Get praying!

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Guys... get excited about this. Such an amazing opportunity to share the Gospel so please, please pray for everyone that is involved and for each Christian student as we go out and give a copy of Mark's Gospel to our friends, making the commitment of reading it with them.

Let's pray that God will move amazingly in Cardiff University and all around the UK through this project

ASG

The true meaning of Christmas

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.

The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.

(Isaiah 9:6-7)

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Christmas is more than Santa, is more than christmas trees, more than a family tradition or a time of the year when we feel we should help those in need. It's even more than a story about a baby being born.

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Christmas is about Mary and Joseph obeying to the word of God despite the shame, persecution and even death that they could face from society (and this includes kings!). it's about Mary's answer to the angel and the submission that it shows “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” (Luke 1:38)

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Christmas is about God, the "Holy Holy Holy" (Revelation 4:8), the Mighty God, sending His son to this messed up world. It's about the father willing to give the life of His son to allow us, that sin against Him everyday, to come and enjoy eternal life with Him.

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It's about Jesus Christ, the One that created the entire universe, the One that was with God and was God (John 1:1) being born to this world, becoming one of us but living a perfect life. It's about the Lion of the tribe of Judah (Revelation 5:5)walking in will and obedience to a hill out of His own city, carrying His own cross until exhaustion. The Root of David (Revelation 5:5) being mocked, bruised and killed for our transgressions as Isaiah 53:5 says

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"But he was pierced for our transgressions,

he was crushed for our iniquities;

the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,

and by his wounds we are healed."

(Isaiah 53:5) NIV

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so that if we believe in Him we may have eternal life and not face the eternal death that we deserve for our sins:

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"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,

that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

(John 3:16) NIV

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About the Wonderful One rising again, victorious over death, seating now at the "right hand of Majesty in heaven" (Hebrews 1:3)

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And the most amazing promise that He will come back in his Father's glory:

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"For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father's glory with his angels,

and then he will reward each person according to what he has done."

(Matthew 16:27) NIV

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So, if you are a christian, this should blow you mind! These are amazing news! We can have in Christ that was born in this earth, that we celebrate at Christmas, the assurance of a life spent with God. God sees in Him His perfect life and our sins are forgotten.

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If you are not a Christian, you are not in that position, yet. You are dead because of your the things you do wrong (sins). Even if you think you are a good person, you are not perfect and the Holy, Just God has to punish you as He can't live with sin. You'll spend eternity without God.

But He loves you so much. He created you. he designed and planned you carefully. And He says that if you believe in His son, Jesus Christ and that He came to die for you and to be punished in your place. (John 3:16)And you repent for all the things you have done against God and ask Him to forgive you for that, He will welcome you back and he guaranties eternal life with Him. You'll live with Him forever. I'm not saying you'll be perfect (yet) and your life will be easy. But He will be always there to help you. That's what His word, the Bible, says. If you have any questions and you know any christians, ask them. I'm sure they will be more than happy to try and help you. If you don't, leave me a comment and I'll try to help in what I can.

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This is the true meaning of Christmas.

ASG

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p.s.: good video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FtpDQ8Qgm0&feature=related

What's up?

So, long time no see for you all!!

I know, i know...it's all my fault, I haven't writen for ages... shame on me.

so, what happened since i last wrote? LOADS! I've been incredibly busy for the last 3 weeks.
I have heaps of deadlines for uni, plus lectures but that's not new.
Today I spent the day working lying in my bed which resulted in a terrible back pain. And I still have loads to do!! Arrrggg...
I have books that i want to read sitting in my shelf for ages. Just finished "What to do with these musicians?" by Marcus Witt and I'm hoping to read "Too busy not to pray" by Bill Hybels that Rach lent me next.

Then CU. This is probably the area I'm the most excited about. We had 229 people in the first meeting. I think in the last few weeks we had less people there but still a really good number. Pray that people would come along. We are looking at "Distinctive living" at the main meetings. Last one was about sex, drugs and alcohol and how the christian should face these issues. Quite good.
I'm also one of the leaders of housegroup this year. We are going through Mark's gospel and it has been amazing!! There is so much to learn about Jesus' life and having time to get stuck into the Bible and study the One that came to save us is such a privilege!! This is part of the UCCF evangelistic project "FREE". It's all about Mark's gospel and Jesus. In february, we'll have access to the "FREE" Gospels to hand out to our friends and make the commitment to reading it with them! I've seen the gospels and they are really good! I'm so excited about this!!!
We had prayer meetings everyday last week to pray for FREE and on wednesday night we had a night of prayer after CU which was amazing and really challenging! Each passing day I'm more aware of how important prayer is. And what a priviledge we have to talk with the True, Living God, the King of Kings!!
One of the main focus of CU this year is to encourage accountability and me and Jo are going through Daniel together. I had read Daniel before but it's amazing how everytime you read it you find interesting facts!

Tomorrow is church - it's crazy the ammount of engagements that happened during summer (in church and CU apparently)!! And we have 3 new babies in church! So cool!

Right, better be back to heart connexins. I have a group project/essay to do and I'm PROPERLY late.

Take care
ASG

Unbelievable

Yesterday we had our first CU main meeting. People had to stand outside the Biosci cafe (in the photos). John Pride Lecture Theatre was full for the first time since i have lectures there.

250 people were there and more than 150 were freshers! So exciting!

Praise God!!!!!!

Back in Cardiff

So.... outra vez em Cardiff. esta na altura de actualizar isto.

Cheguei na sexta feira ao aeroporto de Bristol com uma mala a pesar 19.5 kg e uma mochila a pesar prai outros 15.
Depois de passar pela chuva de Bristol e apesar de um atraso de 30min no comboio para Cardiff, cheguei a esta cidade para trazer o verao ha tanto esperado!e verdade...esta razoavelmente quente e ate solarengo aqui desde que cheguei.

Durante 2 dias sem internet, aproveitei para passar tempo com pessoas e nao com icones de msn. No sabado a tarde tivemos reuniao de oracao na igreja durante 4 horas sobre o ano que vem. Depois do jantar, aventuramo-nos pelas ruas de cardiff com o Al a conduzir (shock...) a procura do sitio que acolheria a festa dos 22 anos de Dave Scott, a casa de Dave e Naomi Webster. Depois de quase termos ido a Port Talbot e voltado, la encontramos o sitio e seguiram-se 2 horas de Buzz versao Hollywood merecidamente dominadas pelo agora aclamado guru do cinema - Dave Webster. Ganhou sem dar hipotese...

Domingo foi dia de igreja de manha. Almoco em casa dos Metheringham.

Por volta das 5.30, eu and my NIish favourite person, transportamos todas as coisas que ela tinha deixado no meu quarto durante o verao (entre os seus pertences encontrava-se uma casa de bonecas ja referida num post anterior) ate a sua novissima casa...ou pelo menos tentamos porque aquilo era pesado...depois de muito esforco, trocas, paragens, etc...la chegamos sas e salvas e com os potes do ikea ainda inteiros (assim com os talheres a condizer - afinal de contas OCD e mesmo assim). Ainda nessa noite tive oportunidade de ver Over the Edge!fun fun

Hoje (ou melhor, ontem), depois de uma manha numa quest por resolver o meu problema com a internet para vos poder escrever este post, tive de ir a universidade resolver algo relacionado com uma das cadeiras. Seguiu-se uma tarde bem passada e regada a cha britanico com a Jo que tinha acabado de chegar.

E sempre dificil sair de casa mas e bom estar de volta e voltar a encontrar todas estas pessoas que tem um papel enorme na minha vida, tambem.

Beijos e Abracos
ASG (from a surprisingly dry and warm Cardiff)

Holidays

Hey lovely people,

writing again in english as almost all my portuguese readers now have me in person to ask whatever they like and won't need to read this blog to be updated about my life (as anyone would want to be updated about my boring life...maybe my mum, haha).

so I left cardiff on thursday. it was sad to leave all my friends for the long period of 3months...I'm still trying not to think about how long it is very often...but it was amazing to see all my portuguese friends and family.

I wanted to have a proper goodbye with people that are important to me and that I consider became some of my best friends during this year. Was sad I didn't have time to do it with everyone I wanted to but, anyway...So I tried to organize and meet some friends on wednesday. It turned out to be a great but mad day...

Woke up at 8.00 that morning and made a deal with myself - I would not cry that day.

After doing laundry, packing and tidying my room, went to meet Al and we walked down to uni as I had some questions to ask in the undergraduate office. After asking the refered questions (and finding out our walking was useless as they were, apparently, dum questions), we went for lunch and had a great time having deep and random conversations as usual.
Then, we headed up home again. Al left me at my hall and I had a quick shower before meeting Rach.

Met Rachael at 3pm and, after dropping some of her stuff in senghenydd (have no idea if the spelling is right...it's very likely that it isn't), we entered a new coffee shop that had free cake when you buy any hot drink!!! Paradise...
After what we called our "mother and daughter" date, went to talybont to pick stuff she was going to leave at mine's during summer and we met Jo to have dinner.

Then,we met Al and Annie and walked down to CU. It was supposed to be CU in the park week but due to the rain that didn't stop ALL day (we were in Wales in the end...)it was at "The Gate" as usual.
Great fun was had and Jo passed me the "gummy bear rule" that I started following for no apparent reason - you have to eat two gummy bears at a time. you *can not* eat just one.
When we were about to leave (me and Jo), Rach gave me an envelope and made me promise I wouldn't open it until she said goodbye. As a good Christian daughter, I obeyed. I said goodbye to everyone and me and Jo walked home. Was almost crying when me and Jo hugged and said goodbye but I managed not to. was very impressed with myself.
I got into my flat and finally opened the envelope rach had given me. I read the card and the deal I had made with myself that morning was quickly broken...
Finished packing and went to bed (not before playing with sylvanian family for 5 min)

The next morning, left my flat at 6.45 and called the taxi. Al turned up running, late as usual, and, very kindly, took me to the train station where I got my train to Bristol.

After a nice and smooth flight, got home at 16.00 that afternoon and spent most of thrusday and friday sleeping. Saturday was chuch day away and it was awesome to see everyone again.

Starting volunteering tomorrow at a church day-care centre.

I'm having some very needed rest and enjoying the confort of my home. However, I'm missing people in Cardiff quite terribly...ah well. I'm looking forward to everything that's gonna happen this summer and can't wait to see what God has for me during this time.

Much love
ASG

Biochem and Microbiology are done. Three down, three to go.

And soooooo tired....