After a wonderful, relaxing weekend we were ready to get back into the street work. Last night (and for the rest of the week) we were given the choice of who we pair up with. So instead of relying on the experience and guidance of a long term-er we were encouraged to fly on our own!
During the day I was praying and preparing for the evening ahead and wanted to have to hand some verses I could share with people we met. One of the more obvious and well known verses came to mind:
“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” Mtt 11:28-30 (Msg)
I prayed for an opportunity to share these with someone who needed to hear those words.
When we met up with Danny last Friday in Ibiza Town (see Jon's previous blog for more details) I was struck by the fact that prayer is his work and not something that supports the work. Much of last night was focused on prayer - not just in the prayer room but also on our lips out and about on the strip.
And I am fine with that!
For me there was no vomit, no pushing wheelchairs, no sitting with a drugged up person for an hour until they came down - just conversations with people about their lives and God. Wonderful.
To be honest though, there is always a niggling doubt that unless I am being sprayed by stomach contents I am not doing my job properly. It was great to realise that these conversations were just as, and maybe more, important than the messy stuff.
Michelle and I went out between 2 and 3am. We came across two girls from Leeds who were working out here for the first time. It was lovely to chat and share something of what we are doing out here. They were really keen for us to pray for them and we encouraged them to write their prayers down so we could stick them on the prayer wall. Michelle gave one of them a bible and I shared my story of how God helped me through my parent's divorce and gave me hope. This hope, I said, was there for them too.
We left them hoping that we had shown some of God's love to them and I pray that believers would be put around them back in their UK lives so that the seeds we sowed that night would grow.
Not long before our hour was up we took a call from Abby who asked us to go to Gatecrasher and help a young woman. My heart rate rose a bit. What do we do? What do we say? This was the first call out on our own!
The bouncer pointed us in the direction of a very tired girl. She was at the end of a shift working at the club and had drunk something that left her really lethargic and drawn. Once we started to talk to her, she perked up a bit and we offered to walk her home. Slightly reluctantly, she agreed.
We walked for 20 minutes back to one of the workers' apartments and again were able to share about our work and listen to how she is getting on. We got the impression that home life was not good and life out here was not as straight forward as she had hoped.
When we parted I gave her a bible and, in my scribbles on the first page, encouraged her to read the highlighted text to page 26. Guess what it said?
I hit the sack at 5am and knew nothing until Midday!
Today we go prayer walking around Cala Conta (see below) and then back on the streets tonight.
Good to know that prayers are being answered, whether from the 24-7 Prayer Room out there or the WBC prayer room back here, not to mention many another room.
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