Hello family, friends, and supporters!
I just wanted to reach out and thank you again for helping me get here. God has far exceeded my expectations for what this year would look like. I am only 19 days away from being back in my comfy bed. As I am writing this a rush of emotions and thoughts are flying through my mind. This year has been full of experiences that are hard to put into words. It scares me that I won’t be able to do it justice when people ask me how my year was. This year opened my world perspective and how there is so much outside the bubble I call home. Living in 11 different countries for a month each allowed us to get a real taste for how people live, eat, and do life in their communities. It was a privilege that people allowed us so graciously to enter into their everyday life and join in.
At the end of month 4, I was asked to be a squad leader with 2 other people. A squad leader travels to different teams throughout the month and helps navigate any difficulties the team or individuals may be having and point them toward the Lord during trials and celebrations. If you would have asked me when I started the Race if I thought I would be a squad leader I would have laughed. But God has been breaking my heart from day one of this journey for what breaks His. He has been right next to me along this journey and renewing my mind, heart and soul.
God has been showing me deep passions within me to share His abounding love with others. He has set my soul on fire to walk alongside people as they push deeper into their true identity God has given them. Watching people feel truly alive and seeing God reveal passions within them has been one of the most memorable parts of this journey. People have experienced true freedom from past addictions, they have experienced the Father’s love in new ways, people have been renewed and made new in Christ. Throughout this journey God continues to point out people of big faith in the bible like Abraham, Jacob, Joseph and Paul. He has been pushing me deeper into walking with Him by faith and not by sight.
As I step into faith, I have committed to Squad lead another group of young adults longing to feel and encounter God in new ways. I will be leaving October 2016 and will return February 2017. I wrote in a previous blog about how I came to this decision as God’s plan prevailed over my own ways. I am so excited to see what this next year has in store for me and this group of people taking the leap of faith to step out of their comfort zones. I get to walk alongside more of God’s people and help push them into deeper intimacy with him.
I want to share with you many ways that your prayers and support continue to impacted lives around the world including mine.
Costa Rica: Your support brought lift to a church and school trying to share the gospel with people in the community. We went into the inner city and loved on kids who barely have the opportunity to go to school. We felt God’s light in some of the darkest places in that city. Your support brought monetary support to the school and church making an impact on their community. Your support brought life by doing house visits in the community and praying over illness and families. Your support allowed us to help teach at the school and bring respite to current teachers.
Nicaragua: Your support helped with funding a new school in some of the poorest areas outside of Granada, giving children an opportunity to receive a Christian education. Your support brought weekly meals and love to a local dump where many families spend most of their time digging through trash to find things to sell to make a living. Your support helped our team begin building a Church on an island outside of Granada. (How cool is it that you were a part of building the church!) Your support brought me to my knees as God began to push me into deeper abandon and brokenness so that I could begin depending solely on Him.
Honduras: Your support went to helping a local clinic in the community that provides low cost medical care and medications. Your support brought lift and life to a local school. Your support showed unconditional love to students and one in particular named Cody. Cody was one of my 1st grade students. He was extremely hyperactive and struggled to stay in his seat. Cody constantly hears, “Cody stop doing this, Cody go to the office, Cody go sit down, Cody you will never understand any of this.” Your support provided love, patience and positive self talk to Cody’s life this month.
Philippines: Your support brought Christmas and food to over 500 children in the community. Your support shared the true meaning of Christmas to a community that had experienced tragedy during typhoon Yolanda. Your support brought feedings twice a day to different communities in Tacloban. Your support made a friend with a woman down the street who owns a coconut stand and invited me to spend Christmas with her family while I was away from my own home.
Vietnam: Your support helped bring assistance to local cafes trying to help teach English by being doers of the Word not just by speaking it. Vietnam was a closed country so we learned this month how to share the gospel by our actions not just our words. This month I met one of my favorite people in the world, a young girl named Bick ( I wrote a blog about her 🙂 In Vietnam, your support helped train myself and two others to be squad leaders for the remaining 7 months of the race.
Cambodia: Your support brought love, laughter and joy to a school and church. On Sunday’s, your support brought the church to some of the poorest communities outside of Siem Reap. Your support brought love to an orphanage with 28 boys and girls. Your support changed my heart by spending time with God’s beautiful children. Your support showed me the power of expectant prayer and God showing us He does answer our prayers by providing new shoes for the kids at the orphanage ( also wrote a blog about this for more detail 🙂 A piece of my heart was left at that orphanage.
Malaysia: During my time in Malaysia, I felt and heard God so clearly. Malaysia is a predominantly Muslim community and it is against the law to evangelize to others here. Going into this month I thought it was going to be one of the most difficult months because we can’t openly share with others why we are here. But I felt God here so vividly. He has been moving in Malaysia. Your support helped teach english to students and share the love of God with them.
Thailand: Your support helped a ministry that fought against sex trafficking on the front lines. We worked at a coffee shop that employed women that left the sex trafficking industry. Your support allowed us to go out into the bars and build relationships with women working. Your support helped us have a Beauty for Ashes event for these women which included pampering the women, dancing, laughing, a photo booth, worshipping with these women and showering the Father’s love over them.
Zimbabwe: Your support set my team out into Bulawayo to create contacts for future World Race teams to do ministry at. We came across an incredible ministry that fights for orphans in the community that have experienced sexual abuse and abandonment. We created a new ministry host at the hostel that we stayed at for the month. God’s provision covered us this month and we felt it immensely through the family that owned the hostel. We weren’t supposed to have a ministry host because we were doing Unsung Heroes month which is going out into the community each day and looking for potential hosts but what we found in our back yard was family and incredible future world race hosts. Your support helped us do a two day training for young girls about body awareness to fight against sexual abuse. We helped with a local feeding and shared a message of hope.Your support also allowed us to have another Beauty for Ashes Event for women who normally are always serving in their homes and we were able to serve them and share the Father’s Love with them.
Zambia: Your support helped a local Youth Center in Mongu, Zambia. Your support opened my eyes to how little you actually need to make a difference in lives around you. We went to the youth center each day and played board games, soccer, and volleyball with the youth. We were able to show them that they are important and worth spending time with. We put on a full day leadership training for people in the community and also helped out with a kids day full of worship, games, and fun.
Malawi: Your support brought love and help to a local backpacker’s hostel called Butterfly that does volunteer work in the community. The hostel currently has a primary school that has two classes from ages 6-12. Butterfly also helps at a local nursery school where we helped create a space for the kids to play and hold events. While at Butterfly we helped collect bricks to help build a future school. A few of us also helped with an HIV group that create a safe space for women and their partners to openly discuss living a healthy life while having HIV. This was an incredible month living with a variety of people from all over the world wanting to serve and help the community here in Malawi.
Squad leading in October: If you choose to continue following my adventure with God your support through prayer and donations will go toward squad leading a new group of 40+ individuals. The best way I can describe where your support will go is by explaining what my three Alumni squad leaders did for my race. My three squad leaders sacrificed their personal time away from their friends and family for almost half a year. They were catalyst for radical change in each of our lives. They helped ease anxieties and fears while we tried to face this new adventure of being away from home and comforts over the next year. My squad leaders spent endless hours, days, and months praying over each of our walks with God. They were a listening ear and spoke truth into each of our lives. They discipled each of us so that in return we could disciple others that we came in contact with all over the world. My squad leaders pushed me deeper in communion with the spirit and encouraged me into my spiritual giftings. They brought kingdom all over the world by imparting the freedom, wisdom, and truth they have personally experienced in their relationship with God to 40+ individuals.
Here is my new team I will be squad leading with! 🙂
If you are interested in continuing to support my journey with God, there are a few ways!
Prayer: I would like to make a list of people that would like to partner with me in prayer and I will send out group emails with prayer requests throughout the journey
Donations: I am looking for people that are interested in being a monthly donor or one time donor!
1. you can do so through this site: https://www.adventures.org/give/donate.asp?giveto=worldrace&desc=Ashley%20Miller&appeal_id=MILLERASHLEY
2. through paypal: @[email protected]
3. you can send a check to 407 Pine Tree Rd Lake Mary FL 32746
I would love to talk in more detail about my journey over the last year as well as my upcoming journey through squad leading. I can’t thank you each enough for your constant love and support!
I will be posting a video blog soon with more details about the ways God shaped and transformed my life over this last year!
love you all!
