A.R.T. Antics

I have been thinking about the true meaning of Christmas for the last few weeks.  I have especially been focusing on the part of the shepherds and the wise men. If you think about it God chooses some very unlikely people to witness and to announce the birth of a king and the Saviour of the world such as shepherds and some new age kings from the east. However they are not as strange guests as you might think at first. I believe that these two groups of royal guests were a prophetic look into the future... Shepherds are mentioned all the way through the Old testament many of the main players throughout history at some point were shepherds showing that Shepherds are people very close to God's heart.  Shepherds have incredible characteristics which are reminiscent of what Jesus says we should be like and later on in the letters from Paul. In my mind both shepherds and sheep depict a picture of humility and a kind of lowliness.  Shepherds were at the bottom of the socia...

I want to start by saying God is so good even when all the events don't go in your favour. Since coming back to England I have embarked on a new life and in some ways a new relationship with Jesus. Of course I knew him before. I think it is true that the more you get closer to Jesus the more you realise you don't know him or that there is so much to know!! KINGDOM ROLE Back in August I felt God say that I wouldn't be out of work again that I would have work from then on. In August I decided to go back to the job I had done before I was in YWAM. I really do now wish that I had had this idea in January or February when I started looking for work in Manchester.  If I am honest it was pride and fear that stopped me looking into this line of work as I felt it would be like going backwards how wrong I was. In September I started working at Trinity High School as a Teaching Assistant. An agency got me the position, if I look back it was quite miraculous that I got the job b...

Since getting back to Manchester God has put a greater passion in my heart for evangelism and the Lost.  It is amazing the amount of opportunities I have had to share the gospel and simply share my testimony both present and right back when it all started for me. God renewed my passion for evangelism and those who don't know him when I went to The Revival School that some folks from the Liverpool Church were running it was amazing the way we worked together as a team and how the presence of God followed us about it was an extremely powerful and equipping time.  In the mornings we had teachings on some basics but topics which were extremely challenging and in the afternoons we took Jesus on Tour.  Where we would go to different locations around Liverpool and set up a gazebo, have a worship session which made a huge difference would blow up helium balloons which we would give to little kids and we also offered face painting.  Others of us went door knocking ...

If you are reading this you will realise that I haven't written to people for quite a long time instead of writing an email I thought I would update my Blog so you can see what I have been up to!! So about two months ago I finally decided to stay in Manchester. It took a long time to get to the point where I could definitely say that was what God was telling me to do. You may remember that I got stuck so's to speak in Manchester waiting to go to finish my outreach for the counselling school I was doing.  It was a difficult decision to not go back to Argentina and finish what I started. Like I wrote last time God had put his finger on my finances telling me it was time to sort them out but as time goes on and even yesterday through a conversation from a friend I had another confirmation that I had made the right decision to stay in Manchester. God has shown me the importance of my family and he has shown me how I can mix my family with my church family something I wasn...

Back in January when I found myself in Manchester apparently stranded in transit waiting to carry on the rest of my course.  However my life was about to take an interesting turn.  In the previous months I had been pleading with God to sort my finances out.  We need to be so careful of what we pray as God really will take us at our word. Sometimes it is only by his grace that we don't get what we asked for!! I remember writing one email and I mentioned as I often did the prayer point of getting out of debt however this time there were repercussions that I wasn't banking on. LOL! I had an email from an old friend encouraging me to do something about it, as I mentioned it to a few people they were convinced that God had got me there to do something about it. In the following months God would make it very clear as he paved the way showing me that it was time to sort this area of my life out. The first miracle was being lent the money to clear off my credit cards so that m...

I have been very impressed by the way the Archbishop spoke out against many of the policies that the government is pushing forward at the moment which are all based around the cuts.  http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-staggers/2011/06/rowan-williams-government The Archbishop is standing up for the poor which is what we are called to do, however I can't say I completely agree with what he said.  There isn't any money and that is why there are huge cuts and they are always going to be painful.  A Bishop in response to The Archbishop of Canterbury said that another name for the Big Society was the Kingdom of God.  As the church it is our calling to reach out and meet the needs of the poor. When I heard about the cuts a couple of months ago I thought to myself what an amazing opportunity we have as God's people to stand in the gap.  Many government services are going to be cut and perhaps completely removed.  We have in many ways been livin...

So I didn't do very well academically at primary school and I don't remember going so much quite alone and bullied all the time. Despite all of this I don't remember being a particularly unhappy child I always seem to have a smile on my face in photos.  I was very quiet though and probably had very low self esteem although you can't put such feelings into words when you are seven. Now Secondary school was quite a different story when I thought about it whilst I was in Argentina  I realised it coincided with when I got involved in the church again. Now I was brought up as a Catholic and as I mentioned early on I did go to Sunday school.  Each school or college I went to was catholic so I always had these foundations in some ways helpful and in other ways not.  I always remember believing in Jesus that he died on the Cross rose again and I always prayed it was never an issue however at the same time I did not have any revelation of Jesus nor of a relationship of...

I have been thinking of writing my life story for some time, in fact I have felt the Holy Spirit leading me to do this perhaps that is the reason why I haven't managed to start it tonight. There may be some additions to it as the Lord brings more accounts of my life back to my memory.  I especially feel compelled to write that as I want to batten down some specifics of when I became a Christian and some of those important landmarks in my life. So here goes brace yourself this won't be a short read but I will try and put it into digestible chunks and you may find it in parts so here goes Part one  0-14yrs I don't remember much of my early childhood I have vague memories of being on a tricycle at my Gran's house.  I remember running into the corner of a television when I was three I still have the mark to prove it and playing on a dog on wheels and a horse I think that is how I managed to crack my elbow when I was 5, isn't it funny the way ...

No one wants to be on their own and one way or other we all want to be part of a community.  I think that is what I have enjoyed the most about the last ten years as I have had the honour to be part of a few of communities whilst I was in Argentina and even here in England.  I am convinced that community is our original design no man was ever meant to be an island. Unfortunately the phrase 'a man's house is his castle' has kind of backfired because this is the case for many people having seemingly everything they need they don't come out of their castles which in many ways have become prisons. I used to be really into Soap Operas and I have to be honest that I am still drawn in by them and a little while a go I realised why that is!   I remember watching these soaps or similar programmes always thinking ooh I would love to be there with them.  They all seem to know each other and are in and out of each others lives.  There doesn't seem to be any ...

If you had told me this time last year that I would be in Manchester the following year full time and living with my parents I would have said you were absolutely crazy there was no way I could or would want to do that and of course God would never ask me to do that.  Well that was then and this is now and I am writing this from my parents living room where I have been living for the last three months.  So I guess I am taking an unexpected sabbatical from YWAM and full time ministry where God is teaching me sooo much! I haven't lived in Manchester full time for 13 years suffice to say my Manchester knowledge and geography is extremely limited and people who have been around only recently can give me better directions than I would be able to!! I remember when I was in Argentina I had three things on my mind concerning England and they were my parents, the state of my nation and the fact that I didn't have a home church.  I have to say I hadn't connected any of ...

My mum passed me an article today about how a fostering couple in Derby had their application to foster be denied because they would not teach their foster children the council's line on homosexuality. Unbelievable how can people think that promoting homosexual lifestyle to young people even children is right.  Homosexuality is on the increase and there has to be a reason for that it is not a coincidence that people are choosing same sex relationships over marriage. Which could actually lead to the extinction of humanity or perhaps at least to creating humans without traditional sexual intercourse besides the idea of one coming from a loving relationship between a man and a woman ideally within Marriage Family is being destroyed from all directions and perversions in sexuality is one way of doing this besides monogamy being very far and between in same sex relationships therefore causing more and more hurt and pain, it too is the cause of STD's. There are many othe...

So I'm in England Manchester to be precise at the moment. In south America where I have been living recently we talk about spiritual stuff all the time the good and the bad. The demonic is a lot more normal over there and visible.  Today as I was walking to church I had quite a revelation which seems quite elementary and something that I already knew I would talk about all the time.  I have been praying about spiritual stuff with those closest to me.   I was having a struggle with someone this morning I was becoming very angry towards them and I couldn't work out why and then it dawned in me. Even though I was getting confused in who I was getting angry at. Then the holy spirit said to me your not fighting against flesh and blood your fighting against principalities and powers.  So you mustn't be angry with them you need to be angry at the enemy.  Like Jesus said they no not what they do!  Like the enemy has blinded them.  So here in Europe t...

So here I am in my home town Manchester and actually enjoying being here for a change!  I have now been here for a month and the last month has gone quite quickly even though I haven't actually been doing much.  Mainly due to the fact that I have been on stand by waiting to see if I would be going to Latvia and Italy or not.  However in the end nor my other team member or my leader from Zambia were able to get their visas.  So I am still here and it doesn't look like I will be going anywhere any time soon.  I think what makes me so content to be here and so relaxed is the fact that I know without a shadow of a doubt God was the one who got me here.  It wasn't a mistake.   In the last month I have been able to spend some long awaited time with my family and had some great conversations with them. I have also been able to reconnect on a deeper level with a church I have been going to on and off when ever I have been in town.  It is amazing the way G...

Hello Folks  Just wanted to send you an update on what is going on with me!  Well I am still in Manchester staying with my parents. Keeping up with the projects and journal I have to do for my counselling course which I am in the middle of. To recap I am here in England waiting for my leader to get her visa for the EU she is from Zambia it has been a long process so far. On Monday she is going to the Italian Embassy once again so please would pray for miracles and the will of God. I am taking advantage of being here in England and I will do so as long as I am here in terms of raising finances to pay off debt etc.  Whether I am here until next week or until the end of February I will still need to do one month of outreach in Argentina which actually be quite exciting although I will end up graduating one or two months after everyone else but I look forward to do counselling in Argentina and as I am not planning to leave YWAM just my role will stay the same as a student fo...

I have had the privilege to work in a cartonero settlement for the last three months in Buenos Aires which has been a real eye opener. Cartonera is a spanish word and it is basically a trade that appeared at the time of the economic crisis in and continues in Argentina to this day. Cartonera comes from the word Carton which means cardboard. Basically there are men who lost their jobs and even careers at the time of the crisis when basically the working class people in Argentina dropped off the map. So these men go around the city with huge wagons that they pull manually collecting cardboard that people leave outside their houses which the dustbin men don't pick up.  Even though it is recognised as a job and it isn't illegal they are treated with a lot of contempt.  It is back breaking work and there isn't huge amounts of return for their work Some of the families of these workers live in an area which we call Patetnal where the people have set up home on a disu...

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Hey Peeps I am in England at the moment waiting to see whether I will be carrying my journey on to Eastern Europe Latvia and then Italy afterwards before returning to Argentina at the beginning of March I am writing this from my mum and Dad's living room in Manchester and despite the present confusing circumstances I am glad to be here because being here is an answer to a prayer I made to God before I chose to  go to Argentina to do the counselling school.  I remember saying to God when he made it clear to me that I had to go back to South America 'but Lord what about my parents.?' Here I am less than four months later in my house in Manchester. The way God got me back here was an absolute miracle as well he found me a flight where there were no flights. In December England was in chaos with the extreme winter conditions so when I started ringing the agency I bought the flight with it took me an age to get through and quite often I would get cut off because th...