Seedy clubs, drugs & alcohol... but the gospel too!

Located on Spain’s sunny Costa Blanca, the town of Benidorm is known for many things - only a few of them are particularly healthy! Through popular TV programmes, such as Bargain Loving Brits in the Sun, A Place in the Sun or the sitcom Benidorm, many UK citizens have got a taste of life on the sunny coast.

Benidorm is still a very popular holiday destination - indeed nearly 800,000 UK tourists flock there every summer, seeking the perfect holiday of sun, sea and sand. Parts of the town are beautiful and peaceful but certain areas are awash with decadence and immorality, fuelled by excessive alcohol and a lax drug use policy, particularly on 'The Strip', the notorious street full of bars and seedy clubs. It’s a veritable hive of activity and noise and depravity, especially when the sun goes down.

Yet, in the midst of all this, a small non-denominational evangelical church, is bearing witness to the gospel of Christ, and speaking hope in place of hopelessness, truth in place of error and life in place of death.

The multinational English Church is the only English-speaking evangelical church in the whole town.

Gathering in a rented building just off Levante beach, for almost 40 years this church has been in existence as a beacon of light in the darkness. For the past three years I, and my wife Maggie, have been leading this church, overwhelmed by the need and trying to get to grips with the heat, the culture and the challenges of an ExPat church in such a complex setting.

Encouragements are many because God is always at work through the consistent preaching of God‘s Word, the pastoral care and discipling of God’s people and the desire to share the gospel on the streets. The Lord’s name is lifted high. Mission is never meant to be easy. Benidorm is so like the town of Corinth in New Testament times. Every day, something unusual, bizarre or complicated takes place. Having led a large church in Northern Ireland and coming to Benidorm at the age of 64, every day I am stretched by the ministry. But here’s the thing… He never told us it would be easy.

Playwright George Bernard Shaw said:

'Some people see things as they are and ask why?
I dream things that never were and say, why not?'

In my letters from Benidorm in the coming months I will share with you some of the stories, people and events from this fascinating, weird, wacky and wonderful place. I will share stories that will inspire and others to make you weep.