Face to face

HI everyone!! (who still reads this)

WELL, this is my last blog post I do believe. So this week we are having a debrief week where we are just reviewing our whole 5 months here and giving closure to lots of things. It's been a challenging but very rewarding 5 months, and I am ready to come home. I will be sharing about my trip and things that I have learned here sometime within the month of March, so be looking and prepared for that day! As I will try to be too :P So, I won't ruin all the stories and suprises here and now, but save them for when we can talk face to face. I would be so happy to spend time with everyone at some point when I come home, talking and catching up. Can't wait to see you all.

Lots of love,

Ashley

Saa wat dee kah

Hello from Thailand,

So I have been here in Thailand for approximately three weeks and I'm really enjoying it. We are 13 hours ahead of you guys back home, so it's been a challenge communicating with people! So I will be filling you all in on what I've been doing when I get back, but I just wanted to give you an update on what prayer requests I have. So I think most of you know what's going on with my sister Melissa's boyfriend Matthew. If you don't, he's been diagnosed with acute leukemia and more tests are being done. I don't know all the details, but I do know that it's serious and has and will be on my heart while I'm here. If you could just pray for peace and that I would trust God with what to do and what's going on, that would be amazing. Also, the heat and long days are draining sometimes, so if you could continue to pray for energy and rest. Unity within our team is another thing. We have been together now for four months and are growing closer but we do have struggles here and there. Thank you all for your support, encouragement, thoughts and prayers.

Lots of love,
Ashley

My Heart Goes Out,

My heart goes out to the people in this city, to the people I have met along my journey. Here's only a few of those people...



We spent our second last week in Winnipeg volunteering at Union Gospel Mission, a christian organization that provides chapel services and hot meals to the people in the city. They also have recovering addicts in residence, an adult education program and other programs. If you'd like more information be sure to check them out on the world wide web.

http://www.gospelmission.ca/

So the first day we were there, Jenny and I helped in the kitchen most of the day! It was so much fun. We got to work with some raw turkey, preparing for the big turkey dinner on new years day. While we were doing that, we got to know the head chef, Jeff. We also got to meet many more volunteers and some of the residence during lunch time or other things that we were doing. It was just amazing to sit with them and talk with them.



The next day, we went to another building that is with UGM. It's a women's and childrens center that is just recently up and running. It still needs a lot of work, but right now it has 7 women in residence there while the rest of the building is being renovated and prepared for more to move in. We spent the entire day painting celings! It was a very exhausting day, but at the end of the day we felt like we had accomplished lots.



My favorite day at UGM would have to be the last day we were there. That day, they have a big turkey dinner and so they need lots of volunteers to help in lots of different ways. The job that I chose was to be in the drop in center, where the people would come in and wait before they could go into the chapel and then proceed to the lunch. So, I got to hang out with the people coming in while they had hot chocolate or coffee. I got to talk with them and get to know them. It was so cool and so encouraging to be able to share with them and hear their stories. I really enjoyed it.
Here's a picture of us with some of the gifts that were to be given out:

So this current week, we have been preparing to go to Thailand and then to Vancouver. We leave on Saturday!! That's in 3 days -- how crazy is that. It has gone by so fast. I thought today that I would leave one last blog post before I go. I will leave you with an itinerary of what we will be doing day to day. So, in the next month and a half, if you ever stop to wonder "what is Ashley doing today?" you can just come on here, and have an idea of where I will be. :)

(the time that is shown, is the time that it is in that place)

Jan 9 [Saturday]

-Fly to Vancouver at 8:00AM
-Arrive in Vancouver at 9:07AM
-Fly to Seoul at 1:15PM

Jan 10 [Sunday]

-Arrive in Seoul at 5:30PM
-Fly to Bangkok at 7:20PM
-Arrive in Bangkok at 11:10PM

Jan 11 [Monday]

-Thai cultural oroientation & scavenger hunt around Bangkok

Jan 12 [Tuesday]

-Bangkok Prayer Walk
-Travel to Chaing Mai

Jan 13 [Wednesday] - 25 [Monday]

-Ministry with the Life Development Center in villages near Chiang Mai

Jan 26 [Tuesday] - Feb 7 [Sunday]

-Ministry with the Ruth Center in Bangkok

Feb 8 [Monday]

-Rest day in Bangkok

Feb 9 [Tuesday]

- Fly to Seoul at 12:55AM
- Arrive in Seoul at 8:15AM
- Fly to Vancouver at 6:30PM

Feb 10 [Wednesday]

-Arrive in Vancouver at 11:00AM
-Restistration
-Kick-off event

Feb 11 [Thursday] - 18 [Thursday]

-2010 Olympic Games Outreach

Feb 19 [Friday]

-Fly to Winnipeg at 12:10PM
-Arrive in Winnipeg at 6:03PM

And that is my trip!! Thank you all for your encouragement, support and prayers.

My heart goes out to the people in Thailand, the people in Vancouver. The people that I will meet while I continue on my journey.

Please continue to pray for me during this time. God bless you. :)

Merry Christmas!

Hello and Merry Christmas to you all!

I hope you had a great Christmas and have a happy new year and a lovely holiday wherever you may be. So I just got back from our Christmas holidays to BC. I brought along my room mate, Jenny, who is from Scotland to spend the holiday with me and my family. She had never seen any part of Canada besides Winnipeg before, so it was pretty exciting for her. We spent the week on the slopes snowboarding/skiing, spending time at the hot springs and just as a family enjoying time together. It was a great holiday and so nice to see my family again.

Before the break we spent some time on a few other topics. One was "The Nature and character of God", and the speaker was Tanya Lyons from Vancouver, BC. She, as well as our last speaker Randy, are the directors of the YWAM base in Vancouver. She talked about God's nature, and how He is uncreated, triune, all powerful, all knowing, personal and relational. She also talked about His character -- what He does with that nature, like He; creates, loves, has no favourites, shows mercy, is wise, is truthful, is holy, is just, etc. We watched a clip from the movie Ella Enchanted. If you have seen it, you will know that Ella is under a spell of obedience and must obey all orders given to her. We compared that to us and God, and found that He is not like that at all. That clip illustrated to us the principles of God - how he made us and what He wants for us. He made us so that we could make choices. God gives us freedom and choices and He trusts us. I'll leave you with this thought: If God just showed himself to us with all his power, we would have no choice but to believe - so He hides himself a little.

The next week was Staff Teaching Week! That is where the staff teach us :D That week we did a lot of team building activities and personality tests. I found that I am an ENFP. For those of you who know what I'm talking about that will say a lot, but for those of you who have no idea what that is I encourage you to check out the Myers Briggs temperament test, and see what your results are. Anyway, we discovered who our introverts and extroverts are in our group. We are actually 50/50 in that area, so that was kind of cool. We split into those groups and confronted each other on the struggles extroverts and introverts will face. It was good to get that out in the open and hear what the other side had to say.

We also did a small project this during this week. Part of it was that we went to the north end and then back to the west end, and bought coffee for homeless people and gave out bags with treats in them. We spent a morning and afternoon walking around, spending time with people on the streets. It was really neat. The other part of our project was that we surprised the staff with a nice mean and evening dedicated to them and all that they do for our school. We had a nice little banquet with lovely bannoffee pie and chocolate cake for dessert. Here's a photo of us all after the evening.
For one of our team building activities, I was the leader. No one but me could talk or see, but I was the only one that could not move. With direct orders, I had to get the whole team to put a tent up (while they were wearing blindfolds). Did i mention we had a time limit of 15 minutes? Seems pretty difficult, eh? Well it was. It was very frustrating as a leader because the task seemed almost impossible. But, I never gave up. Finally when the time limit arrived, and the tent was still laying flat, Kim gave the team the choice of finishing the task or quitting then. The team decided to quit, and I felt like they had given up on me. This activity really gave me a different perspective of how it will be for the leaders on outreach. It was a very good week for our team.

The last week before Christmas holidays was on Relationships, and our speaker was Kara Thompson. We talked about why it's normal for christians to have sexual struggles, and some recovery principles. We went over some foundational values that we should have when going into a relationship/marraige. We also talked about some principles for the choice. Such as a shared faith in God, common values and a common calling, character and romance. Kara talked a lot about marraige and that we cannot expect the kind of relationships that we see in the movies. She showed us that love can come in the form of a triangle, and at each point there will be 3 different things. One being commitment, another being passion and the last being intimacy. When going into a marraige, these three things should be equal. Now, I'm not saying they will always be that way, but these three things are what build up a strong, healthy relationship.

So here I am back at the beginning; Christmas break! I've had a great month, and now I am preparing for the new year, and the trip to Thailand. I have $700 left to raise for my trip, and I would like to ask one more time for your help to reach this goal. Thank you again to everyone who has made this possible.

Have a happy new year :D

Humility & Authenticity

So, recently we switched around our duties, and I am no longer on the ywam blog. Feel free to continue to read it, but the new author is Jesse (the boy).

So to finish off sharing about our speaker Jack McNeill, I'll tell you about what I learned. He

talked a lot about going into a different country and into a different culture, and how to go about it. He explained that culture can be anything from manners, to how we greet people, to how we

eat a banana. As an example, Jack sat in front of the class with a banana. He began to eat it the opposite way that we would normally eat it. We talked about how we would see that as the 'wrong' way to eat it. But that is just how our culture eats bananas, and other cultures eat them differently. This is just one example of many. He talked about how the church is like a disfunctional family. When someone outside a family attacks someone in a family, the family grows closer. But if people inside the family attack

each other the family grows apart. This relates to our team and how we must be united here. But, it also includes the church communities in general.

At the end of the week, Jack said that everything he talked about boiled down to one main point. Are we willing to be neighbours to people? He ended off with Matthew 27:18-20. Jesus is saying I AM THE KING therefore going (could be praying for people, healing people, etc.) MAKE DISCIPLES baptizing and teaching.

The next week we had a speaker in named Chad Chomlack from Whistler, BC. He was great.

His topic was praise and worship, and what he said really challenged me on what I believe and why, and it pointed out things so plainly to me

that I thought were so complex. He talked about

Matthew 13:24-30 -- The weeds and the wheat.It's about how God does not want us to separate the weeds from the wheat, but to live amongst it and trust God to be in charge. We ask, "Didn't the weeds hurt the wheat?" We will never fully be wheat - we will always have that mixture until full redemption. Chad talked about the separation between christian and secular stuff (dualism) -- but we need to remember that God is in EVERY aspect of life. In the passage in Matthew, the workers ask "Shall we go separate and divide?" He says "No, it is not your job. Be in it, understand how it grows, and trust God to do the harvesting." Life is both/and, not either/or. We separate church and work. Our eyes are seeing through a lense of sacred and secular. Chad said, in a dualistic mind, you've prayed a prayer, accept Jesus and it's all about you and Jesus. Yes, your heart and life with God are important to Him, but your role in the community is a big part. It's both. We need to become more aware of who God is at all times. Chad talked about a lot more during the week, but that's one main point that has really challenged me.

The next week we spent the whole week volunteering at Winnipeg Harvest - a food distribution centre. To get more information on what goes on there, please check out this website:

http://www.winnipegharvest.org/

We spent the week doing lots of different jobs. We

sorted potatoes and onions - separating the edible ones from the not so edible ones. We bagged flour, sugar, rice and macaroni to send out to families. We filled large bags with packages with pasta, canned fruits, some sort of protein, and other things to create family packages. We did pre-sort -- which is taking what grocery stores, other organizations or individuals that sent in food and material things, and sorting

through what is good and what's bad. We also separated them into different areas. So you can imagine we found some pretty nasty things! Here's one thing we found!! Yes,

they are pig ears..... :O

We've also been meeting lots of neat people! We've met some people from Germany, Kenya and

all over Canada, all of whom we've had the privilege of spending time outside of the classroom with and are able to keep in contact with. The Kenyans and Canadians

that we have befriended, are in a program called Canada World Youth. Here's a link if you are interested in checking it out: http://www.canadaworldyouth.org/en/

They spend 3 months in Canada and 3 months in Kenya. It's really a neat program.

So finally I am onto this week!! We just spent the week with a speaker named Randy Pariseau from Vancouver, BC. He and our speaker next week, Tanya Lyons, head up the YWAM base in Vancouver, and we had the privilege of having both of them come and share their wisdom with us. This week Randy's topic was "Conversations on Leaderships". He lead, and we all engaged in many conversations about being a servant-leadership, women in leadership, humility, prayer and many other topics. We watched the movie We Were Soldiers based on the book We Were Soldiers Once... And Young. It was a great movie - I definitely recommend it. But, it highlighted different aspects of good leadership as well as bad. It was challenging and eye-opening. If you

ever get the chance to watch it, I'd say go for it! One note I'll share with you all, is something that has really stood out to me this week and recent weeks. The Abrahamic covenant > We are blessed so that we can bless. THAT is what leadership is all about.

One more thing! So as for my funds for the outreach phase go... I have $950 to go! I want to say a HUGE thank you to all my supporters. I wouldn't be here without you. If you are able to help finance the rest of my journey, please contact me. I thank you so so much. Please continue to pray for me, as God is really working in my life and through this ministry. :]

Thanks for reading! I know this one is a long one because I haven't been on here for so long! I hope I still have readers out there, even thought I'm not very consistent with this. After all this reading, I'll leave a few pictures to show you what else we have been up to! Feel free to leave a comment. Goodbye for now!

MA week.

Hey everyone!

Welcome to my blog, again.. hopefully, I'm going to share about MA week! What is that, you ask? Mission Adventures week. It's a whole week of us living in a church somewhere else in the city, and doing some urban mission stuff. The first day, we went and gave roses to prostitutes on the streetsWe went out with six roses, and we finished the night with none. Each of us had one rose to give away. We would go up to them, with two staying behind to pray, and offer them a rose as a sign of God’s love. I didn't find out the name of the girl I gave mine to, but I remember her by the sparkles around her eyes. She was beautiful. When I talked to her, my view of prostitutes changed immensely. They're just girls like me; a lot are younger or the same age. It was an amazing experience. For us to be able to look back at them and see them cradling that rose and smelling it, was something beautiful..

The next day we spent most of the day at Siloam Mission, a homeless shelter. We spent time in the kitchen preparing meals and filling up plates, as well as on the floor gathering dishes and spending time talking with the people there. There were a few people that stood out to me there. Each one of them just wanted to sit and talk with me. They were so sweet and kind, and I definitely got quite a few compliments from them. It was so awesome to hear their stories and their dreams -- which were big! At the time we were there volunteering, they had an opportunity for the people there to get a flu shot. There were TV crews and cameras all over the place. Some of us made it on the news! You can see us in the background: (I'm wearing purple!)

http://www.cbc.ca/video/news/player.html?clipid=1310442235

That night we went to the youth correctional center and got a tour of the place and did a chapel service. About 30 kids between the ages of 13 and 18 showed up to the service, where we sang some songs and each shared something. I talked about how healthy people don't need a doctor. How Jesus came and spent his time with the tax collectors and the sinners... and how he wants to spend time with all of us regular people. Afterward we were able to spend some time interacting with the youth and got to hear some of their stories.

On Wednesday we had a cultural day. We played a game that day that involved two tribes and one group of missionaries. I was a missionary (which is the hardest role!) Us missionaries had to go into an unreached people and reach them. We had to learn their language and customs and figure out how to communicate with them. It was lots of fun, and we all had to act a little crazy.

On thursday we did the downtown plunge. It was a day of being homeless. We had to go out onto the streets and we had a bunch of tasks. We had an extra lunch that we had to give away. My team found a homeless guy named Richard, and we gave him the lunch. He'd been on the streets for seven years asking for change. Another thing we had to do was panhandle. Yes, ask for money. This was very hard. We had to ask at least 5 people, and the first 4 people I asked just said no or walked away. The last person gave me a toonie! But he aslo wanted to know why I needed the money and he said I needed to get a job. Even after I told him I wasn't really homeless, he didn't listen to me and recommended that I get a job. :/

That day we also had bus tickets and we had to go somewhere on the bus and talk to someone. I met a girl named Emily who is a tattoo artist. I told her what we were doing and she shared about her life. Later that day we planned a halloween costume for Julia and Kerry, two girls from the neighbourhood.

When we got back to the house on Friday, we were all pretty tired and didn't do much that night. BUT.. the next day was Halloween! SO, Kathryn, Jenny and myself dressed up as the Ninja Turltes (Donatello, Michaelangelo, and Raphael (that was me)). We went to a comic con (a big comic convention) and so many people there wanted to take our picture! I felt kind of famous. Also, Adam West was there. Yes, batman. It was just a great time. Here's us getting a picture with a cute little boy!



MA week was really great -- my favorite so far. I have lots of stories from the week, so if you have any questions or if you want to hear them, don't be afraid to ask!

I'll let you know about this week while I'm here. We have a speaker in named John (Jack) McNeil. He's an anthropologist, and he's been speaking on Global Missions and a lot about culture. It's going great, I find him so interesting and I'm learning a lot. This week has been pretty slack besides the lectures. I guess for fun night on monday, Jenny, Kim and I went to the theatre (the cheap theatre) and watched My Sisters Keeper. Just so you know, in case you haven't seen it, it is so sad. I cried during the whole thing. Best fun night ever.. lol.

Umm... but yea, that's all that's been going on with me lately! Be sure to leave a comment. Thanks for reading!

PS -- I miss you all a lot!

one month?

WOW.. has it been a month already? We are now 1/3 done with the lecture phase!! Thailand is getting closer and closer and we have been preparing! I hope that you all have been checking the other blog out, because I really haven't been posting on this one as often. As a reminder, the link to the other blog is ywamwinnipeg.com.

Well in my last post I talked about my day of poverty. It was a hard day, I'm not going to lie. I didn't eat much that day because it made the experience that much more realistic. I was hungry and I was cold all day. It was honestly hard to ask people to borrow things all the time. I felt like it was easier to just go without something that I wanted, than to ask someone for it. It really did open my eyes to some of what people who really do have nothing have to deal with daily.
So, most of the stuff that's been going on lately is posted on the other blog, but here are a few stories just for you!

The other day, Janelle and I went to the Fyxx (a coffee place) to work on our book reports and journals. We spent most of the afternoon there. On the way back, a man on the street asked us for a bit of money and as I got some out of my backpack, I asked him a few questions. He told us that he didn't have home and during the winter he just finds a place on the streets to sleep. It broke my heart. His name is Phillip Hart if you could just remember to pray for him, and that he could find a place to stay.

We are introduced to so much of that around here. It's hard to see people like that, and look them in the eye and see their hopelessness. When you take the time to talk to them for a bit or ask them their name, they are just so grateful. One thing that Phillip said to us that stuck in my mind, was, "I respect you, because you respect me." People like him just want to be acknowledged as a human being. So many people just keep walking, and it's easy for us to just say no and move on with our lives. I encourage you to take time to talk with people who are ignored.
So next week is Mission Adventures week! I won't have a computer, cell phone or ipod all week and we are spending a lot of time on the streets doing some urban missions! I'm really excited. I know I'll have a few stories to tell after that week, so be sure to check this after!
OK so we had a speaker awhile ago who's name is Chris Whitler.. and he does a great t-rex impression. Check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_ZBcSVxhwc
It's really funny.

Anyway, I am going to try to write to you guys sooner next time!! And soon, I'll know what the exact outreach amount will be, and how far I am from it. Thanks again to everyone who is supporting me and praying for me. I appreciate it so much. Talk to you all soon! Be sure to leave comments. Have a great week, everyone.