The Lords Heart

"When Israel was a child, I loved him,
and out of Egypt I called my son.
But the more I called Israel,
the further they went from me.
They sacrificed to the Baals
and they burned incense to images.
It was I who taught Ephraim to walk,
taking them by the arms;
but they did not realize
it was I who healed them.
I let them with cords of human kindness,
with ties of love;
I lifted the yoke from their neck
and bent down to feed them.

Will they not return to Egypt
and will not Assyria rule over them
because they refuse to repent?
Swords will flash in their cities,
will destroy the bars of their gates
and put an end to their plans.
My people are determined to turn from me.
Even if they call to the Most High,
he will by no means exalt them.

How can I give you up, Ephraim?
How can I hand you over, Israel?
How can I treat you like Admah?
How can I make you like Zeboiim?
My heart is changed within me;
all my compassion is aroused.
I will not carry out my fierce anger,
nor will I turn and devestate Ephraim.
For I am God, and not man--
the Holy One among you.
I will not come in wrath.
They will follow the Lord;
he will roar like a lion.
When he roars,
his children will come trembling from the west.
They will come trembling
like birds from Egypt,
like doves from Assyria.
I will settle them in their homes,
declares the Lord."

Hosea 11:1-11

This verse just taught me a lot about the Lords heart. You can hear the yearning He feels for His people. The pain He feels because they turn their backs on him, but you can also hear the pride He feels in His people when He speaks of teaching them how to walk. These verses speak of the Lords heart and it is not scary or mean, it is truly Love as evidenced in these few short verses

Coming Soon...

I know I promised a support raising letter and it is coming but not yet, seriously its on my seriously long to do list. What else is on my to do list I know your wondering (probably not, but I feel like telling you), well I have to do two large assignments worth large portions of my grades and work and the very most exciting part, I get to do my First Aid Training this weekend. That's right I will be certified CPR level A and Standard First Aid, I have missed this type of training since graduating High School and I look forward to learning new things.
Anyways since I am on here writing a completely pointless blog I will give you a grand total of how much I need to raise by June of this year....ready.....$2187.5 and hopefully an extra $1400 so that I don't have to pay for all of my own flights to Georgia this year. So in total that would be $3587.5, I believe that both of those numbers are totally accomplish able especially because I have the Lord on my side. So keep praying for me and my fundraising fears.
Anyways I really need to stop avoiding my homework and get some of that done, but I will be back soon with the much anticipated fundraising letter.
Bye!

Oh P.S. Happy Valentines Day, I hope your Day is filled with Love because the Father Love you!!!

KENYA!!!

Thats right its official I am going to Kenya, I received this news with mixed emotions. On one hand I am so excited to be heading back to Africa, on the other hand I have never ever really desired to go to Kenya. To be honest if asked I would probably admit I would rather go to any other country in Africa before Kenya. But I have always known that the Lord would send me there so I guess now is the time, I will trust the Lord and start preparing.
I really am excited to be going to Kenya, I have been saying for years now that I wanted to explore more of Africa and I have had tons of people tell me how amazing Kenya is so now I will get to see that for myself in a few short months. So if you have been there I would love to hear your stories and gather any advise you can give me.
Now that I have been placed on a team, I must start the most dreaded part of being a missionary. The Fundraising. Seriously I have been having nightmares about this for months, but thanks to a wonderful friend I am ready to face this challenge and trust God. I still have to figure the exact cost of the trip so I will get back to you but, please start praying for me. No matter the dollar amount my pride will have to go out the window and I will need to just trust the Lord, which isn't always easy when it involves money. Also please start praying for the upcoming trip, that God would use me as a positive leader in the lives of the participants, that the participants would be ready to have God rock their worlds, etc.
So please stay tuned I will post a support letter online in the next coming week, so if the Lord leads you to donate (which I will be praying he does) then email me or comment and I will give you the information you will need to that.
So have a good week, and I will talk to you all later.
Bye!

The Holidays

You know I am a huge fan of Christmas just everything about it is happy to me, I love the carols, the shopping, the people, the family, church. I just feel that nothing can usually get me down about christmas. It is the time that we celebrate Christ's birth so how can you be sad, joy really just fills me during this season.

Sadly though this year it hardly seemed like christmas. This might have been because i was sick and in school and working all right

up until christmas. oh well I still celebrated the Lords birth by attending a excellent Christmas Eve service at Southview Alliance Church. Pastor Cliff spoke a powerful salvation message that really ministered to my heart remind how

incredibly blessed I am that I know the Lord as my Saviour.

Also over the holidays I got to spend t

ime with some very awesome people. Starting at my good friend Lindsay's open house. It was a good time, here is a picture of us there...

Then it was on to christmas at my aunts which strangely no picture were taken. One year I should really have a working camera and take pictures of my very strange but loving family.

After several well spent days with my family in Black Diamond I came to hang out with my long lost friends...

This is us on New Years watching the fireworks in Canmore. I have to admit this was one of the best New Years i can remember.

Now I know this was the cheasest post ever but I am trying to get in the hang of blogging so that when I go away this summer I can be a faithful poster of everything that is happening there.

Night

New Adventures

Well the against my own common sense and the advise and wishes of many I feel the Lord calling me away this summer. This is something that I have lost countless hours of sleep over because frankly the last time I served overseas during the summer was a very trying time. I was exhausted and never seemed to find rest, but I don't regret the time I spent in India because the Lord used it to teach me many things. I know that this time wherever I end up serving will again be a time that the Lord uses to teach me.

This summer I will be serving somewhere in the world as a high school leader with Adventures in Missions as of right now I not sure where I will be leading but leadership there and myself praying that He would make it clear where I should be.

So I ask any of you that read this to also be in prayer, that God would make it clear where it is he wants me to serve this summer. Also that you would pray that God prepares me for the coming months as I prepare to serve my team, the locals and the Lord on this great new adventure He is sending me on.

I would also love if you would pray for deliverance of the anxiety that I am feeling about the coming months. I know that this anxiety is not from the Lord but from the enemy trying to scare me away from the Lords plans.

I will work on updating this blog regularly in the coming months about my life and about the coming adventure the Lord is sending me on.

Ashley

The Cries of My Heart

MY LORD!!!!!!! HELP ME!

The Lord continually give me peace about so many things but sometimes, I get overwhelmed by the desires of my heart. This often happens at night, perhaps this is why I was instructed to go to bed at 10. I think that if i actually followed through on this i would lead a much happier life because at night i start to think. I think about how i long to be in Africa loving the people there, I long to hold my hurting friends from far away, how i would give anything to spend my days in intentional prayer, i feel like i have so many desires that are unfullfilled that i am ready to burst. Thankfully though, eventually i do fall asleep and i wake up in the morning and find its a new day where God is going to get me through.

The Lord is good and he calls me his Beloved.

A little more India

Hey everyone sorry for the lack of blog posts since I have gotten home. I know many of you may still want to hear more stories from India I promise you those will come in time, but for now I thought I would post some pictures of my time there for you all to enjoy. I hope your summers went well.

This is the street that the team house was on and I lived in another house that is just around the corner from here.

This is a picture of one the team participants (Megan) taking a nap with one of the little girls (Regina) from the orphanage. 

This is a picture of the leper colony I was lucky to be able to visit. The lepers where incredibly interesting people to visit. They were mostly friendly and happy people to be around. We did struggle some with a language barrier but thankfully that was overcome with laughter, smiles and Delicious food.

While I was in India I got the awesome and often times difficult opportunity to tutor these two children in this picture. It was a experience I will never forget because sadly I am terrible teacher and I kind of doubt they learned anything but I'm still glad I got to do it.

Well that is just a few of my pictures for you to look at and I will work on a new blog with more pictures and stories for the near future. 

Bye :)