual health and drugs awareness will be issues we will tackle from this building.

It will be a training centre – we could train people in DJing, drumming, guitar, dance, art and cookery… to name but a few.

We will gather people in the building on a regular basis for creative, chilled out teaching and worship services. We will run spiritual discovery courses such as alpha.

In my mind’s eye I see counselling taking place, massages being given, conversations being had, coffee being drunk, all in this building.

It will be the venue out of which summer teams work, the base for our community’s West End summer work.

At its heart it will have a prayer room - it’s vibrant beating spiritual heart will be prayer.  Prayer will sustain it.

The next step is a building.

It hasn't all happened yet but I am so privileged to see some of the dream fulfilled in our time here, Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see!

Making People Safe

Yesterday we where out on the streets until 3 in the morning. Two of our girls were walking the streets when they bumped into a soldier who had been on leave from Afghanistan for just 3 days. He was unwinding and had a fair bit to drink.

He was pretty uninhibited and clumsy walking into stuff and generally stumbling about, he walked down to the port and nearly fell into the sea. In fact as he walked off a prostitute grabbed him and told him to wait for our two girls.

When they eventually got him calm and sat down he couldn't remember his hotel, which can always prove to be a bit of a nightmare! Poppy and I then went to help them, we do this tag teaming because it can get wearing for the original people just to sit there for over an hour going "where's your hotel mate?" over and over.

Eventually the police showed up and we had a detective moment, we got his camera out of his pocket and checked his photos and one of the police recognised the bar where he was staying. By this time he had woken up and sobered up especially with the police about. They offered to take him to the hotel in their car but he nervously refused! So we walked him back. It ended well, a little hug which was slightly messy as he had puke down his front, and then he trundled off to his room.

he could have drowned, he could have got robbed, he could have stepped out into traffic, but in the end, with the help of a prostitute, the police and ourselves we all got him to safety.

Thats what it is all about, making people safe.

Vomit Van Driver needed!

I know thats not the sexiest of requests I have put up on my blog, but we have a little problem around drivers of the vomit van from about 20th August through until the end of September.

We could really do with someone who is 25 plus to come and volunteer for 6 weeks who would be willing to do a bit of driving. Confident and comfortable with using a manual left hand drive people carrier! That doesn't mean you have to have driven one before you just need to be up for it!

It can be a little messy and a little hectic, you will be up from 12 - 5 in the morning about 3 nights a week, you'll need to do a few airport runs collecting and dropping off our team members and we would also love you to get involved in the other aspects of the work, but at this point if all you could do was driving we would be happy with that!

Calm under pressure, not too worried about messiness, able to focus,  you need to be a christian and you would need to raise your own support for being here for 6 weeks! If you could do longer we would be happy to have you for 3 weeks in October but this is not as essential!

I know it's a big ask but we really need your help, I can give you more info if you are up for it. Remember you really do need to be over 25.

Speak to me, leave a comment with your email I won't publish it. Or if you know my email just send me one.

Season 8

Well here we go again, today season 8 begins....

What are we hoping will happen this year?

Well number one priority is a smooth handover of leadership, if that goes well all else should be ok.
At the moment we are in the "we do and you watch" stage, within the next few weeks we will move to the "you do and we watch" stage and finally we should arrive at the "you do" this will all happen within the next 8 or so weeks!!!!

May tends to be a slow burner so I am praying for no messiness tonight! Our summer long team will very quickly grow to a good size which will be uber helpful.

I also find that once the season starts time flies!!!

We have also got to raise about 3 grand for removal costs, which means I am praying hard and believing loads.

Anyway we lean into Him for all things, and biggest prayer is that this work goes from strength to strength, that what we have done up to this point has just been building a runway and that Abby and Charlie see real lift off and massive growth in all they put there hand to.

Exciting times....

We need men, further info!

We normally only take guys who have been on a two week team to serve for longer but because we are down on men we will be a little more flexible with how this works.

There is quite a rigorous application process and we can send you the application forms, we will also need 2 references, good references, not just from some friend in church who ticks all the 5’s and doesn’t really know you!

With regards to cost there is a monthly rental cost plus whatever it takes for you to live, we normally take the rental costs in advance, because if someone rocks up and they don’t have the cash we end up living by faith instead of them!!!!! 350 euros a month is the rough rental cost! 


You’ll probably share a room and you will be in an apartment without a mother!

People need to come for a minimum of 8 weeks, any shorter and you don’t really build good relationships. 3 months would be great, 6 months if you can do it, but definitely minimum 8 weeks.

You will be expected to spend 3 nights on the streets, 2 days in the centre, help out with some short term team activities, be at all our community prayer and teaching times, and generally live as part of a tight knit little missional unit. You won’t be able to be invisible and you’ll need to have a good attitude to leadership.

What type of person are we looking for? Over 21, Spiritual, mature, emotionally stable, non-flirtatious, able to cope with tiredness and messy situations!

We don’t need men who have lust issues or drink issues coming to Ibiza to test if they have beaten it! This is not a place to test yourself, you will fail here.

Do you love God? Do you love people? Are you passionate about prayer? Can you pray out loud? Will you be able to pray with someone on the streets? Are you non-judgmental! Then you could be the one.

Why not get in touch email me a mail@24-7ibiza.com I will send you an application and we’ll see if it works out.

We need men

Theres a lot of buzz going around about a guy called Mark Driscoll, he preaches a masculine spirituality. He's fashioned a God in the model of Tyler Durden, a kind of beer drinking, cigar smoking god who doesn't mind a fight, a mans man kind of god. A similar god to the one created by John Eldridge a man who lives in a cave, climbs mountains, and wins his princesses, a sort of american John Wayne type god.

Now I have nothing against either of these guys, the church is in desperate need of men.

And we are also in desperate need of men to come and serve out here for the summer! As usual we have plenty of female volunteers this summer, but only one man!!!

He can only stay until August but if we could get another one, two or three guys to help for the whole summer it would be fantastic.

You don't have to be a hero to do what we do, you don't need to be a mans man, you just need a servant heart and a willingness to be Jesus (not John Wayne) to others.

If you would like to come spend 5 - 6 months in Ibiza helping us do what we do, get in touch with me, we really need you.

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"

God loves lap dancers

We have a friend who works as a dancer in a lap dancing bar in the west end. 


Two of our team became great friends with her this summer, she posted this on her facebook status a few days ago: 


"The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance,but the Lord looks at the heart!!!!"


This is so exciting for us, it feels like we are getting our message across, that God is at work and that he is touching her heart and affecting her identity.


We feel very grateful for this piece of encouragment. We also feel very strongly that we should definitely pursue the implementation of Strip Club Chaplains for next year.


We need to work into this area of injustice where women have been reduced to objects of lust we need to communicate the father heart of God to these girls, for them to know that He sees their hearts. That they are more than the role that they perform.

Take a walk

If you have ever wondered what it's like for us as we wander through the west end at night this little video should give you an idea.

It wasn't filmed by anyone on our team, someone randomly found it on You Tube, but it does give you an idea of the environment we operate in. This is where we pray for people, talk to people and listen to people, for me this is a beautiful place.

God is following me!

I have talked on this blog before about how we pray during the summer that God would haunt people, that as we help people and pray with people it would start them on a journey of finding God.


On the back of this one of our two week team members sent me this encouragement from the UK it happened to her over this weekend:


"First night back on the streets as a street pastor since Ibiza and I met a guy in town...who Carolyn and I helped when we were in Ibiza!!! Thought I recognised him but not from Ibiza. He just happened to mention how he was in Ibiza and how two people helped his friend in a wheelchair and it all suddenly clicked! Both of us suddenly recognised each other! We helped his friend back in a wheel-chair to her room at their Hotel and gave him a Jesus Loves Ibiza Bible! The thing is he doesn't even come from our town-only God can plan things like that! In his own words he said 'God is following me!', 'I'm just mind blown', and how it was 'the highlight of his night'. Certainly no co-incidence! I'm just floored, only our God can do things like that- He's so awesome!"


This reminded me of something from a book by Vincent Donovan called Christianity Rediscovered about his time working with the Masai in Africa. 


A Masai elder comments that his people tried to approach God as if they were lions stalking their prey, but after coming to faith they realised they were not the ones doing the stalking.


He writes:  "We have not searched for Him. He has searched for us. He has searched us out and found us. All the time we think we are the lion. In the end, the Lion is God."

Numbers

For safety reasons we keep two log books with regards to our work here, one is for people we help with the Vomit Van the other is for people we walk home or wheelchair home without the van.


Becky on our team compiled all these statistic for me yesterday.


The number of incidents involving the Vomit van over the previous 20 weeks has been 249 this has involved helping 409 people!


The total number of incident without the van has been 234 involving 287 people!

Total number of incidents 20 week period was 483 for the more statistically minded thats an average 24.2 incidents per week involving 696 people at an average of 34.8 people per week.


Someone once said you can make statistics say whatever you want, not sure how true that is. It does show us one thing that is San Antonio is a great place to come on holiday and there are far more people who don't end up in a mess than do.


It also shows me that we need to be there, we are not 24-7 vomit we are 24-7 prayer but we are still involved with a lot of vomit. 


One of the interesting things is we have prayed with more people this year than any previous year, our prayer wall is full, and the level  of conversation and connection on the street has been phenomenal.


All of this and we still have a month left.

Kind words

I am not showing off or being proud just thought you would like to see some feedback from a few of the people we have helped this year. It's cool when people remember to say thank you.

Hi 24-7,

I was out in San Antonio a couple of weeks ago with some friends and drank too much. The last thing I can remember is downing some shots at a dark bar. I left my friends to walk back to my hotel which was about an hour away. I must have fallen asleep on a bench because the first thing I can remember is a couple of girls helping me to get some water and offering to give me a lift home. Stupidly I didn’t accept the lift and continued to walk the rest of the way with one flip-flop but I was really touched by their kindness and want to say that I really appreciated their gesture and that my wife gave me a royal roasting when I finally staggered in at 6am. Keep up the good work.

Hi 24- 7

I very much appreciated being helped I didn’t realise I was in a vulnerable state and thought i would never in my life be walked home ever lol , Thanks for spending so much time with me and walking me back to my hotel room. You guys really made a diffrence and made me think twice about taking substances which i stopped taking from after that night, thanks guys.

Hi 24-7 Ibiza

I got far to carried away on my first night out in Ibiza and got to a stage of drunkenness I never been before and don't fancy again. This is what I remember, I wandered out of a club and away from my mates and then was lying in a street being sick and falling asleep then two amazing people came from nowhere and started helping me next thing I'm in a car (vomit van!) then wake up on my bathroom floor. Thank you so so much for what you done that night hate to think what could of happened. I would love to know what I was like that night and how you found were I was staying as I didn’t have a clue at the time. Thank for all you done and keep up the good work:)

Hello 24-7!

I’d like to thank all at 24-7, particularly a group of individuals who helped me out on the west end

I was massively intoxicated as it was my holiday i thought hey! lets go nuts, unfortunately before I knew it i was on the ground bleeding heavily from the hand. Members from 247 literally picked me up, strapped me up and walked my back to my hotel – Dread to think where i would be without them as i lost my friends that night!
 You only really appreciate what these people do when you need them most! Keep it up!

Thanks again! X

Hi 24-7

We had a messy few weeks, one night my friend had a few too many and fell and smashed his head open. While I was calling the ambulance my bag was robbed and it was a horrible night!! You took care of my friend who fell and gave him water and bandages and brought him home safe, thank you so much you also gave him a 24-7 lighter which he treasured! I have seen you care for others throughout the duration of my stay too, wow you do an amazing job keep it up xxxx

24-7

Just want to say thankyou to your team who helped me get back to my hotel the first night i went out in ibiza. Brilliant service your running as so many people lose control in ibiza and its a great thing your doing.

Late Night Messiness

It's 3.03am we got a call from the police at 1.20am to come for a girl who was, in their words, "A little bit drunk" when we got to the hotel it was very clear that this was way more than a little bit drunk. We prayed as we drove to find her that we would have the grace and patience to deal with the situation.

She wasn't actually staying in the hotel where we found her lying, so the name of the game was to get her back to her own hotel. Thankfully the night porter had worked out where she was and printed off some directions for us, which were very helpful.

The girl herself was lying in her own vomit and had lost control of her bowels, this is a very embarrassing state to find yourself in. Emma and Jillian gallantly cleaned the vomit and pooh from her as best as they could. The night porter brought us some towel they were used to clean her up but it just kept coming. She had definitely been eating chinese food.

As we went to stand her up Emma gagged and nearly vomited so I stepped in to help manoeuvre and lift the girl into the van. Unfortunately I didn't have time to put gloves on.

I quickly realised I had pooh on my hands, I drove, whilst Emma who had recovered brilliantly, poured alcohol wipe onto my hands to remove the pooh. It took us a while to find the apartment where the girl was staying the van was the smelliest it has ever been and you couldn't escape it. It gets in your clothes and everything, you have to breath through your mouth as to not let the smell get in any further.

We got her back safely Emma and Jillian took her in to her friends and they got her in the shower, cleaned her up and put her in bed whilst I stayed outside to clean the pooh from the inside of the van. The girls did brilliantly; cleaning a conscious drunk is much harder than cleaning a van.

In the end she was home safe, it wasn't pretty but she is ok, I know you can ask yourself how can people get in such a state? Mostly it's just an under estimation of the strength of the drink and size of the measures here. They don't start the evening off thinking "tonight I want to get so drunk that I vomit and pooh myself " it creeps up on them.

Anyway we got back in the van, I realised my hands still smelt of pooh, because we hadn't cleaned the steering wheel!!!! We got it properly cleansed, and here I am sitting indoors waiting for the next call.

We are not saints, but surely having a faith is about active involvement, my faith isn't passive, it is not just something I adhere to mentally it affects my actions.

So when we help someone we often remember the words of Jesus which were "Do unto others as you would have done unto yourself"

The Call

Two nights a week rather than walking the streets we are just on call. This involves sitting at home waiting for someone to call and then popping out and dealing with the situation. We do this so that the team get a break and don't burn out throughout the summer.

Tonight I am on call with Gillian, we have just been out I am back now but can't switch the phone off until 4.30am, I have about one hour left so my prayer is for peace on the streets, which in turns means a calm night for us.

We had a call about 90 minutes ago from the health centre in San Antonio, they call us quite a bit, it's always a challenge for my Spanish!!

Our first guy was a drunk chap from Glasgow, who had fallen over and needed 5 stitches. He was easy enough to deal with, just very hard to understand. We popped him home to his hotel.

We the went back to the health centre as they had another guy asleep waiting for us, we woke him up, clean a large quantity of red bull scented vomit off him and found out where his hotel was. Whilst we were doing this I got called in to another room to help with translation!!!!!

It was a young lady with gynaecological problems, these are not words that flow easy and you don't really learn them in spanish class. We muddled through, she got the right diagnosis and I learnt a few words that I will probably never have to use again, unless I have a sex change.

The health centre people are so lovely and we have a great relationship with them, I enjoy going there on call. Mainly because it's a controlled calm environment. If you deal with a drunk on the west end it can be noisy, people take photo's you always have some drunk who has done first aid trying to tell you your job. The health centre is a tranquil place to deal with drunks.

I then went back to red bull vomit man, we got him in the van and soon had him back at his hotel.

This blog took 10 minutes it's 3.35 just got to sit here for 55 more and pray, we normally pray for peace, we pray that friends would stick together, we pray for safety, we pray for a lack of violence and generally that people would have fun without endangering themselves.

Police

The police in San Antonio have a hard job, they are understaffed and have to put up with quite a lot of nonsense. Occasionally they are a little heavy handed, but we like them.

In the summer of 2005 when we first arrived on the island the police threatened to arrest us for giving out fruit on the streets.

Then of course there was the false charge 3 years ago of being an illegal taxi, which was just a case of misunderstanding and has since been resolved.

A few weeks ago we had a phone call from the police to come and help them, tim who was driving the van thought he was being flagged down and arrested when it turned out that he was actually being escorted by the police to help some drunk russian girl.

Then this week I was out with Anna, we were in the van when we got another call to go help the police. We found two police men standing over a man who was absolutely covered head to toe in vomit, he was with a friend but I can honestly say I have never seen someone so covered, he must have been rolling around in it. The police asked us to take him home so I got him up draped all over me and we popped him in the vomit van. The stench was close to unbearable.

What was fantastic was that I needed to turn the van around in the road to get him home and the police just stopped all the traffic so I could turn. It's a long way from 2005 when they were threatening to arrest us, to actually stopping the traffic on our behalf.

We got sick boy home, I was covered, it was on my face and my legs and everything in between. Messiest night this summer, but he got home safe, and we were just so blessed to be working with the police in helping a vulnerable guy home.

Massage

One of the things we have been doing this year is offering a lot of the dancers here a chance to get a free massage.

Every Wednesday our prayer room becomes a tranquil massage room and dancers from the clubs and bars come for a moments peace from the hustle and bustle of everyday life to sit in our prayer room and get some time to de-stress. Sara who is part of our community here had a great day on Wednesday doing this, we get about 8 girls dropping in every week for this.

In fact next year I keep wondering if we should have a dancer chaplain, some who goes into the various lap dancing bars and just befriends and cares for the girls as a specific ministry. A strip club chaplain.

We are already doing it this year but just wondering about stepping it up for next year.

One of the wonderful things about next year is the Abby who will be taking over from Tracy and I with her husband is a trained masseuse. In fact I would like more of our summer long girls to get little massage qualifications.

It's a great way to reach out and a great way to connect with people.

You lay on hands and whilst you are massaging you can pray for the person. Every body needs a little human touch.

Drowning

Well got back from holiday on Monday and was out on the streets last night.

 It was all going very peacefully until Louise and I spotted some splashing near some boats in the harbour. We walked over and realised it was a guy!!! he was thrashing about and in a bit of trouble. I am not a strong swimmer but as we watched a really great spanish guy jumped in and pulled him to the edge and we helped drag him out. Whilst we all thanked the Spanish guy, the drugged up british guy that we had just pulled from the water jumped back in. I ran up and managed to drag him out but just as he was climbing out he slipped and fell back in.

This time it got worse, he was on ecstasy and enjoying the water but kept going under, we were shouting at him and trying to get him to come close. He then went under for what seemed like an age and at that point I thought we were about to see a guy drown. So although I am not a good swimmer I started to give my stuff to louise and was about to jump in when along came spanish guy again he leapt straight in. I will be honest and say I was relieved, he got him to the side I reached in under the water and pulled the guy up by his hair and then with the help of a scottish guy who was just passing by we dragged him fully out. We had to drag him up the side of the harbour but at that point we were more concerned that he didn't drown than the fact he suffered bad grazing from being dragged over rough concrete.

We held him this time, it was easy he was out of breath and just lay panting and bleeding on the floor. We called the police because someone needed to restrain this guy until the drugs wore off or he was going to drown. The police came, they were brilliant we waited with them until an ambulance came and then the guy was taken to hospital, to sleep off the effects of the drugs. It ended well.

I was disturbed, he could have drowned, the timing was great that we happened to be there, but more importantly that the strong swimming spanish guy happened to notice us!

I was also deeply impressed by how local spanish helped me on the phone, how the scottish guy stuck around, how the police where so patient, I think by the end of the incident about 12 people all contributed to the situation which eventually got him to safety.

Humans are good, humanity is beautiful and people generally look out for people.

It was good to be back

Teams

Our third 2 week team departs today which is an indicator as to how quickly the summer is passing by. All our two week teams have been excellent this year, actually they are every year, this is down to a great application set up and also working with people you have relationship with.

How could I describe the summer so far?????

Prayers have been prayed, we have stood, knelt or just sat and prayed with many people on the streets, we have taken prayer requests, we have held hands in prayer, we have have prayed in the prayer room, we have walked the streets and prayed, we have gone to watchtowers and prayed, we have prayed all over the place....  it's really all been about the prayer, prayer and more prayer.

We have given away bibles, lots of bibles, we even had someone seek us out for a new bible because some one had stolen his!!! We like the fact that people want bibles so much they steal them.

The centre has been as busy as ever with over 150 people using it every week, one day last week we had over 24 people in at the same time. It's a hub, a third space.

We have walked countless people back to their hotels and helped many others home in our van, the health centre continue to phone us for help. Bar owners, security staff and workers also call us to help messed up people. The police occasionally watch over us whilst we do this. 

Our summer long team of 12 people is truly superb, we meet eat and pray together regularly, they are a joy to have here and fun to hang out with.

Our sunday gathering continues to attract a mixed bag of visitors, some weeks we have 40 people others weeks we have 20!! thats ok, we have workers, locals, team members and tourists all popping along.

This brief résumé of our work doesn't really do it justice, there is other stuff happening that I just can't blog about, but it's good.

Encouragement

It's really lovely when you get some encouraging message back from people you have helped. We don't do it for the praise but it is encouraging and spurs you on to keep doing what you are doing:


These are messages from a few people we have helped this summer:


"We had a messy few weeks last year and one night my friend had a few too many and fell and smashed his head open. While I was calling the ambulence my bag was robbed and it was a horrible night!! You took care of my friend who fell and gave him water and bandages and brought him home safe, thank you so much you also gave him a 24-7 lighter which he treasured! I have seen you care for others throughout the duration of my stay too, wow you do an amazing job keep it up xxxx"

"Hello 24-7! I’d like to thank all at 24-7, particularly a group of individuals who helped me out on the west end .I was massivly intoxicated as it was my holiday i thought hey! lets go nuts, unfortunatly before I knew it i was on the ground bleeding heavily from the hand. Members from 247 literally picked me up, strapped me up and walked my back to my hotel – Dread to think where i would be without them as i lost my friends that night! You only really appreciate what these people do when you need them most! Keep it up. Thanks again! x"

"Hi 24-7 Ibiza.  On the 30 June 2011 I got far to carried away on my first night out in Ibiza and got to a stage of drunkenness I never been before and don’t fancy again. This is what I remember, I wandered out of a club and from my mates and then was lying in a street being sick and falling asleep then two amazing people came from nowhere and started helping me say there hear to help next thing I’m in a car then wake up on my bathroom floor. I then found a message from Gillian & Neil letting me no they helped me home. Thank you so so much for what you done that night hate to think what could of happend. I would love to no what I was like that night and how you found were I was staying as I didt have a clue at the time. Thank for all you done and keep up the good work:)"

These messages give us courage to keep going.

24-7 Ibiza's new leaders

Let me introduce you to Charlie and Abby Clayton. Charlie and Abby will be taking over the leadership of 24-7 prayer here in Ibiza from Tracy and myself next July.

They both live in Birmingham, and have just got married at the end of April. Abby is a dancer, masseuse, wonderful prayer warrior and people connector. I don't know if Charlie can dance but he was the leader and one of the directors of a charity in Birmingham which amongst other things developed a drop in centre and street work!!! One of the best statements Tracy thinks she heard Charlie make was "I love spreadsheets" Charlie has a heart for the lost and tremendous organisational abilities which are so essential for the work here.

They will be based in the UK until February/March next year, just getting used to being married and fund raising so that they can live and work effectively out here. If you'd like to become a regular supporter just talk to me and I can hook you up.

Tracy and I will still stay involved in an oversight role from the UK but Charlie and Abby will be our on the ground leaders of 24-7ibiza.

Charlie and Abby have started a blog so please pop over and give them some love and encouragement as they step up to the mark for an exciting new adventure, their blog is called Clapping the son .

We can't tell you how excited we are by all of this, God is all over it and we just sometimes have to stand back and be amazed by how well he plans and grows His church....