A.R.T. Antics

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...