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