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!