The island of Mallorca, Spain is often seen as an international party destination.
For two weeks this summer, however, hundreds of Christians there shared the love of Jesus through boardwalk prayers, beach services, and ocean baptisms. Wendy Griffith of CBN News brings us the story.
VIDEO SCRIPT
INTRO:
The island of Mallorca, Spain is often seen as an international party destination. For two weeks this summer, however, hundreds of Christians there shared the love of Jesus through boardwalk prayers, beach services, and ocean baptisms. Wendy Griffith of CBN News brings us the story.
REPORT:
WENDY:
These young people mainly from Germany, Switzerland and Spain, worked with local churches to share the gospel in Mallorca’s nightlife zones… Gernot Elsner of Gospel Tribe says the island is one of the most fruitful places for evangelism despite its reputation.
GERNOT ELSNER/Gospel Tribe,
“Well, you’ve got to imagine the party zone and there’s a little boardwalk just in front of the disco takes and people, they step outside just to take a break from drinking and partying. And we are there right in the sand with a little stage. And first when they see us, they’re kind of perplexed because it’s the last thing they imagine to have somebody talk about Jesus right there. They come back every night, they listen to the messages, to the testimonies. Some give their lives to Jesus and others are even baptized in the ocean.”
WENDY Tell us about the party boat and the nightly baptisms that take place.
GERNOT
“Usually these boats are used for party tourism, so people would get drunk on the boat, they would listen to music and all that. We filled it half with Christians and half with non-Christians. And then the concept was that we wouldn’t preach at them, but that we only share a small input about the gospel. And those people on the boat that are Christians, they knew what their job was..”
GERNOT: “Every night when we do the beach services, there are people stepping into the sand, they’re coming to the cross, they’re sharing their life stories, they’re really repenting at the cross, many of them. And if we feel that people are ready and particularly that they haven’t drunk alcohol, we offer to baptize them.
And I’m just thinking of one person that we baptized this year. His name is Jose, he’s from Switzerland. He lives on the island and he went through a lot of bad stuff. And he was approaching us because he heard the gospel at the beach services and said, I want to be baptized. And from that evening every night he came back, he brought his friends, he shared with them, ‘you need Jesus too’”.
WENDY
I love it. And how would you describe the reception to the Gospel?
GERNOT:
Well, I think there are always three reactions. There are people who just find it curious what we’re doing, and they ask, do you know where you are? Why are you doing this in the party zone? They have nothing against it, but they’re just curious. Then there are those who say, Hey, please leave me alone. I don’t want to hear anything about God. But then there are literally every night, twice many hundreds of people and they stand there for an hour, for two hours. They listen, they share their most intimate secrets. They come into the sand to the cross to receive Jesus, as I just shared. Some of them are being baptized and we really cannot explain why there is such a grace on this outreach and why there is such a tangible presence of God.
WENDY:
Elsner said often there are prodigals in the crowds who make the decision to return.
GERNOT:
“And many times among the party tourists, there are also people who used to be Christians and they know they don’t belong there. And when they’re being confronted with the Gospel, they become aware and there are actually people turning back to Jesus right there on the spot.
I think the one thing that I want to really want to bring across is if it’s possible to reach young people in the party zone where they go for partying, for sex, for alcohol, I really think it’s possible anywhere.”
WENDY GRIFFITH, CBN NEWS.
Recording Location
Mallorca, Spain
Organization featured in this Story
Gospel Tribe, https://www.gospeltribe.de/projekte/reach-mallorca/
Reporter/Producer for the story
Wendy Griffith
Story Provider/Contact
Steve Little, Producer, stephen.little@cbn.org
Producing Organization
CBN News, http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/
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