What's In Your Heart To Do?

What's in your heart to do?? This question pierces my mind....how can I even begin to answer all that God has put on my heart? I know it is a gift...it's a gift that he has called, that my heart is afflicted, that I wrestle with the injustice and poverty...it's God's grace to me.

Some days I find myself thinking about the future, the very near future...when we leave the field and move to the states for a little while. I have fears of moving back, fears that I will love it, that I will forget what God has put on my heart, forget what God has opened my eyes to see. Some days I find myself hoping I will forget, that I won't have to be afflicted any longer. Then He reminds me, it's His gift to me.

Some days I'm burdened by what God has put in my heart to do? I'm not capable, I don't have the right gifts, I don't always have the strength, I don't have the words to say...Today, I'm reminded again, this too is a gift. By his grace and his grace only and with his strength. He will do what He has put on my heart to do.

        2 Corinthians 8:11-15

So now finish doing it as well, so that your readiness in desiring it may be matched by your completing it out of what you have. For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have. For I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but that as a matter of fairness your abundance at the present time should supply their need, so that their abundance may supply your need, that there may be fairness. As it is written, “Whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack.”

I'm ready....

God has put on my heart

Isaiah 58: 10-11 - To pour myself out to the hungry and to satisfy the desire of the afflicted...He will make my bones strong.

Ephesians 1: 3-14 - The women of Haiti will know they are holy and blameless before Him...He is the redemption...They are forgiven....He has lavished upon them...They have an INHERITANCE.

Ephesians 3: 17-19 - The women of Haiti will be strengthened and powered through his Spirit...Christ will dwell in their hearts...They will completely grasp all HE has for them!!

1 Peter 2:9 - They will KNOW who they are!

To see the women of this nation FREE!!

To see their children have HOPE!! A hope of a future to look forward too!!

Find favor in my heart Lord..Hear my plea for your children!

What has God put on your heart to do??

{Friday Favorites} - September 14

It looks like I need to start adding more pictures to my blog, since I made my crazy mistake and have lots of black spots on my blog :) It's been a great week, living on a schedule, being a wife, a friend, a teammate...I'm blessed.

 1. Number One Pool: My friends at Respire Haiti had told me this pool existed. I must admit, I wasn't too hopeful that it would be nice..even driving in, I was skeptical. However, the pool was nice, clean, quiet..the only thing that was really weird, were the two giant naked statues that were peeing in the pool (not kidding). We had a great day!!

 2. Magic Bullet - Thank you Schmidgall Family! This has been a blessing. I was able to find some frozen fruit in town and make us some awesome smoothies...Claudy is in love, I'm already out of fruit!!

3. Hammock: Last Saturday, per the recommendation of Cherie and Kristi, we visited a store by the embassy. It was everything has great as they had said (Claudy didn't think it was great and couldn't understand my joy). I actually felt like I was shopping in a target (Ok, it wasn't that nice, but still..). I wanted to buy everything, then realized, I don't need dishes, serving plates, decorations, etc...so I settled on a hammock. Which wasn't settling at all. My parents had tried to bring me one from the states, but it didn't fit in the right dimensions. So, with the help of my wonderful husband, I now have a wonderful hammock on the roof. I have spent some great time with the Lord up there...

 4. It's fall...It doesn't feel like it in Haiti, but my mind knows it's fall. To help trick my senses, I have started burning my fall scents and keep the fan on me and I almost can believe that it is true :) I love this candle, seriously go now to bath and body and buy one for yourself! I will be buying more when I return to the states. If I didn't have a thing about burning scents in seasons, I would burn it all year long!!

 5. Soccer: I told you we were more on a schedule...It seems that 5 o'clock is fitness hour. I go for a run, Claudy goes and plays soccer..I finish my run and watch him play for a little while :) I love watching him play...love seeing him disciple the men that he plays with!! Please pray for him and a couple of the other guys. They are thinking of using soccer as their platform to help reach the community!!

6. Marriage: It has been eye opening.. others had told me, and it's not that I didn't believe them, I just didn't understand. It has shown me areas that I am weak and need to grow. Lately, I've been shown, how much I struggle with value and personal image. I never believe these issues would be solved with marriage, trust me they aren't :) But I didn't realize how much I struggled with them, until Claudy was telling me things, I didn't really believe them to be true.

 I've been spending a lot of time in the word, reading His words and His promises..that I'm fearfully and wonderfully made.  Last night, I was listening to this song and its as if the words were meant for me. Click here to listen.

"So with my arms stretched out I am swaying to your heartbeat.
I am growing with the sound of your voice calling
You are bringing out the beauty that you had put in me
For your joy and for your glory falling.

With my roots deep in you
I grow the branch that bares the fruit
And though I am small I still will be standing in the storm.
Cause I am planted by the river
By your streams of living water
And I will grow up strong and beautiful all for your splendor Lord."

I love that....I'm bringing out the beauty you had put in me....I will grow up strong and beautiful all for YOUR splendor Lord!!!

Thankful that as I walk through this journey, I can minister to others. The 2nd week of October, I will be starting a bible study with the 13-16 year old girls at Maxo's school. We will be focusing on identity! Please pray for us!!!

Hope you have a great week!!!

New Look

Well....I screwed up. I was trying to fix my blog and ended up deleting all of the link to my pictures...Which is why you see those wonderful black boxes. So...to make it better, I decided to get a new look. Thanks to Hot Bliggity Blog  for the new look and all the fun things!!


What do you think??

{Wedding Wednesday} - The Honeymoon!

It's my last post about our wedding...I know some of your are probably thankful for that!!

We decided to honeymoon in Palm Beach, Florida. Claudy has always wanted to travel there and we found a great deal at an awesome hotel!! The Omphoy check it out! We were way out of our class, but it was fun!! We went laid by the pool and were delivered fresh towels, and water that had fruit in it, we laid by the ocean, ate, went to movies, visited with friends, jet - skied and relaxed!! Awesome!!

We had a blast!!! Thanks for following Wedding Wednesday....any other ideas for blog themes??

Ashlee

Wedding Wednesday - {The Reception}

I always wanted something simple, kid - friendly...a time to just hang out and be with our family and friends. We decided to have the reception in our yard, under a tent. Lois and Travis at Creations, did an amazing job making the tent look fabulous. The caterer, Zens, from what I hear did a great job with the food :) We also had a bonfire, smores, etc...It really was a special time celebrating with the people we love. 

A special thanks also to Nate and Kristi Bucher for giving us some of the pictures they took at the reception!

I Don't Understand

There are many days in Haiti, that it is hard for me to be transparent. I sometimes have a hard time allowing myself to feel. If I must admit, I'm afraid. Sometimes I'm afraid to feel. I'm afraid that if I allow myself to feel here, there will be so much pain, hatred, confusion, anger. Tonight, I want to be transparent with you...

I'm angry and sad. I'm angry that people are born into this poverty. I'm angry that almost 3 years later, many are still living in tents. I'm angry there is a storm approaching and not all the Haitian's even know when or that it's coming. I'm angry, that even if they did know, how do you prepare your tent for a storm.

I'm sad...on Saturday, I helped my friends desperately try to save the life of their beloved brother. I'm sad that he died and that there wasn't anyone around that could do CPR, that there is no 911, and that some of the hospitals wouldn't help, because he was too bad. I'm not even sure, how a hospital can say they are helping people if they won't take those that are fighting to survive. That makes me angry.

I'm angry...Today we found out that only 30% passed their governmental exams. What is that?? How do you have an educational system that doesn't provide funding, requires HORRIBLE curriculum, has no requirements for teaching and makes the students take a test, that NO ONE has any idea what is on! Worse...how can you allow 70% to fail and claim you have a good education system. How can you not even see there is a problem...they label it the students fault. I'm sorry, as a former teacher, if 70% of my students fail...I'm DOING SOMETHING WRONG!!!!

I could go on...

I have had a difficult day today, trying to be positive, trying to keep hope.

I know I need to cling to the word and cling to our Savior, because, I don't understand. WHY?? Yet, I know it's not for me to question.

Isaiah 55: 8-9 says, "I don't think the way you think. The way you work isn't the way I work." God's Decree. For as the sky soars high above earth, so the way I work surpasses the way you work, and the way I think is beyond the way you think." 

12 - 13 continue..."So you'll go out in joy, you'll be led into a whole and complete life. The mountains and hills will lead the parade, bursting with song. All the trees of the forest will join the procession, exuberant with applause.No more thistles, but giant sequoias, no more thornbushes, but stately pines—Monuments to me, to God, living and lasting evidence of God."

I cling to this hope...the only hope I can have...that I won't understand and at the end, It will be worth it. He will receive glory. There will be justice, no more pain, no more sin....

{Wedding Wednesday} - The Ceremony

We had a beautiful ceremony held in my parents yard. Thank you to Creations in Alexandria for helping with the decorations, my brother Chad for helping me with the signage, and my friend Laura as well!! We have so many special memories from the day and Pastor Dave did a fabulous job teaching us about marriage!!