The Hotel Association of Magaluf has recently released their mid-season results, which make for encouraging reading…
Whilst they have not mentioned the work of Street Angels or 24-7 Magaluf, in this report, we believe without a shadow of doubt that the amount of prayer and practical support by these two ministries, and people around the world praying for Magaluf, has been a key part of this change. Some of their findings include: Crime rates have fallen by 87% in 2015, compared to the same period in 2014. The number of young people (aged 16 – 25 years) has decreased by 9% (which equates to 50,000 less 16 – 25 year olds), whilst couples (aged 30 years and over) and families have increased by 5.2% Less dependency on British tourists to Magaluf with an increase from Italian, German, Portuguese and Swedish holidaymakers, has also helped, with the British market this year representing just 55% of the approximate 1.5 million stays up till July 2015. Decreased visitors Russian market – 56% Spanish market – 8.5% Increased visitors Italians + 34% Portuguese + 21% Germans + 7.85% Swedish + 8.8% The organisation also claims positive progress has been made in security and public order. After the approval of new law-enforcement measures and a greater presence of both Spanish and, more recently, British police, antisocial behaviour in Punta Ballena and other nearby streets is in decline. Figures show a fall in crime (robberies, prostitution, hawking and drug dealing) with just three arrests compared to 23 in 2014; whilst 50% fewer guests have been expelled from hotels for bad behaviour. In addition there have been 50% fewer cases of balcony falls in Magaluf. Whilst there is still a way to go, it is wonderful to see a major association like this confirming that thingsare improving. Let’s keep working together and see Magaluf, the people that work here, and the people that come on holiday, become all that God intends for them to be! You can read the full article on-line here. Source
A group of Christians are giving away a special edition of Mark's Gospel to festival-goers in the UK. 'The Message' will be available at V Festival, Edinburgh Festival and Leeds Festival this summer. Paul Blakey, one the people behind the idea, runs Street Angels and the Christian Nightlife Initiative, which look after party-goers. Speaking about the Street Angel team in Mallorca, he told Premier that one member said: "Jesus would be here in Magaluf, helping the vulnerable, getting them out of the mess they're in and actually offering them a better way of life, as a challenge to leave them to go on their way with." "People are very open to spiritual things and I think when you put it in places where people don't expect it, they're suddenly challenged with 'oh the Church, it's actually got a relevance to me because it's here at Leeds Festival and it's people I can chat to and talk to'," he said. Last year the outreach programme at Leeds Festival saw around four thousand people regularly visiting the Prayer Cafe, organisers also say they gave out 22,500 cups of water at V Festival in Staffordshire. Around two thousand copies of the special edition fifty-six page Gospel have been printed and include sections on how to read the Bible, how to think critically, tips on prayer and an overview of the Christian message. Publisher of 'The Message', Dan Pape, said: "I pray The Message serves its purpose - to incite a curious desire for God's word." Listen to Premier's Hannah Tooley speak to Paul Blakey here: Source
Muggings, fights and vodka-induced injuries are just some of things the Magaluf Street Angels witness every night. As pub crawls finish, bars stop serving and shop owners start sweeping up empty cups and kebab boxes, it’s this organisation that is left to pick up the pieces. And hordes of Christians from Northern Ireland are joining them. It was at 8am, after a busy Saturday night shift, when Sunday Life caught up with the Street Angels at a hotel near Magaluf’s infamous Punta Ballena strip. “We’ve had to help a few people from Northern Ireland who have had too much to drink and have been robbed and then can’t find their way back to their hotel,” said Cameron Springthorpe, a Street Angels volunteer. “But what’s been great is the number of people from Northern Ireland who want to come out here and be part of the team and help those sorts of people.” Street Angels patrol the area around the party town’s strip, returning everything from people to passports back to safety. But last year, during the organisation’s pilot scheme, they spent the summer in Magaluf’s neighbouring town of Santa Ponsa — a favourite destination among many Northern Ireland tourists. “There were a lot of people from Northern Ireland when we were in Santa Ponsa last year and it was very hostile sometimes,” said volunteer Martyn Skinner. SCARY “There’s part of the strip in Santa Ponsa that they call Irish Corner and it could get quite scary there sometimes. “Because it was such a small place with so many people, if someone said the wrong thing to someone then often it very quickly turned into a huge fight.” He added: “There were people from all over Ireland, along with some other British tourists, but it was mainly Irish. “It was just very compact and could become very intimidating.” Just 15 minutes down the road in Magaluf, things are no better. “Every night we see people being sick, others with bloody noses from fights, people in tears, asleep, too drunk to stand or even being robbed and it is always a result of too much drink or drugs,” said Martyn. “The ambulance guys in Magaluf measure the amount of alcohol in someone’s system and if there’s not enough then they won’t do anything with them. “But this can still mean someone is lying unconscious on their own so anything could happen to them. The medics just expect them to sleep it off.” The 56-year-old added: “If they’re breathing then they are generally going to be okay but the scary thing is that these people have usually been robbed and don’t have a clue where they are.” THIEVES The pair also revealed that tourists having their drinks spiked is another big problem in Magaluf, with many falling victim to crafty thieves and sneaky sex pests. “There are a lot of muggings that go on in Magaluf but it’s usually African women who prey on drunk male tourists. “There can be quite a lot of them and they just loiter around waiting for boys on their own and then they link arms with them and pretend they are helping them back to their hotel or whatever before mugging them.” Mugged tourists account for over 50 per cent of the people the Street Angels help. “You see it happen every night and that’s why we walk people back to their hotels because often it’s on that drunken walk home that people are mugged and beaten up. CHEAP “Most people tell us that the worst thing about Magaluf is the robbing — there is so much of it. But drink is so cheap here that people can afford to drink all day and therefore they become vulnerable.” Cameron said: “You would get some cases where you suspect drugs have been involved but generally it’s just too much alcohol. “It’s not unusual for people to have been drinking from the afternoon when they’re lying round the pool or at the beach and then they go out to the strip and drink on top of that.” The 38-year-old added: “The other night, for example, we found a girl who was alone, crying. We went over to check on her and it turned out that a boy she had been with had used her and then thrown her out and she had no idea where she was, where her hotel was or where any of her belongings were. “She was very upset and we were running out of ideas until we prayed and within a minute we had spoken to one of her friends and found out where they were staying. “I know without a doubt that we have saved lives.” The yacht captain from West Scotland added: “There was a guy the other night who was lying on his back throwing up and he could have been seconds away from choking on it before we helped him.” Despite Magaluf officials claiming to have cleaned up the notorious party town’s reputation, the Street Angels have seen little sign of change. “Magaluf has changed in some ways, but in other ways it’s just the same,” said Cameron. “I think there are less people drinking on the streets but that doesn’t mean they drink any less in the bars,” added Martyn. “Urinating in the street certainly hasn’t changed — people still do that all the time. There aren’t any public toilets in Magaluf so I don’t know where they expect drunk people to go if they need to. “It’s amazing because during the day Magaluf is like any other holiday resort with its sandy beaches and restaurants along the seafront but by night, it’s a totally different place. “It can be a very, very dangerous place.” Press Release: Jesus Loves Festivals edition Gospel
A 'Jesus Loves Festivals' edition of Mark's Gospel is to be made available to festival-goers across the UK. The special edition version of The Message is to be available at V Festival in Staffordshire, Edinburgh Festival and Leeds Festival as part of Christian based outreach. Paul Blakey MBE, one of the coordinators of Leeds Festival Angels, explains, "When you set up church in places people don't expect it there is a often a real openness to discuss faith and spirituality. In past years at Leeds Festival we have invited people to leave prayer requests and to watch the I.Am movie which has led to discussions and people changing their concept of the Christian faith. This year we wanted to leave people with something that would help them discover more and the Jesus Loves Festivals Gospel will help do that." The outreach at Leeds Festival last year saw around four thousand people regularly visiting the Prayer Cafe over the festival week whilst at the V Festival in Staffordshire they gave out twenty two and a half thousand cups of water. Two thousand copies of the special edition fifty-six page Gospel have been printed and include sections on how to read the Bible, how to think critically, how to pray and an overview of the Christian message. The Rev’d David Newsome, coordinator of the Festival Pastors team at the V Festival, says: “Last year at the V Festival we gave out 22,500 cups of water to thirsty festival goers. This special edition of St. Mark’s Gospel is a great gift to give to those who ask why we do it.” Publisher of The Message, Don Pape, comments, "It is so very exciting to see that the contemporary usage of English for Eugene Peterson's parishioners in Maryland is the same language that will reach many attending festivals in the UK. I pray The Message serves its purpose – to incite a curious desire for God's word" More information on the work at music festivals is available at www.festivalnetwork.org.uk . Source - 'The Silly Vicar' blog
This week on Newsnight we saw a minor miracle. I sat there open mouthed as there was actually a news report about the Street Angels of Magaluf. More to the point the segment ended with the words, ‘The street angels say that they are not here to judge but just here to help’. Street Angels are a similar charity to Street Pastors, which operate down in Shrewsbury. A friend of my wife was helped by them a few weeks ago. Basically, when you’ve had too much to drink you put yourself in danger, so the Street Angels or Street Pastors, help you out. They give water, first aid and take you home or to a taxi. We used to have Street Pastors in my last parish in Chorley. You can watch the report here. This report got me thinking about our society and who exactly does the judging. The judgemental religious person is well known stereotype, bit like the Welshman who sings all the time. Like many stereotypes there is an element of truth here. Yes there is the grumpy old woman in church who tuts at the kids. The strange Vicar who preaches fire and brimstone. Perhaps these characters were commonplace in the past or perhaps they were as much of a mythology then too. In recent years though I have noticed that it is Church along with others who help and get told off for doing so. The foodbank in town in a good example. Across the country today over a million people use foodbanks, the vast majority of them are set up by churches. The reaction that you get is mixed at best. People say that it is only the scroungers who come for food and that you shouldn’t help people who don’t deserve it. It’s a regular in the tabloids like the Daily Mail. We are told that we shouldn’t help. We should judge these people back to virtue and out of poverty that is of their own making. Sadly a minority of practising Christians share this view also. I encounter similar attitudes to the local Debt Relief centre, run through Christians Against Poverty. We hear, ‘But why are they in debt its their own fault.’ ‘If they lived within their means this wouldn’t happen’ and ‘They don’t deserve any help because they have brought it on themselves’. These statements may be partly true in some cases, but you can’t judge someone out of debt. You can nurture people out of debt though. In the town we are hoping to set up a Christians Against Poverty Job Club. I’m sure that we will hear similar things when this becomes a reality. There is a moment in the film where the journalist asks if working as a Street Angel ever made him doubt his faith. The guy replied that it made his faith stronger. I sometimes wonder how God could love us as humans, when we end up in such a mess. As a priest I see people week in week out who are pressing the self destruct button. People who seem almost determined to destroy their lives and everyone else around them. It is easy to begin to see yourself as superior. Just like the Jeremy Kyle show invites us all to look down at those in misery, we can fall into this trap. But when we do stand back and judge others, tut and shake our heads, we forget an uncomfortable fact. The person who we judge could be me. If we are honest there is not a great deal separating all of us from those we judge. In fact quite often the faults we see within the other are reflections of our own failings. If I think about the people who I grew up with, some have been to jail, some have died and one is a rich economist. There are just a few bad choices that separate those who went to jail and me. Helping someone is always a risk, some will not accept the help, some will let you and themselves down and some will flourish. There is no risk in judgement, we just make ourselves feel better and superior for a second. Judgement is the coward’s way really, it is when we refuse to take the risk and help. The guy in the video said that being a Street Angel is what Jesus would have done. Being in the pubs and clubs is where Jesus hung out. Then just like today people mocked and judged him for it. Last year in the UK the churches contributed 3.5 billion to society, this has increased significantly since 2010. We are called to be the hands and feet of God and it is only through compassion that we can reveal God to others and to ourselves. People often think about prayer as some kind of magic spell. This understanding confuses me as prayer is essentially a conversation. When I trained for the priesthood the monks there taught us about the two tables in the church. The table of the Eucharist and the table of the community. There is no point in being fed with the bread and wine at communion and then not feeding the community. As the Pope puts it, ‘You pray for the hungry and you feed them that’s how prayer works.’ If we stand in judgement and help only those who we think deserve it, then we won’t help hardly anyone. That’s why judgement is easier than service. Because unless we fight the judgemental, Jeremy Kyle within us all, then the world will continue to be the way it is. Source (NOS Netherlands)
Dronken feestgangers die niet meer overeind kunnen staan of niet meer weten in welk hotel ze ook alweer sliepen, da's business as usual in Magaluf op Mallorca. Vooral Britse tieners halen daar regelmatig het nieuws met hun dronken - en seksuele - uitspattingen. Enter The Street Angels. Dat is een Britse christelijke organisatie van vrijwilligers die uitgetelde feestgangers overeind helpen en bijstaan. Dat doen ze op festivals en uitgaansplekken in Groot-Brittannië, maar ook in Magaluf. Nederlandse angelDe gemeente probeert een eind te maken aan het hoeren en sloeren in het vakantieoord en heeft eind mei strenge regels ingesteld: geen alcoholverkoop meer 's nachts en grote groepen mogen de clubs niet meer in. Maar nog steeds incidenten genoeg. De Nederlandse Street Angel Simone loopt 's nachts ook langs de kroegen in Magaluf: "Er liggen er net zoveel als vorig jaar." De Street Angels zijn voor het tweede jaar actief in Magaluf. Veel is er volgens Simone niet veranderd sinds de Spaanse autoriteiten hebben ingegrepen. "Ze zijn wat strenger en ik zie minder glas liggen. Maar je ziet de meisjes nog steeds liggen, uitgeteld in de goot met hun ondergoed op de knieën", schetst Simone. "Ze hebben bijvoorbeeld wel het strand verlicht. Met van die enorme schijnwerpers zoals op voetbalvelden. Vroeger zwommen de jongeren dan naakt in zee en werden hun mobieltjes in het donker op het strand gejat. Dat gebeurt nu nog steeds, maar dan verlicht." Hotel zoekenWaar politie en ambulances te druk zijn, springen de angels bij. Door dronken toeristen overeind te helpen, zakdoekjes uit te delen, verbandjes leggen of ze helpen hun hotel te zoeken. En als het allemaal echt niet meer lukt, dan gaan ze bidden. "De Spanjaarden vinden dat we ze lekker moeten laten liggen, maar ik heb zelf ook tienerdochters. En dat is ook iemands dochter", zegt Simone. "Je kunt ook tijdens je vakantie op het strand liggen, maar dit geeft meer voldoening." De angels zijn ieder weekend met een handjevol vrijwilligers in touw. Het is nachtwerk, vanaf het moment dat de kroegen openen tot 8 uur 's ochtends.. Alcoholics Anonymous has launched a free national telephone service to help those wanting to quit drinking.
Now suffering alcoholics need not pay for calls to the AA helpline and will be able to find out where to get help from either a landline or mobile. The launch of the free new number comes as AA says it wants to be able to be accessible to everyone seeking help from alcoholism whatever their means. A spokeswoman for AA said: “As a result of discussion throughout our Fellowship we have decided to offer a free call service. We want to be able to help as many suffering alcoholics as possible and now people can call even from a mobile and not pay for the call.” AA’s national helpline offers support and help for those wanting to escape the illness of alcoholism and find their way to an AA meeting. Many sufferers have found sobriety and managed to turn their lives around as a result of calling the AA helpline. First time callers are offered help by an AA volunteer who will share their experience and story of recovery and offer to put them in touch with an AA member who will take them to their first AA meeting. The helpline also receives calls from AA members needing to find a meeting and from professionals wanting to know more about the AA fellowship. Last month AA celebrated its 80th birthday and in that time has grown from the two original founders, a New York stockbroker, Bill Wilson and Dr Robert Smith, an Akron surgeon, to a Fellowship spanning the world with more than 2 million recovering members. In Great Britain there are about 4,500 groups meeting weekly with a membership estimated at around 40,000. The national free number is 0800 9177 650 and covers the whole of Great Britain. Dear Sir,
Some little time ago I had the honour of going out in the late and early hours with Aylesbury's Street Angels. Having learned more about them at a service at St. Mary's Church in Aylesbury I was keen to see them in action. This group of trained community minded volunteers offer practical help to those who need and want it. They offer a listening ear and a calming community presence around pubs, clubs and restaurants. They offer things like helping people who have drunk too much to find their way home safely, protect vulnerable women and provide a listening ear to defuse disputes before they escalate. All complements but never replaces the emergency services. I observed groups of girls happily coming up and chatting, lollipops handed out and offers of flipflops if shoes were 'killing' them. Aylesbury in the 'wee' small hours is a happier and better place with the Street Angels. A big thank you to all these dedicated people. Yours faithfully, Judy Brandis (Chairman of Licensing, AVDC) |
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ROC Angels - an initiative of ROC (Redeeming Our Communities)
Charity - 1139817 / Registered Company - 7327258 Postal Address: ROC Angels, c/o The King's Centre, Park Rd, Halifax, HX1 2TS E-Mail: [email protected] (founder / CEO) / Phone: 07725501465 |