Jonathan Bellamy spoke with Charlie Clayton from 24/7 Prayer Ibiza

Charlie Clayton

24-7 Ibiza is part of 24-7 Prayer International, a movement committed to the values of prayer, mission and justice. They are predominantly known for their work in the West End, San Antonio, with teams of volunteers who come for the summer. Jonathan Bellamy spoke with Charlie Clayton, who leads the community out there with his wife Abby.

Jon: When people think of going to Ibiza, they think that must be great place to go, what a great place to work. They don't necessarily know the work you're doing there so give us a little bit of an overview - where you're based and what 24/7 prayer is all about.

Charlie: Ibiza certainly is a beautiful island, with beautiful sunsets and beautiful beaches. We are based in San Antonio, which has quite a reputation for excessive amounts of drug taking, binge drinking and sexual activity. It's an area of bars that is descended on by thousands of tourists each year, who come to experience what they want and get involved with what's on offer.

We work within those streets for the whole season and have about 70 people come out each year. We work from half eleven at night till five, six in the morning and are in the midst of the street. We take out prayer cards on to the streets and have this really amazing evangelistic line, which basically is, "Do you want anything prayed for, do you want us to pray for you?" And the response we're getting on the streets is incredible. Most people say yes, so we stand there in the streets with parade girls walking past and fancy dress over there and things going on over here, whilst someone's writing down a prayer from their heart and connecting with God right in the midst of it.

Jon: Do most people accept your offer of prayer then?

Charlie: Yes, a huge amount. Most people say yes to us. Actually most people say, "No-one's ever asked me that question and no-one's ever prayed for me before". So being able to have that encounter and experience, they're just blown away - I think mostly that someone cares enough to ask.

Jon: Do they comment on it afterwards, like, "Gosh that made a difference", or "I felt something", that kind of thing?

Charlie: Yeah, definitely. A lot of people write a prayer request. Some are ridiculous, but some are really heartfelt, it's that kind of environment. But often we'll stand there and pray with someone and they'll go, "Y'know what, I just feel different; I feel a presence; I feel a sense..." I don't know why we continue to get surprised, cause we see it all the time, but just seeing that God has touched that person in the middle of that environment is incredible.

Jon: That's not the only thing you're doing is it, you do a lot of other stuff there, in terms of helping people.

Charlie: It's not just getting people into a corner and getting them to give their life to Christ. What we are is about blessing, not selling. If people are interested to hear, we'll talk about it, if not that's okay. We've become known as kind of a fourth emergency service, but probably the first emergency service. When the night's gone a bit messy, a bit too far, they will call us and we will send our teams to whoever it is and whether that's the excess of drugs or drink, or being lost or whatever, we will then go and pick them up, clean them up and get rid of all the vomit and everything else. Then if they can walk a little bit, we'll walk them and we've got wheelchairs we put them in and we've got something called our vomit van - the name gives it away. If a taxi won't take them, we'll put them in a van and that's the kind of service that we offer. And last season there was over a thousand people we helped home.

Jon: Really? Who volunteers to clean the vom van?

Charlie: It's a rota I think!

Jon: Is that a popular rota?

Charlie: No it's not!