Team Time

A Week in the Life: Day Six

Today was an off day, which means this blog post is gonna be a short one!

Every other week we gather as a team to do something fun. Today's agenda included lunch and a bit of well earned relaxation!

Once I got home I took a quick nap followed by me finally hanging up my clean laundry. It's possible that it's been sitting on the spare bed in my room for a few day. (oops!)

My night was full of video games and reading...two of my favorite things! Now I'm off to bed.

See you tomorrow!

Weekend Streets

A Week in the Life: Day Five

I was on the streets tonight, and it was definitely a night to remember.

On the weekends our rhythm on the streets is a little different. We start the night with 30 minutes of prayer and worship, and then we head out from midnight - 4:00 AM. The format is a little loser on the weekends. Sometimes we'll go inside a club to chat to the bar staff, or we'll grab some food. The goal is to be present in the west end even on the weekends. 

Tonight started with cheesecake. 


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There's an amazing little spot near the west end that makes a new flavor of cheesecake each night. Tonight's menu included Reese's peanut butter cup. *See GIF above for my approximate reaction :)

After cheesecake a few of us were standing outside the restaurant when a guy literally stumbled up to us. He was not doing well, so we offered to walk him back to his hotel. One of the first things he said to us as he walked up was "Do you guys know Jesus?" He was so drunk I'm sure he had no idea what he was saying, but we loved it and were happy to tell him that we did in fact know Jesus!

Once we got him safely back to his hotel and in bed we headed back out. We made our way down by the water, where we stumbled upon a group of friends in a strange situation. We could see one of the guys laying on the beach while a few people stood around taking photos of him. He wasn't moving, and we weren't exactly sure the people surrounding him were his friends, so we wandered over to make sure things were okay. Turns out he was among friends. In the group of four guys, two had taken drugs, and were in the midst of their high,. The guy in the sand was conscious. I'd though he was lying still, but he was actually in the process of digging in the sand. He informed us that he was in fact digging a hole to china. The other high friend transitioned between trying to go for a swim in the sea, and giving us all hugs. I recently heard that you need 12 hugs a day to thrive, so I was happy to receive them! The only downside to the hugs was that he was covered in sand. We sat with the boys for a while, but the two sober friends assured us they had things under control, so we left them to it.

As we headed back towards the west end we could see that it was closing time. Once all the bars and clubs close at 3:00 AM, hoards of people stream out of the west end as they head back to their hotels. We saw a fight break out and stopped to pray peace over the area. The fight broke up, and we continued on.

Then, the Bat-phone rang.


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The Bat-phone is a mobile phone that people call us on if they need help. We call it the Bat-phone because just like Batman responds to the bat signal in the sky, we respond when we get a call! We get calls from workers, the police, and even the local medical center. This call was from a few workers who'd found a young man who'd been in a fight. When we arrived this kid was covered in his own blood. His friend had punched him in the nose, and he'd bled all over himself. He assured us he and his nose were fine, and he just wanted help getting back to his hotel, and so we helped him clean up a little and walked him back to his hotel.

The Bat-phone rang once more and we headed to another bar in the west end. The bouncer had called us about a guy sitting outside his bar. I prayed as we approached that God would help the situation to be a simple one. In less than a minute of chatting with this guy we found out his hotel name and were on our way! By the time we walked him back to his hotel it was 4:00 AM, and our night was done.

We love making sure people get back to a safe place. Sometimes we get to do that ourselves, and other times we have to trust that friends are going to take care of each other. We love showing kindness to people in the west end because we believe our God is kind. We want to be a reflection of him in everything we do!  Some nights are full of deep God chats and praying for people, and some are full of helping people back to a safe place. We really believe that God works through everything we do!

Now it's late and I'm going to bed. See ya tomorrow!

Bossa

A Week in the Life: Day Four

After a late night last night, waking up to my alarm at 1:00 was a little difficult! I eventually got up and made my way to Play d'en Bossa, which is on the other side of the island. No matter if you're rich or poor, there's a place for everyone in Ibiza. While San Antonio appeals to the young budget traveler, Bossa is for those with a little more cash. The area is home to some of the most popular clubs on the island, including Ushuaia and Hi*. 

*side note: Hi, used to be home to SPACE, the best club in the world. I'm still not over it. Let's continue...

 For several years now different people from 24-7 Ibiza have been praying about how we can best serve the community of Playa d'en Bossa. This season a group of people have been meeting every week to prayer walk through the area. Everything we do here is fueled by prayer. In prayer we're asking God to show us the way. I believe God already has a plan. In prayer we wait and listen for God to reveal that to us! 

A lovely girl named Ellie has committed 6 weeks of her summer to come to the island specifically to pray for Bossa. I'll be spending some of my time praying with her, and I must say I'm a bit excited. 

While we were prayer walking today I had this verse in my head.

Matthew 5:13-16 (MSG)

 “Let me tell you why you are here. You’re here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You’ve lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage. “Here’s another way to put it: 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."

 I must say I love the message version of this section of scripture.  This was my prayer as I walked today. That we would be salt and light in this place in whatever way God leads us to do that. 

Fitbits and Mullets

A Week in the Life: Day Three

It's currently 6:21 am, and I'm about to finally head to bed. It's been a pretty amazing day

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First of all I finally broke out my Fitbit, and as of right now I've walked close to 18,000 steps today. Excuse me while I pat myself on the back!

I had a meeting this morning (when I say morning, I really mean Ibiza morning which isn't actually until 1:00pm). It's a check in for some of the work I do here on the island. It was great to get prayed for and encouraged. Definitely left that meeting feeling good!

On a side note, I just want to mention that today it was super hot in Ibiza! According to my phone, it was just as hot here today as it was in Las Vegas. The big difference is that the humidity level in Vegas was 6%. Ibiza was 67%!

After the meeting a few of the girls I work with and I headed to the Hippy Market in Es Canar.

 

It was a fun way to spend an afternoon off. Lots of funky jewelry and flowy skirts. I will definitely be back!

Tonight I was on the streets. It was my first night out with the current 2 week team that's here. My first hour out started when we got a call from a local restaurant owner about a drunk guy who'd fallen asleep at one of their tables. Wanting to make sure he got back to his hotel, they called us. When we got to him the first thing I noticed was he was wearing a wristband with the name of his hotel on it. (can I get an amen!) This was exciting because we knew exactly where to take him. Sometimes when we find people, we have to sit with them for a bit before we can get the correct hotel name out of them. But not tonight! Within 10 minutes we managed to walk him back to his hotel and get him safely to bed.

Not all of my interactions worked out so well. We later met a group of girls who needed some help. One of them was not doing well. The girls were a little suspicious when we approached to offer help, so we had to send them off with a prayer that they would make it back to their hotel. As we were headed back to our center we ran in to a worker named Phil. Everyone in the west end loves a bit of fancy dress, so of course he had on a mullet wig! When we're out on the streets, we love to help people get home safe, but we also love chatting and praying with people. We asked Phil if he wanted prayer, and he decided to pray for us! It was great to stand and listen to him pray, as he asked God to bless 24-7 for all the work they do in the west end.

I had one other event to attend before finally heading back home at 6:00 AM. And now...it's time for bed!

See ya tomorrow!

Let them Eat CAKE!

A Week in the Life: Day Two

Today started with a few meetings. The work I do in San An is part of a larger work that's happening here on the island of Ibiza. That work includes the planting of a church, as well as some amazing stuff that's happening in Ibiza Town, and other places on the island. I have this meeting every other week, and it includes people who have moved here to participate in the work that's happening. We get together to catch up, and to pray and worship.

That meeting was followed by another meeting with everyone who's here to work specifically in San Antonio in the west end. After the rush of meetings I got ready to do a shift in our 24-7 Ibiza Center. Our workers center is open from 4:00 - 8:00 PM. We have wifi, computers, FIFA, table tennis, and most importantly for all the Irish and English, we've got free tea!

The center is a great place to connect with workers. They can come use our stuff for free, and we're there if they need help, or want to chat or pray. 

An added bonus today was that I got to work my center shift alongside Jeff and Suzy! They're an amazing couple from the UK who've given up one year of their lives to come serve in Ibiza. Sadly today was there last center shift, as they're headed back to England next week. (boo!)

Today was Jeff's birthday, which meant lots and lots of cake! 

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Today's center shift was full of not only cake, but also lots of coffee, table tennis and a few tears. Once we'd closed up for the day, we headed out for a little goodbye celebration for Jeff and Suzy. I'm off again tonight, so it's early to bed for me! 

Definitely gonna miss these two! 

A Week in the Life...

In wanting to share more about my time here in Ibiza, I've decided to do a week in the life blog series. I'll be blogging every day this week. The goal is to give you more of a glimpse of the work I do here in Ibiza... 

A Week in the Life: Day One

It's the beginning of a new week which for us here in Ibiza means a new 2-week missions team has joined us! This team is from Ireland, and I'm excited to get to know them as they join in with the work we do here in the west end.

The first thing every team that joins us gets to do is go through orientation. There they get to learn a little history about 24-7 Ibiza and about what God's been doing here on the island. 

Here's one of the videos we share during orientation. It's a brief glimpse into the prayer and work that's been going on in this place for over 15 years! 

Straight after that they got to do a prayer walk around San Antonio led by yours truly. It's one of my favorite prayer walks to do. I love getting to introduce the teams to San An, and to lead them in joining their prayers with the hundreds of others that have been prayed over this place. 

After a little afternoon siesta the team was invited around to my apartment (that I share with two other awesome ladies that are serving here). We had an awesome meal, and it was another chance to get to know this new group of people I'll be spending some quality time with for the next two weeks. 

Tonight's my night off, but I can't wait to hear all about how their first night on the streets went. 

Now it's 1:15 am, and I'm headed to bed early tonight since I have a full day tomorrow...

Hello

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This is the part of the blog post where I apologize for not actually blogging! Let's just pretend I did that and move on... 😀

(on a side note, we definitely need to start using more gifs!)


Teams
Things here are in full swing. I can hardly believe we're quickly approaching the end of June. July will be here before you know it and we'll be headed into the peak time of the season. We've just had our second missions team with us, and they were brilliant. They were here for 2 weeks, and during that time they got a real taste for the work we do here. The teams do everything from participating in our night time street work, to giving out free popsicles on the beach!

The heart of what we do happens out on the streets of the west end at night. When you go out at night wearing our 24-7 Ibiza t-shirt it doesn't matter if you've been here 2 days or 2 years. People will approach you for prayer or for help. It's always amazing to watch these teams quickly get over their shock, and dive right in!

Church
We have a church service we offer the working community on Sunday evenings in our center at 7pm. It's a super simple service, meant to connect with people who don't normally go to church.The goal is to keep around 30 minutes long. We're doing a series on the attributes of Jesus that's been going great. I got to speak a few weeks ago, and some of the talks have been real conversation starters.

Streets
I spend three nights a week out on the streets of the west end. It's a crazy place full of bars and clubs, and I love it.

Since our first night in May, we've seen some amazing things happening. There have been so many opportunities to help vulnerable people. My favorite thing out on the streets is to get to pray with people and to offer them the hope that Christ brings. We're never pushy about sharing faith. Everyone knows that we're "The Christians", so they often will come to us with their questions about faith. Or they just want prayer. One of my favorite encounters happened one night when I was walking by a club in the west end. I was going to give a wave to the guy who works on the door when he approached me, and grabbed both my hands. "I really need you to pray right now, because I'm having a shit night." he said to me. I grasped his hands, and we prayed. So many people have been responding to prayer because they say it makes them feel better. We know that's the Holy Spirit at work! Every night I see the proof that God is alive and working on the streets of the west end. A place so many people have given up on. God is moving. He hasn't given up on this place, or the people in it!