Yes but how?

I have a friend who tells me the best thought to have in mind when preparing a talk is "Yes but how?" I use this a lot when preparing a preach.

I guess when I start with this whole, life on the edge, scaring ourselves type vibe I want to ask the same question "Yes but how?"

I have words not sure I can fully verbalise them, abandonment, surrender, sacrifice, obedience

Visually the idea would be the early celtic monks getting in their small coracles and pushing themselves out to sea without actually knowing where they would end up or even if they would live.

Increasingly I think that the pattern of our world here in the UK is risk averse. Have we been conformed to this pattern. In a world of risk assessment and health and safety have we allowed that to creep into our faith. Our we becoming conformed to this pattern of the world?

When we left for Ibiza, we had two sons who were in school, people thought it was unwise to mess with their education, we didn't have a salary people thought it was unwise to move without having the full amount, we couldn't speak Spanish and we were moving to Spain that seemed unwise. We had very real fears about all of this. You know that the people who helped fuel these fears were predominantly christians!

What made us do it? I guess we had a sense that it was right but we also thought "God responds to movement" Look at various biblical encounters and you soon realise that sometimes you have to get out of the boat, move, for God to respond!

We also had a few other little thoughts like "whats the worst that could happen?". You then also need to confront the fact that you may be wrong, you may come back with your tail between your legs having failed!

In the end you have to accept this reality, deal with your own pride and ego and realise "Yes it could go wrong, but am I going to let this stop me?"

A place at the table

Just bought a new table on ebay, in preparation for our return, it got me thinking about the phrase "a place at the table". Do you ever get that sense that you just don't belong? Somehow you don't deserve to be where you are or a niggle at the back of your mind "One day I will be found out!"

You're an impostor, you don't deserve a place at the table!

This can be do with where you came from: for me coming from N.Ireland lends one sort of tension, am I Irish or am I British? Which one of those tables should I sit at? or can I sit at both? Then I have: am I N.Irish or English? I was born in N.Ireland and grew up in England from the age of 9 so I sound English to the Irish and a little strange to the English, I have a schizophrenic accent! If I am honest I am not sure it matters, although I am definitely Irish. I love what Paul says on this subject "But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives" 

Another interesting factor can be what you have done: I used to be frightened of what people would think about some of the things I have done in my past. The prison, the fights, the selfishness, the drugs but the thing about the past is that it has passed! God is more interested in who you are becoming than who you have been.

There is also the consideration of what you have: I am not qualified academically, this used to play on my mind, but it hasn't held me back. We can get so focussed on what we don't have that we can lose sight of what we do have. "In all things give thanks" thankfulness brings perspective to lack!

For me problems around identity and feeling worthy to sit at the table have been to do with disconnectedness, shame, and lack!

This Psalm should help anyone struggling with this:

A psalm of David.

¹ The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. 
²     He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters, 
³     he refreshes my soul. 
He guides me along the right paths 
    for his name’s sake. 
⁴ Even though I walk
    through the darkest valley,^[a] 
I will fear no evil, 
    for you are with me; 
your rod and your staff,
    they comfort me.

⁵ You prepare a table before me
    in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil; 
    my cup overflows.
⁶ Surely your goodness and love will follow me
    all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord
    forever.

We were not meant to be comfortable

It's funny isn't it how we get so stressed. I was driving along in the car the other day thinking about all that is going on in our lives right now, having a little moment. A moment of frustration and worry which in the end boils down to a little discomfort! Then a thought struck, "this is how it was meant to be!" 

We were not meant to be comfortable, who really wants comfort. I read about it, hear about it, how God wants it all to be okay, how he wants to me to have the pie, have the car, enjoy the prosperity, enjoy the good health, all the riches he has in store for me, the kingdom of comfort is preached all over the show. Maybe I have bought into that. This is a kingdom that is advancing moving forward, growing, changing, growth and change aren't always comfortable. Moving forward means leaving stuff behind, thats natural, growth means stretching, change, well change, means what it says on the label.

You can hide from it but it's all around us, our children force change on us, the years force change on us, our health changes us, what we eat, where we go, who we know they all change. Thats beautiful, thats life, I am not going to fight it. I'm going to embrace transience the fact that change is all around, sometimes minor sometimes minor but it is definitely unavoidable.

Here's a beautiful thought, once we stop fighting it, stop trying to manage it, give in to the the wind of the spirit allow him to blow us, embrace change, go with it move with the kingdom; forwards, we find comfort and riches that we never imagined.

My life has been enriched beyond belief since I opted for discomfort, I have found comfort like never before as I have embraced change and movement. Weird how I have moments where I lose sight of that.

We were not meant to be comfortable.

Stressful insight

Our car is in the garage this week, just getting sorted before we try to sell it! Another challenge, they are coming thick and fast at the moment and we are still leaning into God as we go along.

There are days when I feel my head is going to explode, but if I break it down and compartmentalise everything I find it easier to deal with. For me stress is not one thing, when you take one thing on it's own it never appears stressful. It's always a culmination of a whole load of smaller things all positioning for space and vying for attention, trying to force themselves to the front of my thought processes queue, that, for me, is when stress happens.

Some of these stresses I suppress, others I ignore, some I tell to go to the back of the queue, others I deal with. Generally I keep them in an orderly line and when I watch them they are under control and pretty well behaved. However when I get physically tired or let my guard down spiritually, its like I turn my back on them. In that moment they all make a mad dash, like a group of travellers getting on a ryan air flight,  to try to get to the front of the queue. I turn around and there they all are waving their boarding cards at me and demanding they get seen to first! At first the sight of them all rushing, fighting and pushing can overwhelm me, the thought that flies into my head is "where will I start?". It then takes me a little while to get them all back in order, slap a few, boot a few out, tell a couple to calm down generally bring a bit of control.

It's a constant battle, not depressing or distressing, just a constant battle. Most of the time I am winning but as we get nearer to the end of our time here and our life gets busier, the different stresses seems to jostle harder for position. They are cheeky inconsiderate little blighters, popping up, trying to push in and generally very demanding.

Anyway today I have the queue in order, I have had a good nights sleep, been to the gym, prayed and am about to read my bible.

Hope that gives you a little insight into my stress. No different to anyone else's although this has helped me get a bit of perspective by writing about it.

7 Years Ago

Today 7 years ago was when we arrived as a family on the island of Ibiza, 27th March 2005.

On one level time has flown by on another level I feel like we have been here a long time, I guess thats a general condition of life, the fast and the slow seem to blend!

If I was asked to describe the last 7 years in a blog post, I wouldn't be able to thats why we are writing a book. But if there was one word that I could use it would be this.

Gratitude

I was asked recently to talk about the sacrifice of moving to Ibiza and doing what we do, weirdly I started to cry! It wasn't because I was sad or wearied it was just that when I accessed my feelings I could only feel a deep sense of gratefulness that God had brought us on this journey. Yes at times it has been challenging and tough but we have learnt so much, been given so much, grown so much that in terms of sacrifice what we got back from coming here far outweighs anything we gave up.

I find myself grateful, grateful for the variety of people I have met here, grateful for what they have taught me. Grateful to all those who have supported us in prayers, visits, giving, living here, serving on teams, phone calls, blog comments, making curries, kind emails it's been phenomenal and we feel our appreciation of church, the body of Christ, has grown so much. If you are reading this right now you are one of those people, so thank you.

Grateful for what has happened with 24-7prayer in Ibiza, the way God has breathed on this work, the way it has grown and will continue to grow.

As a family we have grown, in togetherness, in joint experience and age!!!

Words can't describe fully my gratitude, I often find myself saying "Give thanks to the Lord for He is good and His love endures forever"


Yes there are challenges ahead, as we think of leaving here we just concentrate on the practical because if we go there with the emotional we would be wrecks. Ibiza has been our lives for 7 years. I love that line from a Mumford & Sons song Awake my Soul "where you invest your love, you invest your life" I feel we have done that which makes the emotional challenge of leaving tremendously hard.

So the Journey home begins, over the next 4 months until the 20th July, we have to work hard at keeping our heads in the game here and stay focussed as we hand over to Charlie and Abby, whats really important is finishing well.

There are significant financial challenges to getting home, if you would like to help with that please get in touch with me and I can send you a little document explaining the costs and challenges.

Primarily I just want to "give thanks to Lord for He is good" and say "His Love endures forever"

2. A commitment to life long learning and discipleship

A healthy community will display a commitment to life long learning and discipleship. I want to live a life worthy of my calling. Paul exhorted Timothy to watch his life and his doctrine. Jesus said go make disciples.

To make disciples we need a commitment to being disciples!

Here's what I find challenging, "If we create a church culture that is about entertainment and promote a devotional life that involves getting pumped up to whatever the latest christian worship song is we will inevitably start to flag in our growth as christians"


I heard Bill Johnson say something like "I can pray that God imparts what he has given me to you, but I can't impart my history"


Your history as a disciple is something that has been refined over the years, once again the challenge in an immediate culture is to stick at it!

If you are serious about being a disciple you should read the bible every year. Thats not even rushing through it, 4 chapters a day 10 minutes, even if you go ultra slow with a highlighter and take notes 30 minutes, thats all it will take.

If I want to be committed to lifelong growth and learning I must "hide his word in my heart" or "Meditate on His word day and night"


Without wanting to sound harsh or smother myself in a cloak of religiosity I have had to tell myself "Brian if you are serious about being a disciple you need to read the bible" I see on lots of blogs people doing book munches and reading 52 books in a year etc, I've tried it but in the end if it gets in the way of me reading the bible I put the other books down.

Sorry there is so much more to discipleship than bible reading but it's the one area I think our generation has to get hold of.

I'm off to the UK for a few days, I'll do a more comprehensive piece on on learning communities when I get back.

What makes a healthy community?

I am still a fan of Count Zinzendorf and many of his friends who lived by the rule of "Being true to Christ, kind to others and taking the gospel to the nations"


If a community is full of people who are living like this then it can't help but be healthy.

I would be looking for a healthy community to display these signs of health

1. That they would be living prayerfully,

2. Are committed to lifelong learning and discipleship,

3. Engage in mission and evangelism,
4. Celebrate creativity,
5. Practice hospitality
6. And express God's mercy and justice.

I'm going to try and unpack my take on all 6 of these practices over the next few days.

I do think if communities get all of the above right, they cannot help but grow. I see these values expressed in small missional communities but also in large churches.

They have slightly different titles but if you scratch the surface of some of the more vibrant large churches in the UK you will find these practices.

We need to be more positive and generous and hold up a multiplicity of models as good examples of the kingdom coming.

If it's healthy it will grow

What sort of growth are communities looking for?

Personally I think that the kind of growth we should aim for would be "If we disappeared tomorrow would our local community miss us? 

We should be looking for growth in local influence and societal change this a much healthier growth to focus on than bums on seats every Sunday morning.

I once heard someone say that too many churches concentrate on growth, when they should be concentrating on health.  I think it might have been Rick Warren?

I believe in growth and want to see christian communities growing in number and size but if growth is the primary aim it may never happen. Alternatively if you concentrate on health your community will definitely grow. Look at the roots of your community if they are healthy they will enable your community to be fruitful. A tree produces fruit if it has a healthy root.

Concentrate on the root not the fruit.


What makes a healthy church or community?

My only concern would be that in the process of concentrating on the root and getting healthy we become introverted communities. Not fully engaging with the world until we feel we are strong enough. Smaller communities can be a little guilty of this, I have even seen some develop a theology of small, which is scary and kind of based on fear and insecurity.

We get healthy not just by what we feed on but by exercise. For any community to grow it is important not only to have healthy teaching but also healthy practice.

We must put our theoretical knowledge into practice, a healthy community should have good praxis.

Or as James put's it "Faith without action is dead". Sounding good and looking good are not good enough.


A healthy well rooted active community will grow, both in influence and size.

A little Perspective

Isaiah 40: 30 - 31

"Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall;but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."

Why would be able to soar on wings like eagles? Whats that about? 

It's about perspective, seeing things differently. An eagle sees the world differently than I do, it soars it gains a heavenly perspective.

I can sometimes be guilty of a little loss of perspective, if we are honest we all can. I love the stories of the prophet Elijah in the book of Kings, he was often guilty of losing perspective. There is moment in 1 kings 19 were he says "I am the only one left" and then God tells him there actually 7000 left! thats a big difference, he had lost perspective!

Loss of perspective sounds like this "I am the only one left" "This always happens to me" " this is only happening to me" "Why does this not happen to someone else?" "I am on my own in this!"

All those kind of phrases can indicate a loss of perspective.

God comes to restore perspective, to give us a heavenly outlook.

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?

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."

Feminized Prayer

Sometimes I get worried that people think prayer is for girls! With our summer teams that join us here there are we have many more men than women. my accountant wife tells me 80% of our teams are women! I know this is always true of mission teams in general but it did get me thinking about the feminization of prayer.

There's an organisation called Lydia Fellowship  it's about women praying based on quite a weak link to a bible reference in Acts Chapter 16, their prayer meetings are exclusively for women, I know that prayer is good, that all types of people praying all types of prayers are necessary but I can't help wondering if the Lydia thing is a reflection of something that is wrong in Europe!

Over the last century prayer has been feminized, maybe because as the growth of christianity has happened men have worked and women have stayed at home and had more time to go to prayer groups during the day!! Maybe church leadership has not put enough emphasis on prayer, therefore making it a daytime activity available only to those without jobs. It could just be that with increased wealth and leisure women have chosen prayer and men haven't.


Perhaps it's down to the rise of one or two strong women prayer preachers and intercessor movements led by women. 


I know that times have changed but I even look at the  24-7 prayer international prayer team and I see that 6 are women and there is only one man, and this is quite a modern movement!!!!!!! In the end movements do reflect their leadership it concerns me that if the prayer side of 24-7prayer is all ladies bar one, then maybe we will only encourage ladies to pray.

Believe me praying women are better than no one praying at all. this isn't a chauvinistic post more a frustrated post. I don't want women to stop praying I just wish more men would get involved.

How does that happen?

Opinions

I once heard someone say that we mustn't form "to close a relationship with our own opinions" I think I was more opinionated when I was younger, but then I think i still hold strong opinions.

So maybe I am not less opinionated just better at sharing my opinions. I think in the past I would try to be right and in being right I would try to make others wrong. There's nothing the matter with being right it's just how it comes across.

Although I have noticed that some christian leaders aren't so good at sharing their opinions these days, they are a little held back. I wonder if that is why Mark Driscoll does so well, he is pretty confident and vocal in the sharing of his opinions. I am not saying he is right but it's seems that some people are looking for leaders with strong opinions.

I guess it's ok to have opinions, probably just have to watch how you share them, and some opinions are better off just kept in your head.

I was preaching the other week and I said "don't follow a leader with a cause who never talks about Jesus" what I meant to say was "don't follow a christian leader with a cause who never mentions Jesus." There are loads of christians out there with opinions about all sorts of things but if you can't see Christ in their opinions I would worry.

I would say that a lot of middle class church opinion is more informed by The Daily Mail  than the Sermon on the Mount.

In general the teachings of Jesus are challenging, for instance how does our Lords phrase "I was a stranger and you invited me in" inform immigration policy?

We are more informed by the papers than the gospels our opinions are occasionally moulded by fear not by Christ.

Opinions are good to have however we need to filter them, we must look at our own opinions through a Christlike lens, apply some Corinthians 13  love to them and then see if they are still valid!

Jesus Loves Essex

I am still amazed at how our Jesus loves Ibiza bibles are received. People love them not only the design but the accessibility of the Message Version.

We dropped a drunk guy the other night and his friend stayed up and watched over him to make sure he was ok. Whilst he sat watching over his drunk friend he read the bible our team had given him.

He saw the team last night and quoted the beatitudes to them, because that was what he had read and it had really stuck in his mind. Now I don't know about you but it always blows me away that someone on holiday could emerge from a messy situation of looking after his drunk friend on a lads drinking holiday and come away having learnt the beatitudes!!!

I would still love to see this kind of thing happen in the UK, I think the bible is a powerful book, the word of God we just have to develop a better delivery and presentation system.

I want to do a "Jesus Loves Essex" version, because it's so much in the media and not all the press is positive wouldn't is be good to pop something like that into the hands of essex people. We could distribute it at Lakeside, a large shopping mall in Essex.

I used to live in Essex, for my overseas readers who don't know much about it check out this link Essex also Essex. Essex is personified in a UK Tv programme called The Only Way is Essex , british Tv's answer to The Hills or Jersey Shores.

I spent 13 years of my life in Essex! It would be great to get the bibles.

Light

In the Beginning was the Word and the Word was with God

God looked down on man and the broken state of humanity and enacted the plan, his heart was for his creation, his heart burst for his creation, he wanted to walk once again in relationship with humanity and he sent forth light, the light of the world, expressing the very heart of God.

The light shone in darkness, it pulsed with his heart beat, Jesus shone, he emanated light, he moved amongst the darkness and shone wherever He was. The Son of God, light bearing incarnational representative of God, lights of lights.

The darkness responded badly to the light, rejecting it. They tried to put the light out by killing the Son, but little did they know that at the moment they thought the light was being extinguished was the moment the light would be truly revealed and it's mission accomplished.

The light did not die, it rose victorious, it shone, salvation was revealed and a great light was seen by all men. That light rained down on others and they where filled with the same spirit as the light.

The challenge is now that we the light bearers will shine, shine in the darkness, transform the world fill it with bright God colours, revealing the glory of the only begotten Son who leads to relationship with the light.

You're here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We're going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don't think I'm going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I'm putting you on a light stand. Now that I've put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you'll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.

Religion

And an old priest said, 'Speak to us of Religion.'

And he said:

Have I spoken this day of aught else?

Is not religion all deeds and all reflection,

And that which is neither deed nor reflection, but a wonder and a surprise ever springing in the soul, even while the hands hew the stone or tend the loom?

Who can separate his faith from his actions, or his belief from his occupations?

Who can spread his hours before him, saying, 'This for God and this for myself; This for my soul, and this other for my body?'

All your hours are wings that beat through space from self to self.

He who wears his morality but as his best garment were better naked.

The wind and the sun will tear no holes in his skin.

And he who defines his conduct by ethics imprisons his song-bird in a cage.

The freest song comes not through bars and wires.

And he to whom worshipping is a window, to open but also to shut, has not yet visited the house of his soul whose windows are from dawn to dawn.

Your daily life is your temple and your religion.

Whenever you enter into it take with you your all.

Take the plough and the forge and the mallet and the lute,

The things you have fashioned in necessity or for delight.

For in revery you cannot rise above your achievements nor fall lower than your failures.

And take with you all men:

For in adoration you cannot fly higher than their hopes nor humble yourself lower than their despair.

And if you would know God be not therefore a solver of riddles.

Rather look about you and you shall see Him playing with your children.

And look into space; you shall see Him walking in the cloud, outstretching His arms in the lightning and descending in rain.

You shall see Him smiling in flowers, then rising and waving His hands in trees.



A sufi poem from a classical lebanese poet - khalil gibran

Overdramatic.com

Thank you for all your encouraging messages, I think I may have used the wrong title for my story yesterday. In all honesty the situation I wrote about is pretty typical, these kind of things happen to us every week or so.

I was mainly freaked out by the age of the girl but this was after the situation had ended.

Life is not tough here, it is challenging. We are faced with challenging situations but we are so blessed. We are blessed by friends who support us, bar workers who encourage us on a regular basis and a God who never leaves us.

We aren't immune to the things we face, I guess when God calls you somewhere he gives grace for you to live it.

We were reading Corinthians 4 yesterday the words of  Paul often help me gain perspective these guys had it tough, tougher than we can ever imagine yet they were able to say:

"But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.  We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.  We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body.  So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you."


Amen, Hallelujah and Glory be.

I can't do this anymore

Last night we were out on the streets, I was walking around with Gillian who is here for the whole summer. We were having a lovely chilled time, chatting with workers, looking for people to pray with it felt good.

We then received a phone call from a bar in the West end asking us to come and help a girl there who was in some trouble. When we arrived it became evident that she needed an ambulance, I don't want to speculate but it looked like she had taken more than alcohol! I stepped out of the melee to call the ambulance, whilst I did this, Gillian held the girl.

There were 4 other unconnected girls who were also being extremely helpful they had been consoling the drunken/drugged girls sister. All of a sudden the sister flipped out and started making semi aggressive moves toward Gillian who was helping her sister. I was on the phone to the ambulance. At this point Tim and Lauren who were also on our team walked by, Tim jumped in and took over from Gillian and Lauren started to help placate the freaked out and random sister. The timing was wonderful.

I had phoned an ambulance, the pub bouncer was helping out, and then came 6 police they just reassuringly watched whilst we waited for an ambulance. Other random holiday makers were taking photos of the drugged girl, this always disturbs me. Gillian and I stood back whilst Tim and Lauren looked after the girl, too many people can make the scene worse. Eventually I was able to show the ambulance crew to the girl. There was a big crowd by now, but the police got their truncheons out and it quickly dispersed. Gillian and I stood back and watched and quietly prayed.

Whilst the ambulance crew where dealing with the drunk first girl another girl got thrown out of a club she was in a mess and lying very close to the original victim, thankfully she had a more calm friend with her. This obviously confused the situation and made it all a little bit more manic, but Tim informed me afterwards that the whole time he felt "total peace". The ambulance crew can only take one at a time, they gave the new girl a once over and said, "we'll take the first girl can you take the second girl to her hotel"

All the time this was happening some of our guys where praying back in the prayer room, this is faith and action. Number one girl was put safely in the ambulance, her sister disappeared in the mayhem, Tim and Lauren then ran and got Gavin, who is on our team, and a wheel chair, whilst Gillian and I ran to get the Vomit Van. They got number two girl to a peaceful place where we could pick them up easily. We pulled up they got her in to the tranquil air conditioned van everything instantly became calm and we managed to get her safely to her hotel with her friend. All in all it was a job well done, everyone was safe!

Meanwhile (I hope this isn't to complicated) Jule's and Becky who are on our team bumped into the freaked out and random sister who was now with the 4 helpful girls looking for her sister. They walked her to the medical centre and thankfully her sister was there, sedated and in a bed.

It then transpired that they we staying in another town 20 miles away with their parents, the drunk/ drugged girl was only 16. Becky and Jules spoke to her parents who jumped in a taxi and came to get their daughters! It ended well.

However it disturbed me, set me on edge, worried me, my son will be 16 in November, she really was so young. On a weird level I just felt "I have had enough, I can't do this anymore" but something quickly happened in my disheartened spirit I got my head back in the game, God is our strength his spirit showed up and gave the push I needed. I was also reminded that there were 7 of us involved in this scene and what a great way to function together as community.

I'm not giving up.

We are not 24-7 Vomit

As a team we have been reminding ourselves that we are 24-7 prayer in Ibiza not 24-7 vomit. The reason we call ourselves 24-7ibiza is that 24-7prayer in ibiza doesn't slip of the tongue so easy. We are 100% committed to and part of the wider international movement that is 24-7prayer .

What we have found is that dealing with vomit and people in distress is surprisingly easier than actually talking with people about their spirituality and offering to pray with them. In fact if you are feeling a little under the weather spiritually you will default towards looking for drunks to help rather than people to pray with.

We are 24-7prayer not 24-7 vomit.

We will never walk by a sick distressed or lost person, we will never refuse to go and help a bar or the health centre at our core we are a praying group of individuals.

As well as being the prayer, by helping and assisting we can also offer prayer for the deeper unseen problems, the pain and trauma that people go through on an everyday basis. This is harder to step up to than help an actual messy situation, but time and time again when we do it, people appear to be really blessed.

Prayer is the key.

The vomit is a symptom of a deeper problem, vomit is the search for something that in the end will not make you happy. There is a prophetic significance in vomit.

I have supped and drank deeply of all the world has to offer and it has not made me happy, in fact it has made me sick.

Are you a FOMO?

I was chatting to friend of mine she said she read in some girly magazine about a new condition people could be suffering from. It's been around for a while but living a secluded, sheltered life here in Ibiza I had never heard it before.

It's called FOMO, which just means Fear Of Missing Out - the fear you feel that you will miss out on something huge if you don't do something/participate in an event.

'I want to stay home tonight but I have FOMO so I will push through the fatigue.'

Fear that you will miss the best party, the best sunset, the best gig, the best night at the pub, the best conference, the best church meeting, the best speaker, etc.

Fear that stops us from resting, from stopping, from taking it easy, from stepping back and relaxing.

I see far too many people who are just too busy. I was reading somewhere about a church leader who was so busy he had to mow his lawn with a head torch on at night, whilst he was doing this he had a sudden realisation that all the busy ness of church life wasn't good and asked himself: "What exactly is it about my life that would make my neighbours want to become a christian?"

Are we too busy? Do we need to implement some changes in our lives so that we live a much more reflective lifestyle?

I was talking to my younger brother who lives in the UK, he was telling me how that if he wants to have a meal with other people in the church once they get their diaries together it's normally a minimum of 6 weeks before they can meet up. Surely this isn't right? or am I just being naive?