A.R.T. Antics

I have always really loved Wesley and even his contemporaries. I really believe they an amazing and revolutionary group of people. In many ways I aspire to be like them today. The back drop to which Westley and his contemporaries rose was an England that was under a lot of strain. Poverty was endemic in the poor class with people living in squalor and being addicted to alcohol in great measure and children having to earn a wage in terrible conditions at such an early age. The rest of Europe had seen revolutions but there had only been small outbreaks in Britain but  nothing like the French Revolution. The industrial revolution was just around the corner and Britsin ruled the waves with its Empire in many continents perhaps for the richer class life looked good but not for the poorer class.  Furthermore the poorer classes were outlawed from Church buildings where the Anglican Church had become very middle class. I believe that all that Wesley stood for and did created a cat...

I can't believe that I only have 2 months or so left until I finish USMM. I have had an amazing year so far it has been incredible. I have had the privilege of spending time with some awesome people. We have become such an amazing family, it has been great to hang out with these people I have learnt so much from them. I couldnt have spent this year with better people. I am sure we will all remain really good friends after we have finished this year. So then the teaching from USMM has been so life changing. I thought I had heard everything and pretty much heard all the teaching I could. However tearning we have received could fit into two categories that which I heard when I was in youth with a mission and that which is totally new. Repenting and renewing your mind and being reminded that the sprirtual realm is something which I learnt in YWAM however I have been reminded of this and it has been reiterated to me with greater ferocity. The ideas that have spoken to me the most ...

For some time now I've been thinking and even dreaming about heaven. I am very aware that my tendency especially as a person who likes to get involved in mission is to think about the here and now and forget about life ever after. These thoughts have been fuelled by by the course I am doing at the moment which has really delved into the questions of what are we here for and what is it all about. I hear some of you saying well it's all about Jesus and the Kingdom and of course I would agree with you but as this is unpicked you realise that this is an absolutely massive subject.  So I want to start from some way off ideas and state the obvious. I think we often assume we know what we think about things and actually when we go a little bit deeper we have merely swallowed what someone has taught us and it became part of what we believe. So what are we here for ?  God created for relationship with himself and with each other. So most of us are on this earth for around 80-90 years. ...

Isn't it funny the way we all simply take for granted the Christmas story without the bat of an eye lid. In fact apart from a a few exceptions much of the world celebrates Christmas. In some ways it is one celebration which unites the world. If one unpicks the parts of the story it is all quite extraordinary. Not what you would be a plan to take over the world. So let's think about it God comes as a Baby. It's an absolute genius idea God in disguise as a baby. Who would imagine that God would come as a Baby of all things no-one would guess that surely. You might think that the whole episode would go unnoticed. However it seems that God did not want this event to go totally unnoticed and so he left a trail of bread crumbs that would lead people to a baby. If that wasn't enough a few who knows hundred or thousand Angels come to announce to some local nobodies in the form of shepherds about this miraculous event. At the opposite end of the spectrum are the other group of p...

I wanted to put some thoughts down whilst they were milling around my head. I wanted to sow some ideas which will challenge many of us even myself. When talking about evangelism I know that word scares people off so lets call it loving people into the kingdom. I hear preaches all the time about reaching out to those people around us and of course I agree those people who are directly around us need to hear the gospel and about Jesus if they dont already know him. There are definitely people in our direct influence who we can reach out to who we work with in our family possibly even our neighbours. But lets face it many of us if were honest live in or choose to live in nice areas, and if we dont now if we had the money we would choose to. For some of us that are married and have kids we would argue that we want to give our children the best start in life and it matters which primary school they go to etc. You wouldn't want them getting in with the wrong crowd. These are all genuin...

THIS IS QUITE A WHILE A GO SO I THOUGHT I WOULD POST IT ANOTHER COMING REALLY SOON .........I have just returned from Pune, India where I had the honor to be invited to a wedding which was a week long. It was like my reward for working hard of late on my postgrad in Youth and community studies which I finished the tuesday before I flew out. As well as essays I had been working on a community Audit project which meant engaging with the local community finding out their views on the area which was both eye opening. It has made me excited about working with the local community on different projects in the near future. So India, twas amazing I pretty much partied for the time I got there to the time I left.  I was treated like a princess chauffeured everywhere I went, wined and dined, danced with what more could a girl ask for. I did not have to lift a finger everything was done for me, all I had to worry about was what I would wear and and the photos I would take. I probably did...

Last night I read a tweet that said a barrister had stated in an article that the age of consent should be lowered to 12 or 13.   http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22459815 She says that what the stars have been doing is not so serious and that they are just 'low misdemeanour's.'  That they are not as serious as gang rape or murder. I think we should ask the victims of child abuse this. Child abuse is an assault on a person and it is also an assassination of their emotional and sometimes physical development. It is not ok to use one's position of power to control and manipulate people especially not of a sexual nature. Today there is an outcry about what this barrister said but I think we need to be vigilant that there are paedophiles in high places who want the law to be changed so that they can carry on their deprave activities within the law. There was a time when other liberalism's were completely taboo but now there have been in recent years ...