Stand in Awe...

Well, I was trying to write a paper for my persuasion class and the "unfunness" of the paper persuaded me NOT to do it for the moment...look at how much im learning about how persuasion can be a BAD thing! :) Anyways, I am taking an outdoor leadership and ministry class right now and for one of our assignments throughout each week, we have to spend one hour outside learning how to incorporate scripture and creation to better teach the Truth of the Word of God. It has been INCREDIBLE to see how much you can learn by simply being outside. This is one entry from my journal for this class that I wanted to share:

January 24, 2011
Wow, this time getting back into the swing of a schedule can be so crazy and stressful. I am just getting back on the track from Jet lag from India so it is great to have a regular sleeping pattern again. I have spent some awesome time with you Lord, BUT this morning I realized that I am trying so hard to still do it on my own strength each day. I try to control things, while justifying that I am letting the Lord have complete control by giving Him my time in the mornings. That is NOT how it should be. I was on my way to work this morning at 715am and I saw the sun rising over the beautiful mountains of Virginia as I slowly took it all in. I stopped for a while and just sat to watch and think. As I was watching the sky and looking at the colors and absorbing the majesty of the mountains, I realized something. No matter how much I try to control my life and do things on my own, God reigns over ALL, even me and my frivolous worries. I thought to myself , "Wow, EVEN if I wanted to control EVERYTHING, I could never paint the sky. I am NOT the one who raises the sun each morning, and I could never mold a mountain into existence with my own hands. Even when my life, which is SO small in comparison with this BIG world, seems so out of control, God has it all IN control. God NEVER forgets to raise the sun early in the morning and put the stars in the sky at night, or paint the sunset and sunrise SO differently EACH morning because He was stressed out or had too much on His plate. He did not have to make the sunrises and sunsets so beautiful or the mountains so breathtaking and majestic, but He DID, because He loves us and LONGS for us to enjoy each moment of it. EVERYTIME. He never forgets to do the slow and subtle things too, like he grass growing from a seed, the trees beginning to bud, the fact that EACH and EVERY snowflake is unique from each one. WOW! What a mighty and personal and wonderful heavenly Dad I have! (And earthly one too!)
Isaiah 40:12
"Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, or with the breadth of His hand marked off the heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a blanket, or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance?"
Isaiah 40:26
"Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: who created ALL of these? He who brings out the starry* host one by one, and calls them EACH by name. Because of His GREAT power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing!"
Job 38:12
"Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown the dawn its place...?"
Wow, I was NOT there when God made the heavens and the earth and threw out the ocean and molded the mountains. This reminds me of Romans 1:20 which says "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities-His eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that people are WITHOUT excuse." How can one NOT believe in God when they look out to the creation of His handiwork and beautiful mind for creating it?! By creation ALONE, we have no excuse to bow down to 'other gods' or worship other things created by mans hands. My hands could NEVER create what the Lord has created He is God, He is Holy, and I am not. I love Psalm 131:1-2 when David says "My heart is not proud, O Lord, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with things TOO wonderful for me. But I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me." The last scripture that I want to leave with is Ecclesiastes 5:2, "Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter ANYTHING before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be FEW!" Stand in awe of God and revel in the beauty of who He is in what He has made! There is NOTHING to say!

Go out and be in Gods creation today. It will NOT disapoint you, I PROMISE!

Hello the sunrise in the Himalayas! GORGEOUS!

Walking in HIS joy

Safe and sound I have returned to the states and I sit here overwhelmed with everything. I wish my typing fingers could keep up with the memories, thoughts, and emotions in my head and my heart, but they can't. There is only one way to describe how my time in India was and that is "unexplainably wonderful". There were three songs during the trip that I could not stop singing over and over.

"I Saw What I Saw" -Sara Groves
I saw what I saw and I can't forget it
I heard what I heard and I can't go back
I know what I know and I can't deny it
Something on the road cut me to the bone
Your pain has changed me
Your dream inspires
Your face a memory
Your hope a fire
Your courage asks me what I'm afraid of
(What I am made of)
And what I know of love

"Your Great Name" -Natalie Grant
Lost are saved; find their way; at the sound of your great name
All condemned; feel no shame; at the sound of your great name
Every fear; has NO place; at the sound of your great name
The enemy; he HAS to leave; at the sound of your great name
Jesus, worthy is the Lamb that was slain for us
Son of God and Man
You are high and lifted up;
That ALL the world will praise your great name!

"Your Name" -Craig & Dean
Your name is a strong and mighty tower
Your name is a shelter like no other
Your name let the nations sing it louder
'Cause NOTHING has the power to save
But Your name
Jesus, in Your name we pray
Come and fill our hearts today
Lord, give us strength to live for You and glorify Your name

The girls also sang ALOT together to worship in a dark place and it was SO powerful!

Wow. Those songs have fuller meaning to me now that I have sang them in another country while I was serving the Lord. Our team dealt with a lot of spiritual warfare and all I could sing in my head as we were working with these kids and loving them like Jesus loved was "The enemy; he HAS to leave; at the sound of Your great name".

I guess to start, I'll start with one story from the beginning that has effected my life forever. We all piled onto our first of MANY planes in Washington D.C. and took off the ground to Delhi at 10pm. Everything was going smooth and I was becoming anxious to get my luggage from the baggage claim because right inside the front pocket of my backpacking pack was my facewash and moisturizer. We had just been on two long airplane rides. The first one from Washington to London was 9 hours and then our connecting flight from London Heathrow to New Delhi was about 7 hours. All the I could think about was splashing fresh cold water on my face and washing it after feeling all stuffed up in those planes.

So, I kept on waiting. And waiting. Then I began to walk around and around and around the baggage claim conveyor belt because "I knew it was somewhere or someone must have taken mine accidentally thinking it was theirs".

It was nowhere in sight. The last little red luggage case came shooting down the conveyor belt from the plane and then that horrible sound of the bell went off to let us know "Yes, Ashley, we have no more luggage left on this plane and yours is somewhere M.I.A. (missing in action)". In this moment I did not know how to respond, so I just began to pray. The Lord gives and the Lord takes away and for some reason in this moment, the Lord has something to teach me by taking away. Our team leader and I headed over to the corner to report and claim lost luggage and I was still in denial that my luggage was not in my hands.

It was a slow process over the next EIGHT days of waiting for my luggage, but the Lord taught me a lot about my relationship with Him. During this time, He led me to John 14:27 "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do NOT give as the world gives. Do NOT let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid."

Before leaving for India, I had celebrated my birthday and received gifts for both Christmas and my birthday. I believe that the Lord saw my heart and that I was holding onto all the material things that I had received. I was loving the things of this world so much that I was beginning to find my joy in them, and not in the joy that Christ is in my life. I could hear Him asking me "Ashley, I see that you are 'joyful' when you have everything and your life is in order, BUT when I strip you of everything do you still have that joy because it is found in me? Or is that 'joy' gone because it was worldly and found in what you have?" This was a hard question to physically be faced with and it was even more of a challenge to live out that joy each of those eight days as I did not have my luggage.

The day before I found out that British Airways had found my luggage, I had completely surrendered my luggage to the Lord and said "God, you give and you take away, and if you take this away for good and I never see it again, I will still have joy because I have my joy in you alone." That next day, my team leader Ron informed me that my luggage was found and it was on its way to Bihar! Wow. It is at that moment that you give up everything that the Lord gives you everything. Sometimes, that is something physical like your luggage that you get back, but other times it is only something that you can feel in your heart, like peace, like joy, like love.

Going back to John 14:27, God taught me that even when we pray, He does not give to us as the world gives to us. We have no reason to fear and no reason to be troubled because we have everything in Him because He already has overcome.

The last verse the I read on the third plane to Bihar after not being able to get my luggage in Delhi, I went to Job (I could NEVER compare myself to Job's circumstance, but I felt like I could relate to him in that moment). In Job 1:20-22, Job has just found out that his everything he owned was destroyed, and that all of his sons and daughters were killed. "...Then Job fell tot he ground in worship and said: 'Naked I came from my mother's womb and naked I will depart. the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away: may the name of the LORD be praised. In ALL of this, Job did NOT sin by charging God with wrongdoing! God used Job to teach me to praise Him even when I cannot see what His plan is or what He is trying to teach me. We serve a sweet, sweet Father. Thank you Lord for giving my luggage back to me, but most importantly, for teaching me through ways that are much higher than my mind could ever comprehend.

home is where the heart is

Tonight, I sit in my room. Not my dorm room. Not a cabin in Colorado. Not a friends houses or a hotel. MY room. I made the 13 hour drive home from Virginia to Massachusetts today with some great laughs with friends, naps, and m&m's along the way!


As I pulled up to my house, I realized that my home was just a house. I was staring at it, standing by the porch with all of my luggage in hand, and until my dad came out with his laugh and goofy smile, this house was not my home. I have come to realize that a home is being loved and a home is where your heart feels safe, comforted, warm, and complete. The word home is not bound by four walls, by couches, by kitchen tables, or by refrigerators, but by the people who you are with when you are in that place. I have been a girl on the move this year and this has been more and more real to me through this year that being home is about being with the people who love me. With it being Thanksgiving, there are so many things that I can be thankful for that I fail to remember day to day. Things as little as laughter and hugs, but as big as the sun rising every day as a reminder that God loves me and gave me that sunrise as a gift to reveal His beauty to me. The other day, a friend said that sunsets are her favorite scene in nature because a sunset is another persons sunrise somewhere on the opposite side of the world. How cool is it that God is constantly revealing Himself to the WHOLE world through the rising of His sun. Not only am I thankful for the rising of the sun, but the raising of God's son, Jesus Christ. He is the one who I am thankful to for every good and perfect gift, because I know that they are from Him alone and from above.

Again, I sit here now in my bed, with my puppy snoring next to me, and I am so blessed. I have a family who adores me and they found joy in their day simply by me coming home and surprising them for my Thanksgiving break! My parents have been there for me through the times when I was lovable, and even through the times when they did not think that they could even LIKE me, let alone love me. I am thankful today for who they are in my life.

How you live your day, is how you live your life.

I guess you could say that I ask ALOT of questions. Curiosity sometimes kills this cat. I love knowing what song is playing on the ipod in the car, what street we are driving down, what time we are meeting for dinner, how many people are going, whos going, exactly what we will be doing when and where and why. It can be a little overwhelming to the poor person being asked all of these questions.

I have never wanted to know my future though. Being a planner, I like to know where I am headed, but I am ready and excited for change to sneak up and surprise me in this journey I am on. If we knew everything about our future and what we were going to do with our life, we would no longer have the desire to do it because it is something already known to us. Knowing the future would put a damper on my inquisitive heart and mind and ruin that element of uncertainty and what the Lord has in store for us.

Today, I received a mass e-mail from Tammy Trent about how to view the future and what dreaming BIG for the Lord looks like. She is a speaker, a singer, an inspiration, and a sister in Christ. This is what inspired my day:

Hello Ladies!

Ok, so here's some food for thought. And just like it does for me, may it speak directly to you at this moment!

May you take heart in knowing that God is preparing you for what He has already prepared for you! There is a new season that is already waiting for you. As you allow yourself to take on the fullness of God's processing in your life, He is doing a work in you already, even if you can't see it, so that you will be ready for the day when God opens up all the doors and allows you to walk into that new place. Maybe it's time to "clean house" so you can be fully ready for it. Don't let anything or any person hold you back from God's perfect will in your life right now.I don't believe God gives us impossible dreams or unreachable desires. He gently takes us through life step by step so that when we face each new opportunity or challenge, we are ready in faith to choose to keep moving forward, always towards truth.

Your challenge right now is not to ask God why things around you are changing, in transition or falling apart, but rather perhaps to ask, "What's next? What can I learn from this?" There's a reason and purpose in our struggles or time of difficulties. The thing is, we have to find out what that is and begin to see our difficult time in perspective and how God is using it to prepare us. Search my friend. Search. The answers aren't all that far away. Some times we just like to keep circling the questions hoping we'll land on the "right answer" WE were hoping for. Trust God in this moment, that HE is STILL in control of your next season.As true believers, we must never forget that God does not send "bad things" but He certainly uses them. And wow, do I sure understand and know that for my own life.

Thankful for you all today!

A fellow traveler,

Tammy Trent

For myself, I have been wrestling with the idea of time and this twenty-four hour period that the Lord has given us. If you think about it, George Washington, Carrie Underwood, Beth Moore, Billy Graham, Meredith Andrews, and all the people who we look up to because of what they have done and accomplished with their lives, have the SAME exact twenty-four hour day that we have. What did they do with their time and with the decisions and actions that got them to where they are today? In Francis Chan's book, 'Crazy Love', he said that "How you live your day, is how you live your life." I have always thought that these big dreams that I have for the Lord would just one day fall into my lap, but I don't really think that that is how it is going to be. We must realize that we have to make our day today look like what we want it to tomorrow by our ACTIONS; tomorrow is just another today that we get to make our own by what we CHOOSE to fill it with.

I pray and hope that I can find the way to make each and every average day that I have been given, and by my actions and desires, make it extraordinary for the Lord. Today is just a glimpse of what the Lord does have in store for us tomorrow, and if we do not see excellence, passion, and actions today, why do we think that we are going to see them tomorrow?!

I think that it is GREAT to have dreams and future plans and faith that God will do something BIG with and through your life, but without action, all they ever WILL be is thoughts. James says it so beautifully in James 2:14-17 says:

"What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such a faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if NOT accompanied by ACTION, is DEAD!"

Blessed

Today, I sit on the futon in my dorm room, that I now call home, & begin my first ever blog. As I sit here & think of this past year, I remember Virginia, Georgia, Colorado, Kansas, North Africa, & my hometown of Boston! It blows my mind to see how God has placed me in each of these parts of the world for a specific & intentional reason that was unknown to me at the time, but looking back, I learned more in this year than I ever dreamed. I met life long friends, grew in grace, stature, & love with the Lord, & was challenged by experiences that have grown me immensly. I guess that you could say I am starting this blog so that the people who I am unable to see day-to-day can have the opportunity to see where the Lord will be taking this 'Girl on the Move' next! There are most definately people that I miss from each & every place I have been, but I have learned that you cannot say 'Hello' until you have said 'Goodbye'. I have also learned that there are some people the Lord places in your life for only a certain season simply for you to learn from them & grow in yourself.

Tomorrow begins the next stop in my traveling as I will be waking up before the sun at 4:15 am to leave for Maryland to be a part of the 'Tour of Hope', which was started by Noel Brewer Yeatts. This one day, 9-4 women's conference invites young women to be challenged & empowered to change the world. I am stoked to go & hear from women who have already impacted this world & learn from their wisdom of how to practically do just that.

As exciting as Maryland will be tomorrow, my heart is set on something in December that will rock my world. I have been presented with the opportunity to spend two weeks in India with a team of 13 others. We will be leaving December 28th & be returning January 14th. I simply ask that you would be in constant prayer for my team & the people of India as the country of India is one of the most, if not the most, unreached places in the WORLD. I also do need alot of financial support. Our first deadline for finances is November 1st of 500$. I know & trust that the Lord will provide & He is SOO much bigger than ANY amount of money that I could ever need. If you would like to support me financially, please visit:

http://www.luglobal.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=151&Itemid=186

I would greatly appreciate you partnering with me on this mission to serve the Lord in India! Well, my bed is calling my name loud & clear for a much needed nap! Goodnight! 1 Peter 4:10-11