Hello wonderful readers! To kick off this blog, I’ll start by answering a question a few people have asked.
Why an 11 month trip mission trip???
After choosing to follow Jesus wholeheartedly 3 years ago I have changed all of my choices in order to center my life around Him. This includes pursuing a Christian Leadership degree at a Bible College, becoming a church intern, taking on ministry roles and more. Along with those, this summer I had the amazing opportunity to go on my first missions trip to Ecuador… and I fell in love.
I fell in love with the fact that my daily objective was to serve others. I fell in love with meeting new people every day that lived differently than I do. I fell in love with getting to discover a different culture and way of living. I fell in love with my only focus being what was right in front of me instead of being distracted with my daily to-do list at home. I fell in love with the fact that I was with a team where the sole focus was talking about the God we love.
My trip to Ecuador was a huge reminder of how blessed I am. It showed me how many people still need the Gospel and how i can be a vessel for them to hear it. All of my normal day-to-day distractions were gone and I got to focus on God and His children. On this trip I grew closer to God in a new way. I grew personally but also in my relationship with Him. Despite the locals living situations in the slums, there was only joy on their faces when we interacted. That joy spread to me while I was there. Sure, some things came up that frustrated me but I was able to easily dismiss those and choose God’s joy and focus on His will. I want to live like that every day.
Over the last few years I have thought and prayed about what I am supposed to go into as a career. An answer still hasn’t come my way. I trust God to reveal to me what He has planned in His perfect timing. For now, I continue to grow, I continue to learn, I continue to go through every door He opens, even if they scare me. Coming back from Ecuador I seriously debated if I wanted to be a missionary. Rationally, I realized I shouldn’t make a life-long choice off of a 10 day trip. So I made a decision. At some point in the next few years I wanted to go on a year long missions trip or go into a year long internship somewhere overseas where I didn’t speak the language. I had no timeline for this and decided I would pray about it in a few months when I came off my “Mission Trip High.”
God had other plans.
In a few weeks I came across The World Race. I looked into it and everything lined up. My heart was set on fire and I knew I had to apply. There were so many signs pointing to this Race and I knew it was God showing me my next step. This trip is such a God-thing and I am so excited for this journey. I’m excited to see if this leads me to becoming a full time missionary or not. If it doesn’t, I know that I am going to have a life changing experience on this trip that will shape my future, no matter what that looks like.
Please be praying for me in preparation for this trip. For funds and for God to grow me in the next few months in order to be ready for anything while on the Race.
Much Love,
Ashley
