a (week) day in the life

"morning".
i wake up. ideally about an hour before we meet to pray at around 13:00 or 14:00 but often before due to the heat, the whining dog outside, or boys shouting in the hotel pool next door. lazy? no. bedtime is anywhere between 4:30 and 6 or 7 in the morning. we'll get to that. a cold shower and a hot coffee later we're sat around the kitchen table in Brian and Tracey's kitchen, to pray and share our thoughts for the day...and maybe dreams for the future.

team.
Then everyone goes their separate ways. Some accompany the short-term team (who come for 2 weeks, like the 6 from northern ireland who left on friday) who do something different each afternoon: like go to Bora Bora beach club, Ibiza Town, the Salt Flats, Es Vedra - where the focus is to pray, listen, and also appreciate beautiful parts of the island. Otherwise they might clean a beach or give out oranges for free to sun-bathing tourists, the idea being to be a blessing. to give, not take away.

centre.
Meanwhile 2 or 3 people go to the 24-7 Ibiza centre which is in the centre of the West End (more on that in a sec), and is open from 16:00-20:00 monday to friday. It's a really nice spacious place aquired earlier this year with a pool table, a Wii and free internet - all for workers to come and use as they please. A lot of people working out in Ibiza over the summer struggle to earn enough money and often live in pretty cramped flats so really appreciate having somewhere to chill out. our role there is simply to welcome people, chat to people and keep the place in order.

prayer room.
There's also a prayer room which anyone is free to use. There are hundreds of prayer requests blue-tacked to the walls and private prayers tucked into glass bottles (i'll put up some photos!). there are maps and pictures on the walls and comfy chairs to sit in. it's a quiet space to get away from the madness outside and is also where we pray at night. everything hinges on prayer, so this room is very important.

evening.
we return home (to one of the two houses in which the community live - which amazingly back right onto each other!), in the car or on the small boat that takes you across San Antonio bay for 2.50 euros. We cook, eat, relax and do whatever else might need doing. My housemates share their food, take turns cooking and eat together every evening out on the patio so it's a pleasure to join them in this. And then, at 23:15 it's time to head to 'work'...

the west end.
is where the work of 24-7 ibiza is very much based. A relatively small area of San Antonio town of grid-layout streets very densely packed with pubs, bars and clubs , it is the destination of choice for thousands of tourists - predominantly british plus several italians. I guess it's a matter of opinion but i'd say it was pretty tacky and not worthy of all the sunburnt/tanned-often semi-naked young people that fill its streets. By day it is pretty chilled but by night it is, for want of a better word, pretty mental. more about it another time...

intimacy.
before anything happens we focus on the One that this is all about. The One who's footsteps we try to follow. The One who gives us the grace and the strength to love a place that at first glance has little that appears loveable. that's the point though, isn't it? because WE only love because we were loved first, when we ourselves seemed pretty 'unloveable'. we are not just 'good people' doing a 'good work'. believe me we'd have given up a long time ago if it we were just running on our 'own batteries' so to speak. it's all got to start with the One who is described as the Beginning and the End, Near and Far, slow to anger, abounding in Love.

involvement.
after some worship, half of the group heads out onto the streets in pairs while the others remain to pray. we go for an hour then swap and repeat until around 4am. we walk the streets wearing t-shirts with the 24-7 logo on so that people now recognise us. we go, ready to do a number of things....

vomit van.
overdoses and generous servings of spirits leave many people worse for wear. many end up separated from their friends, left alone and vulnerable on the side of the street - a perfect victim for mugging or worse. the taxi's will not take home anyone who is deemed drunk enough to throw up so this is where we can help. the team has a people-carrier (equipped with plastic buckets!) big enough to lay someone across the back seat and fit a couple of friends. so if we see someone, (or someone who knows us sees someone) who needs taking back to their hotel or to the medical centre, that is what we will do.

talk (listen).
we also just go and chat to people, which sounds a bit random and forced but the crazy thing is it really isn't and every time we go out we end up talking to people. maybe it's the holiday vibe, the alcohol, or a result of the hundreds of people who have prayed here over the last few years. a combo i'd say. another thing is that it just seems everyone wants someone to be interested in them, to listen to them and when that happens i think it encourages people to open up. we also offer to pray for people and have cards that people can write down what they want prayer for and we will pray about it when we return to the centre. sometimes we pray with people then and there on the street. everyone has something they need, or are worried about, and nearly always appreciate the offer. we are not out "to convert", and we are not out "to sell", like pretty much everyone working in the West end - be it club entry, glo-sticks, sunglasses (or drugs...), their bodies... we want to bless and be something positive in a place where so many negative things go on. we want to celebrate the good that is there.

while we do talk to tourists, this year a lot of the people we talk to are fellow workers in Ibiza, mainly PR's for the West end clubs and bars. over the summer the people in the community and on short term teams have got to know some people pretty well, which is really cool. it's nice to feel more part of things and like there's less of a barrier, and that relationships are not all really superficial.

bed.
is when we get home. maybe after a bit more food (hungry again by then!). the time depends on whether there is a drama at the end of the night or not. one day this week we sat with 2 very drunk norwegian girls who were staying too far away for us to take them, until they sobered up enough to walk to the taxi rank in a relatively straight line! so that was a late one.

on call.
we go out on the streets monday-thursday night so friday is free. although last night i was 'on call' ... so after relatively early night (after sangria and 'flight of the conchords' -- love it!) i slept for 2 hours then was woken by a call at 4am to go into the west end in the car to pick up a girl one of the PRs had found on her own and very very drunk. unfortunately when we arrive she had disappeared so it felt a bit wasted but as we looked for her we came upon a fight that had just happened, with guy lying concussed in a pool of blood. the police soon arrived on the scene so we couldnt take the guy to the health centre but Michael managed to calm his very angry brother down and explain to his friends what would happen. the guy was OK, a glassed nose that bled a lot. the general atmosphere was a bit crazy last night, with lots of very wasted people around. we had some good conversations with people including a bouncer i hadn't talked to before and actually didn't get back (with no extra passengers) until after 6am. so kind of random but hey you can never tell what will happen. better to go than not...

rest.
the weekends are much more restful, hence having time to blog. but this is rather long and i need to chill properly before we go out to see Bruce and Michael DJ at 3am!