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A group of about 10 of us decided to have 24 hours of prayer and fasting for the city of Byron pleading on behalf of the city and asking for direction. We started at 2pm and ended at 2pm on huge pile of rocks overlooking Byron Beach. At the same time, others in our group along with those from YWAM walked through town with signs either asking a question to make people think about their lives or a sign about their passion to create conversations about spirituality and whether the life they are living is truly the fulfilling life. I went through the city for about an hour with a few friends holding up a sign that said “Free Hugs. Ask Why.” to share about what it means to live a life of love as I walk with Jesus (Also, 12 hugs are necessary each day to live healthy according to my teammate Margie whose the hug expert).

Through our time praying on the beach, we had an individual or group of people consistently approach us every twenty minutes to share their story and have conversations, even throughout the entire night from 1am-6am.

We discovered some core issues through those conversations.

1. Sexual Abuse- We spoke with a woman named Martha in town who was afraid to even be near the beach at night because she reports that many women have been raped on the beach at night. It wasn’t hard to believe when two other women in the middle of the night reported of a drunk man asking them if they were virgins and that they should have sex- he implied that they should sleep with him even though he wasn’t intending on raping them or so he claimed. (Don’t worry, we had guys from our team with us and also, us ladies won’t be working on the beach at night.)

2. Alcoholism- It’s not “Let’s go party one night, get drunk and be fine.” It’s more like, “Let’s get wasted every night so that we don’t remember anything the next day, every day.” There are bars everywhere that are packed and almost everyone that has approached us throughout the night were drunks- and it was a weekday. It is a city of addiction and escape. Some tourist come for a month, just to experience that lifestyle.

3. Subjectivity- “Everything is right even if it contradicts itself. You are not allowed to make value judgments that one thing is better than another. You are not allowed to disagree with people.” That is pretty much the mindset here. Truth is however, you can’t escape value judgments (for instance, there is a better choice when given options). Instead of telling me that I MUST accept your belief that everything is right, why can’t we just agree to disagree? Real love isn’t about saying Yes to everything, but being authentic, listened to, serving, and speaking truth even in disagreements.

Although only 8,000 people live in Byron, 1.8-2 million people from all over come here with searching hearts. I met two farmers from Sweden at a BBQ that YWAM (our partner) was hosting and they spoke about how they were desperate to find answers for who they are, where to go from here, and what is truth? It’s a backpacker epicenter to understand the world in which they live. We need to be seekers of truth.

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