Precious has a family!!!

Precious went home on December 22! Her family lives at Tenwek.....her father is a pastor, her mother is a nurse at the hospital, and she has 2 big brothers. I'm so thrilled for her! She looks so happy and will have such a great life!! I didn't think she was going to be able to go before Christmas since the courts were closed. I have yet to figure out how this process works! The mother brought Precious a fancy dress to wear home.....so sweet. What a great Christmas gift for Baby Center, Precious, and her family....it's a win/win/win!

God of this City

While I was at the baby center in October, I would randomly listen to my ipod at night and just shuffle through the songs. 3 or 4 songs was usually my max for a night...I had to ration my ipod battery haha. I remember one night I was listening and the song "God of this City" by Chris Tomlin started to play. I thought back to how much I enjoyed singing this song back home. Then I listened to the lyrics:

You're the God of this city
You're the King of these people
You're the Lord of this nation

You're the light in this darkness
You're the hope to the hopeless
You're the peace to the restless

There is no one like our God

For greater things have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done in this city

I listened to every line and thought every line through, but through different eyes. I had seen this town and the towns around the baby center. Every line had a meaning and fit perfectly in everything I had seen. I think that God definitely has greater things to come in the towns surrounding the baby center and the AGC church.

This is my rewrite of this song:

You're the God of Salgaa, Nakuru, and Ngata
You're the King of the people that live here and the babies that are orphaned here
You're the Lord of all Kenya

You're the light in the middle of the night when these former commercial sex workers sell their food and other goods they've made, To the truckers that park along the streets of Salgaa for the women.
You're the hope to the women who've traded their lives of sin in for a job that will raise a family without compromising their relationship with you. You're the hope to the children who don't have a mom and dad to tuck them in at night and tell them they love them.
You're the peace to the women who have turned their lives around when they face the hard decision of going back to the lifestyle of prostitution. You're the peace to the workers at the baby center who get worn out from taking care of the babies all day.

There is no one like our God...You know that all of these children will one day have a place to call home. You know every person who has nothing and is doing everything they can to survive. You know every one of the women in Salgaa.

For greater things are yet to come and are yet to happen in this part of the world.
You have so much more planned here and you're allowing me to be a tiny part of it. How incredible! You have planted an amazing church, and placed a pastor in it who loves you with all he has.



I'm so passionate about the AGC baby center and the people God has placed in the towns around it. Isn't it amazing how we can say "no way, absolutely not" and God has completely different plans. I never thought in a million years that I would want to go to Africa and spend my days with the children and people at the baby center. Know it's all I think about. I absolutely cannot wait to get back. The application process is going well. The plan is to go sometime between May and July. Pray that everything will work out with WGM. God knows what he's doing and he knows exactly what will happen. I can't wait to see what he has in store!

Update on Jesse

This is from one of the missionaries at the baby center right now: "Jesse can stand by himself for several seconds at a time...it's really cute to watch him try to keep his balance. He's really getting around quite well now." It's so good to see that Jesse is doing well and growing up and starting to walk :) I can't wait for him to get an amazing family and have parents and a place to grow up in.

The 3 Amigos

I love this picture of Momo, Andrew, and Mesh. These boys are about the same age and love to hang out together. They all have such different personalities and I love these three boys to death. They can always make me laugh and are such fun to watch as they interact.

Deborah has a family!

Deborah went home with her new family on Thanksgiving Day! She was such a funny little thing. She was always smiling and laughing - even if you were talking to the baby in the crib next to her - you could hear her just chuckling away! She has the brightest eyes and the chubbiest cheeks! We are so excited for her and for her new family! May they be richly blessed by God as they raise her! And we pray she will come to know Jesus at an early age and grow to be an amazing woman of God!

Ida has a family!

My team had so much fun with Ida while we were there in October. She had such a bubbly personality and was doing well. We were surprised (and sad as well) when two weeks ago her real mom came to get her. We pray that the reasons Ida was given up in the first place have been resolved and her young mother will have the support she needs to raise Ida in a happy and healthy home. That she will know love and that she will someday accept that God loved her soooo much that He sent His Son to take away her sin. We pray that she will become a wonderful christian woman who will make a difference in her country. God has a plan for Ida and although we hoped we would be part of that plan for a little longer, we are thankful for the time we had to know this little ray of sunshine!

The story behind it all...

This whole journey began at our church summer camp my sophomore year. We had a prayer cabin that was completely covered in paper and we just wrote our prayers all over the paper. It was amazing. Cabins would go in the middle of the night for an hour at a time and be silent and pray. I went in the cabin one afternoon by myself. I was all alone and I just fell flat on my face before God and told him that I was his...my hands and my feet were his to use and I wanted what he wanted for my life. It was then that I looked up and there was a map on the wall...all I saw was a little orange country: Kenya. I just felt God saying that I would be there in the next five years. I was so excited/scared/nervous/willing to be used. I had no idea what was in Kenya. I didn't know if I would go alone or with a team. I didn't know what I would do or where I would go. I had no clue. So I just prayed. I went through my junior and senior year and put the dream in the back of my mind. I had some health issues that made school really difficult. I had almost given up on this dream that God had placed in my heart.

Soon after that summer camp, my church had come behind this orphanage in Kenya...the AGC Baby Center. I wanted nothing to do with it. I didn't want to do what everyone else is doing. I wanted to be different and do something on my own...that wasn't God's plan. The opportunity came up for me to go with a team of 10 other people that I barely knew. It was to the AGC Baby center. At first I said no way. But after thinking, it was clear that I would go. The team consisted mainly of older couples and a girl that was 8 years older than me. We met beforehand and I didn't think I would really connect with the team, but God knew what he was doing. He placed every single person on that team for a reason. I got to know all of them very well and they feel like family to me now. I'm so thankful God put me on that team.

Now it's my time to go this alone. I really feel God calling me to this baby center. It just started as kenya and has now turned into the baby center in Nakuru, Kenya. I feel so at home in this town. There is an amazing church next to the baby center that I am so excited to get to work with. I am hoping to live at the baby center for a year at first and impact the lives of the children and workers. I can't wait to see what God has in store. I am so excited! I can't see myself being anywhere else in 10 years than in Kenya. I just want to be used by God. God gave me a passion for working with young children and I believe he gave it to me for the purpose of the children at the baby center. I can't wait to hold them in my arms again and just show them the attention and love they need. I can't wait to see each of them drive out of the baby center gates to go to court and get the family God has designed them to be in. I can't wait to impact the lives of these children and see them grow. There is a light in these children's eyes that has come from knowing the love that God has given the workers and missionaries and the love they show the children. I can see these children growing up to be professors and teachers and pastors. They are absolutely incredible.

I'm only at the beginning of this journey right now. I am sending in my application tomorrow and we will see what happens from there. My hope is to be in Kenya by this next July. Pray that the application process will go smoothly. I know that God knows exactly what he's doing. I can't wait to be used by him!

In Christ,
Ashley