Steps Ordered of the Lord

Where do I begin? I'm not sure, so I'm going to go waaaay back, just to be safe. I committed my life to Jesus around the age 10. The Lord used a dear friend of mine, Rebekah Murphy, along with some other godly influences in my family to draw me to Him. The Lord helped me to understand at that young age that to give my life to Jesus was an all or nothing thing. I had plans of either marrying a pastor or becoming a missionary, and being a teacher was somewhere in the midst of those options. I witnessed to the children I babysat as a teen, shared my faith with classmates in school, discipled young girls in my youth group as an older teen, and attended several mission trips. The Lord was my focus and my desire. I couldn't go to sleep at night if I neglected time alone with Him and His word.

Fast forward a few years...okay, quite a few years and Seth and I were married, both teachers, with three kids. We had talked about missions from the very beginning of our marriage, but with student loans to pay, buying a house, adopting our children, etc. we figured missions could be way down the road for us still. To be honest, the Lord was not my focus and my desire during this season...life was hectic. And then, the Lord began to do things as only He could. God made a way for Seth's student loans to be paid off in full. Wow...what a burden to lose nearly thirty thousand dollars of debt! Then, we connected with the Tisbury's in the calling and desire to serve the Lord through missions. Somewhere in there Bolivia become our country, and we began to pray for its people.

We met with our pastor and his wife to share our hearts and to tell about what the Lord was leading us to do. We began planning a scouting trip. Soon, we realized the trip would not be a cheap one, even though Bolivia is the poorest country in South America. (Just do a search to see how much airfare is to La Paz, Boliva...) We had a garage sale, and really started to simplify our lifestyles to save money and prepare our family for that future transition to missions. We got rid of Dish Network (bye bye Food Network and HGTV), our big flat screen t.v., and even sold our beautiful dresser. We cleaned closets, toy chests, the china cabinet, etc. We began to learn more about living simply.. 

In Christ, 

Ashley