Clean Bill of Health

It is with a joyful heart that I'm posting tonight. I wanted to let all of our family and friends know that Dad got a clean bill of health today, or at least nothing a pill a day won't cure. I thank you all for your cards, calls, and visits wishing him well and checking up on him today. I am so amazed by God in times like these. I am in awe of how he knows what we need before we even know that we need it. How great is our God? I have prayed about this for many weeks and I thank all of you who have joined me in prayer for I do believe that where two or more are gather in His name there He is also. So, tonight I'll close with a simple bedtime prayer thanking him for another great day to live as a christian. Dear Lord, I come to you now thanking you for being with Dad today and giving him that peace that I prayed about this morning that only you can give. It has been evident in our conversations tonight that he knew You were there. I also said that You Lord would be given the honor and glory for the great things You would do. Jesus I just bow before you now thanking You for the wonderful answer to many prayers today. I thank You for allowing us to use even this as an addition to our testimony as a family returning to You Father. I praise You and have chills when I thank that today the Lord On High attended to my needs and the needs of my family. I am once again humbled to witness the love you have for your children. I am thankful that I worship and have a relationship with a God who is never too busy for me because I know at times Lord I don't make time for you because I'm too busy. I love you because You first loved me and you know that I can't ever be like you. You love me knowing you don't need me, but you would be delighted to use me in Your perfect plan. Heavenly Father thank you for giving me the strength to believe in You today. I thank you for taking care of my Earthly Daddy (even better than I could have) and giving me the faith to trust You with him. Lord I ask for your forgiveness and help to align my priorities every day with Yours, and to make decisions that bring honor and glory to You through how I live my life. Please show me what I need to change in order to walk in Your will for my life at this time. I love You Lord.

In Christ Name, Amen

Pray For Daddy

Dear Jesus, I come to your throne of grace this morning to thank you for all your many blessings, but specifically for your unconditional love that you have showed for my family and I time and time again. I am amazed at your willingness to forgive and love your children again and again even through you have already given us so much! I would like to ask for forgivness in not loving others with that love that you love us with all the time, and it's being revealed to me, through your word, that sometimes I'm quick to judge. I am so human and you know my heart dear Lord better than anyone else. I am growing closer to you all the time and I feel that I'm at my best when I'm right in the palm of your hand Father. Jesus, as I pray to you today as my Heavenly Father please be with my Earthly Daddy today. I pray with all my might, and all the sincerity that I can bring to you as a person to hold him close today. Lord Jesus, pull him so close to you today that he would feel your peace and be comforted no matter what these test show. Remind us that you are in control and nothing surprises you or catches you off guard. Lord Jesus in Heaven keep my daddy safe and healthy today is my prayer to you. Father, I am asking and believing you today for these requests. I'll talk to you later. I love you Lord. Amen ~Ashley

Going Home "MAYBE"

Hopefully we should be able to move back home around the middle of the week. We have called and have all the appointments line up for the utility companies to come out and run the wiring to the house, the wiring on the inside was installed during the rebuilding. There are only a few things left to be completed { screen door needs to be installed which we had to order and it will take 2 weeks to get here} gutters { the man that installs the gutters fell off a ladder and doesn't know when he will be able to come back to work, so the contractor is going to fine another company to install the gutters}. So if the house passes the final inspection and the contractor has the cleaning crew come in and do their thing we are going home.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday My Sweet Girl Love you Mom

Still Believing God

Thanks for those of you who are hanging with me while the story is unfolding. I left you last time with the great joy in my heart for the people of Jamaica. That mission trip not only taught me about the difference between a retreat and a mission trip, but it also taught me a lot about myself. I came back on that "spiritual high" that some of you have experienced and I wanted to tell everyone about my experiences. Then, tragedy struck again. On Friday, June 23, 2006 my family lost our home. Most of you reading this have probably seen enough fire pictures to last you for a while, but just in case I missed some here they are. This album is powered by BubbleShare - Add to my blog After the fire I found myself questioning everything. The BIGGEST question was why. I wanted and felt I deserved an answer from God telling me why this happened to me and my family. After all we had already been through so much. Why would He allow something like this to happen to a family who was returning to him and finally giving him the glory for the things in our lives. Why? Why? Why? That is what I ate, slept, thought, and talked, for four months. Guess What? I'm still not sure why, but this is what I do know. I know that it was on my heart to get involved in a bible study. I decided that I would be a part of the first ever teacher's bible study at Wellford. We all got together and prayed about what the Lord would have us to do and decided on Beth Moore's Believing God. In the introduction of the bible study Beth talks about being at a point in her life where she felt God challenging her. She says it was like he was challenging her with questions like "Are you going to believe me on this or not?" or "Who and what will you choose to believe?" This of course hit home because I sometimes felt that God was asking me the same questions. I went into the nine week bible study with a heavy heart and needed some revelations in my life. I desperately needed what Beth calls a GODSTOP! Yep, that is anyway that God discloses himself to you. Every day in the homework for nine weeks there were Godstops. My Godstops were completed at night based on Psalm 63:6 "On my bed I remember you." To close out the story after looking back over all my Godstops and studying Hebrews 11 I feel that God is calling me to use these events as my testimony and give the glory to Him. I was believing him that I wouldn't be just a 26 year old with a sad story. I was believing him for more. I want to have the faith that God is who He says He is and my life has not shocked or surprised Him. I want to have the Hebrews 11 kind of faith. I want to have the faith of "Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family." Hebrews 11:7. I want to have the faith of Abraham, who by faith went to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going." Hebrews 11:8 I want Jacob's faith, "When he was dying, blessed each of Joseph's sons, and worshiped as he leaned on top of his staff." Hebrews 11:21 Not forgetting that "By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the people had marched around them for seven days." Hebrews 11:30, and "by faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient." Hebrews 11:31 On the last day of the bible study we were challenged to be creating a Hebrews 11:41 in our own lives, which should read, By faith Ashley...... My Lord and savior Jesus Christ has already started using this to draw others to him. I had the unnerving privilege of speaking at the Candlelight Service for the Healing With Hope Support Group. It was not easy, but I felt called to do it. I felt like that is what I was believing God for. I was believing him for him to use me so that if it was His will other's might be brought closer to Him. I have also been asked about speaking at a Ladies Night Out here at a local church this spring, and I'm still in prayer about that. As well as praying about going back to Jamaica this year. Please join me in prayer about these upcoming events as I believe God for what He can and is going to do! Believing God, ~Ashley

Believing God

I have been thinking and praying about this post for a while. I have some news that I want to share with my family and friends, and NO I have not met Mr. Right so go ahead and dismiss that thought. However, I do want to share how God has been working in my life. Many of you know that I have been a christian for a long while, but at various times in my life did not flesh it out everyday. I was one that strayed and quiet honestly lost focus on what was, and still is most important. Well, needless to say after this past year of trials and struggles I have self-evaluated my life in many areas. Yep, I looked at myself spiritually, emotionally, socially, financially, physically, and mentally. I gave myself an overall grade of "N" for needs improvement. (y'all that's not good) Basically I knew it was time for a change, but I wasn't sure what to do first. That's when Jesus stepped in and Praise Him for it because he knew what order things needed to happen and how this whole thing needed to be revealed to me. So, in December of 2005 my family started going back to church. Today I love church. I love to think of it as God's house and as a place of worship. When I started going back to church I knew the basics like John 3:16, Genesis 1:1, the Romans road scriptures, a few parables, and some of the healing Jesus performed. I had heard of the beatitudes and ten commandments, but didn't know much about them. So for me church meant growth, and I had a lot to learn. I'm happy to report that in a little over a year I have learned so much. I still have a lot to learn because God's Word is funny that way, the more you learn the more you realize you didn't know to begin with. I now think of church as a necessity like water or food. I feel like I need it in order to grow. So, once I was growing and felt pretty good about things I began to hear the call to missions. Yes, me an unlikely candidate. Kind of like the woman at the well, or Rahab. I can remember distinctly lying in my bed one night saying out loud "Look God I'm not ready for this yet!" Then I proceeded to outline my list of reasons why I could not possibly go to Jamaica. Well, to make a long story short every reason I listed that I couldn't go was turned into a reason I should buy a plane ticket. It was one of those times me and my Jesus had to wrestle it out. He won of course, sometime in March of 06. I began to pray like never before and went through a program to help me share my faith called Share Jesus Without Fear. Spartanburg got a taste of what I had learned. I even practiced it on a few saved people, just for good measure. Again church was growth and I was already taking Spartanburg by storm, so on May 27th I got on a plane to leave the country for the first time in my life to go share Jesus with the lost. Praise Him is all I can say. If you are still reading can you see the transformation taking place in my life? I hope so because that was the intent of this post. There is more to come, but for now check out http://www.therackroom.blogspot.com/ for a sneak peek of my Jamaica journal and how the Lord touched and changed me. The rest of the story is to be continued...... ~Ashley

Back to the Grindstone

Yes, it was back to work for me today after a two week hiatus. I always forget how hard it is to get back into a routine after some time off. I am one of those people that can really get wrapped up into my career, or whatever the project at hand is very easily. So, I made myself leave school at the school over the Christmas break. I wanted to enjoy my family, friends, do some much needed cleaning and organizing, and shop (of course) in true single 26 year old fashion! I did all of that and it was wonderful. Here is a photo of the Thursday night gathering gals. We usually all pitch in and bring something over to eat and then watch Grey's Anatomy. It is so good to have a weekly gathering to hear what's going on in other women's lives, and constantly be reminded that everyone has their own triumphs and struggles. On Monday I started feeling a little under the weather, but thought that I could kick it before it got me down. Not the case. It is now Thursday and I'm back at work and on an antibiotic for yet another sinus infection. The second one in less than three months (Yuck). I am praying for better health in 2007. It seems that my Dad and myself have been more sickly than normal since the house fire. Mom and Kerrie are the ones that don't seem to get sick as bad or either they just keep on going and no one ever knows they don't feel well.

I have gotten completely off track and did not even post what I had intended to. That's OK that just allows for another posting opportunity for the end of the week. I hope all is well with everyone. Happy New Year,

Ashley

Looking Ahead

This Mornings Devotion "Forgetting what is past..... I press on toward the goal." It's an old saying but still appropriate as we commence another New Year: "Today is the first day of the rest of your life." For better or worse, last year is gone forever even though many of its effects will live on forever, we can't go back and do what we should or could have done. And we can't undo those things we regret having done any more than we can un-ring a bell. But the good news is that, if we are so inclined or determined, we can put the past behind us and accept the New Year as a new opportunity to grow emotionally and spiritually, to serve God and our fellow man, and to achieve something worthwhile that will last for time and eternity. I am encouraged because I know God has a purpose for your life and mine this year- something to live for that is bigger than we are, that makes life worth living. We serve God by serving people and sometimes this task, because of the great needs people have, can seem overwhelming. However, God has a part for every one of us and if we play our part and work together, we can get God's work done and we can each make a difference in somebody's life and therein help make our world a better place in which to live. Let's work together this year to do God's work and share His love and good news with more of our fellow countrymen than ever before. With God's help and a willing spirit we can each have a very fruitful and productive year. And remember, as Henry Van Dyke put it: "What you posses in the world will be found at the day of your death to belong to someone else. But what you are will be yours forever. My Prayer today I am available, Please make me usable and use me this year to be a part of what you are doing in the world today, the privilege for which I am truly thankful. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. In Jesus Name Amen As I sit and think of what will , should and could happen in the next 364 days, I am amazed that God already knows what will happen, and if we would do as He tells us. Our goals and resloutions should be a snap to complete. Love