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Holiday rambles
Tuesday 25th August 2015 @ 5:05 pm

An edited version of the following will appear in an upcoming Methodist Newsletter … it will read better than this unedited version! It was written a few days ago before I came home.

 

 

 

 

This feels like a complete indulgence.

I am writing about my holiday.

Not work travel – proper travel … bring sunscreen, a towel and sunglasses travel. Can you guess which one I forgot?

Yup – all of them.

The editor, who keeps the keen eye of an expert on social media has spotted that I am in Majorca. Magaluf to be close to exact. Santa Ponsa to be absolutely exact. And I have been invited to share a few lines on what I experienced there, for the simple reason I appeared on social media in a 24–7 Magaluf T–shirt. I write the night before I come home.

So let me be brief, and honest. Holiday adventures become harder when you get older and increasingly single. This year I had no plans – deliberately – just a few weeks that I knew were mine. I desired rest, fun, sun, and a few good books. All has been here achieved in copious measure.

I try to react to what is right in front of me. I am not always successful, but as far as possible I try to deal in the real world – the realities of right here right now. So when I arrived at CHW for a few days (before attending a training and development residential in Corrymeela) my thinking was I would, happily, spend some time at the north coast after CHW was over. My apprehension, naturally, was the potential lack of need for sunscreen, a towel and sunglasses. So when I saw that the exuberant and talented Jud Sweeney (who is giving a much more detailed view of 24–7 Magaluf in this publication) was home for a few days, I decided to have a conversation about how things were for the team in Majorca. During the conversation I ‘suggested’ it must be lovely to live there, and then I ‘suggested’ it might be nice for me to visit.

I was on a plane six days later.

To be clear – I was not visiting to check up on the team! I was looking for somewhere that sunscreen, a towel and sunglasses would be needed. And I found it in abundance. Majorica is a fabulous island. Santa Ponsa is a beautiful resort. And Magaluf is glorious. It is not the hell–hole of everything that is dark and evil that has sometimes been portrayed in the media. On the evenings that I was graciously allowed to join in the 24–7 ministry on the streets of Magaluf I sensed the buzz of life. There was happiness, friendships, music and dancing, smiles and effervescence. Yes, there was also too much of the above induced by legal and illegal drugs … when walking the line of sane and sensibility, people in Magaluf can sometimes drop mercilessly over the edge. And I saw some of that.

I also saw 24–7 have real and honest friendships with people who run bars, manage clubs, work as PR agents on the Magaluf strip, and who would never darken the doors of any organised religious activity. Missional theology is adamant, ‘God is present, and active,’ so it follows that God must be present and active in the craziness of Magaluf – the question is ‘well then, what’s God up to?’. In my all–too–brief experiences with 24–7Magaluf, I got to pray with people who make a living from ways which are unprintable in this publication, I got to worship with others in the midst of Magaluf craziness, and I got to be a human weights bar, as a bouncer who is a Christian shoulder–pressed me over the top of his head. He was a massive man – massive I say.

I am so very very thankful to Jud and Emma and Gareth for inviting me into their space for my holiday. I am so glad they were gracious enough to let me join them on the streets of Magaluf. God is rewarding their sacrifices and their passions. I am also indebted to them for their generosity of space, food, home and leisure – when I invaded, other friends from home, Susan Laura and Sarah, also invaded and made the craic even mightier. A life of hospitality to the stranger has obviously become a character trait for the 24–7Magaluf team. They are living the adventures of following after God, even into the places some people think God has no business being. But while there, they are seeing the kingdom come, and witnessing God be God. And they are brilliant at it. They even provided me with the sunscreen, the towel and the sunglasses.

 


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