The journey to Moldova

It's official...I'll be leaving for Moldova in May. Let me start from the beginning... It's been a long, hard year for me working with missions. Originally I only wanted to go back to Kenya and didn't really care if that's what God wanted for me. I've learned that I was wrong. God slammed that door shut and it was hard to watch that dream die. So after everything with Kenya happened, I started cosmetology school to just fill the time. Take up a year so then I could go and do missions work in Africa. Again...this is what I wanted. God said to me...you know what,Ashley, that's not what I have for you right now. I have something better. You have to trust me....In the mean time God's been growing this dream inside of me. A dream of...what if I could do hair and missions. What would it look like if I combined these two passions God has placed in my life. This thought just sat in the back of my head for a few months. Then, last month, at the senior high winter retreat, one of the other leaders was talking to me and said ,"How cool would it be if you could go to hair and missions? Work with the missionaries...do their hair. Encourage them. That would be such an awesome ministry." hmmm....I'm thinking..God this can only be from you. So all the way home i start thinking of how this can work and start planning it out in my head. Then a few days after I got home my dad says to me,"I've got a crazy idea for you. What if you would go do hair overseas for the missionaries." Now I'm like..."Ok, God, I get it." So I sent an email to my OM coordinator who I've been working with since august now and just said...what do you think of this. She sent out an email to all the OM missionaries and got an immediate response from 3 countries saying plans they had for me there. Guess this wasn't such a crazy idea after all. So I prayed about these countries and the ministry in Moldova really stood out to me. I looked into it a little more and a few weeks later...here I am ready to send out my support letters and getting everything in line to leave after I graduate from cosmetology school. God has thrown the doors wide open on this opportunity after closing so many. I'm so glad that God is in the middle of all of this, directing every step.

I think this is just the first stop on this awesome journey God wants to take me on. I have no idea what comes after, but I know I won't be in a salon doing hair every day. I want to be out on the mission field. My sister and I have realized we have the same passion about a specific mission field....I think God's in the works on this one. I can see us going out together to do God's work. He's got something HUGE in store and I can't wait to follow him and let him take me there.

So I'll leave for a 3 month trip in mid to late May. While I'm there I'll be able to work in childrens ministry a little bit...Moldova is the poorest country in Europe and parents have to leave the country to find jobs so there are day centers where the kids come and spend time after school til night. So I'm excited to get involved in this. A big part of my time there will be spent cutting hair...Who knew that cutting hair could further God's kingdom and bring him glory. Crazy crazy. I'll be able to cut the missionaries hair...there are 40 of them living in Moldova. I will also get the opportunity to be on a bus called The Bus for Life. It travels around eastern Eurpope and acts as a moving childrens minstry and christian bookstore since christian literature isn't abundant. While I spend 2 weeks on this bus I'll be set up to give free haircuts since many people probably can't spend much money getting their hair cut. This will be another way to attract people to the bus and share Christ's love. There is also an elderly ministry that I'll be able to spend a little time at. I'm so excited for what God has for me there. In my head missions has always been little black children in Africa, so I'm still adjusting and reminding myself that God has called us to reach people of all nations. I have started learning Romanian since English is rarely spoken there. So this will be an exciting and scary journey, but so worth it.

Pray with me as I venture into this. Pray that funds will be provided...this is a "God if you don't show up I'm in big trouble" sorta thing. I've got nothing to back me up if funds don't come in so I'm trusting that God will provide. He's been faithful before...he'll be faithful again. He's always faithful....big thing he's been showing me lately. Pray also that God would give me courage. I'm going into a country that doesn't speak my language. I'll be flying alone and switching flights in countries without English so that freaks me out a little bit. Pray that I would have courage to share my faith and that I wouldn't get homesick while I'm there. Pray for health for me and the missionaries already living there. Pray that above all else, God's will will be done and that he will use me to further his kingdom. Pray for God to speak to me as well while I'm over there as to what my next step will be when I come home.

"I am the Lord's servant and I am willing to accept whatever he wants." - Luke 1:38

I'm so excited that I'm at a point in my life where I can say I am genuinely in love with Jesus. Life is so much better when He's in the driver's seat....not easier, but better.