The bible has many examples of sea based metaphors and I thought we use one here. The normal dictionary definition of a maelstrom* is very powerful whirlpool but it also has a secondary definition of a 'A situation or state of confused movement or turmoil' which at times defines perfectly the west end at night. However before I dive into my musings on days 2 & 3 (Tuesday and Wednesday), I thought I'd try and explain where we are located and about the west end.
We are based in San Antonio (de Portmany) on the west cost of Ibiza. In our posts we have mentioned the west end quite regularly. The name west end refers to a night time minibus trip from hotels in other resorts in the 1970s that would come to San Antonio's bars and the name of this tour package was "The West End Experience". Since then the area has become known simply as "The West End". The main street in the west end is called Carrer de Santa Agnès. (Thanks Wikipedia)This west end area has become our night time home.
Days two and three for me at least (as in Paul) were markedly different from the first evening, whilst some conversation was had & people prayed for, it was more about helping getting people home and getting safe. I even received a 'lovely' (I use this term in the most liberal of sense) lick/kiss on the cheek from one very overzealous (male) party goer. I have also had my first trip to the medical centre which my first comment when we arrived was to complement the architectural design of the building, worryingly my first thoughts are always planning based.
I have also learned that the hour we are out is not over until it's over (and quite frequently well beyond a hour) . Case in point would be Wednesday where at 01:59 (and 59.9999999 seconds (maybe)) walking back to the 247 centre Becky spotted a guy sitting on the kerb with his head in his hands. This lead to a trip in the van and eventually to his hotel, God however is a god of amazing coincidences and sitting in the van was one of the guys friends who another team had picked up... My knowledge of northern football teams was tested to the max however as I tried to keep our passenger awake.
I used the term maelstrom to introduce this post however the calm in the middle of all this are the Ibiza long term team members who all seem to have the gift of amazing calm and focus, and at times I have been massively in awe of this, I hope by the time we have finished our two weeks some of this calm and focus will have rubbed off on me!
Also I realise more and more that pray in the prayer room at the centre is so important to both allow personal reflection about our time out in the west end but also for those who are out while we are in the prayer room. When prayer is missed due to an extended call, trip to the medical tent/centre etc, I certainly do miss it.
Thanks for reading, Paul signing off.... Until next time etc etc
Matthew 8:23-26 (CEV)
A Storm
23 After Jesus left in a boat with his disciples, 24 a terrible storm suddenly struck the lake, and waves started splashing into their boat.
Jesus was sound asleep, 25 so the disciples went over to him and woke him up. They said, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!”
26 But Jesus replied, “Why are you so afraid? You surely don’t have much faith.” Then he got up and ordered the wind and the waves to calm down. And everything was calm.
*yes I acknowledge that maelstrom is a Dutch word so obviously not found in the bible...
No comments:
Post a Comment