Ashley has invited Erika and I to share on this blog with her and I am excited to share with you all the exciting things that have happened and the amazing things that I anticipate God will do as the three of us take this journey together. I was given the privileged of joining Erika and Ashley on this trip and it has been wonderful thus far to begin a friendship with them this year. I have been touched by the amount of support that I have experienced individually and that we have experienced together. God has been teaching me to rely on Him for all of my needs and trust Him, even when I think I have everything under control (which is often not the case). I feel like He is telling me " It is ok Leanne, I am more than capable to supply all your needs" and He has proven just that. I am excited to see all that God has in store for us this trip, as I know that are so many people that are keeping us in their prayers. My desire for this trip is that God would use all three of us to further His kingdom, His glory and that we would grow deeper in our relationship with Him. However, as I am beginning to see, His plans are much bigger than anything anyone could comprehend and I imagine that He has something great planned in store for us.

Leanne

As the day approaches

I have been contemplating creating a blog for quite some time as Leanne and Erika and I prepare for Zambia, but with a crazy second year at university I never managed to get around to it. I have finally decided to just sit down and start writing and I have no idea where to begin. I am still unsure of the purpose of a blog and being a person who quite easily can tell way too many details I am going to have to be thoughtful of what I share with you.

I suppose a good place to start would be with the reason behind the title of this blog. At this past Christmas my dear friend Sonia Thomas gave me a devotional book entitled "Voices of the Faithful." She explained that it was a devotional compiled from missionaries from all around the world and each month the stories from the missionaries had to do with a specific topic. God definitely has been using this book in many ways over the past four months and I will just share a couple quick stories that will hopefully be an encouragement to you, as they were to me.

Beth Moore, the best-selling author and Bible teacher, is the one who writes the introductions to each month and when I first started reading this devotional something that she said caught me off guard. She said, "One word: Jesus. Before I clearly knew who He was, I knew there were people willing to go anywhere and do anything to tell people about Him. Jesus must be something, I mused. And that He was." There were two things that I gleaned from these couple of sentences. One: I wanted to know this Jesus more and understand more about this One I had chosen to follow. Two: I wanted to be like these people that Beth talked about who were willing to go anywhere and do anything to tell people about this Jesus.

Back in September, my friend Erika and I had a random encounter with one of my professors and I told him that I was thinking of looking into working at a school the next summer, since I love working with children. Erika asked me later if I was serious when I had told him that, because all summer she had been pondering the thought of travelling to work at a school the following summer. We both laughed at the craziness of the thought two of us travelling to some distant land. Rather than dismiss the crazy idea, we decided to bring it, right there at the bus stop at the university, to our God in prayer. You see, we had both been through an interesting past couple of years and, in our own ways, had learned the importance of bringing every single thought, desire, thanksgiving or concern to our Lord who had saved us and brought us into His marvelous light.

Here we are 7 months later, leaving for Sakeji School in Ikelenge, Zambia in 2 days! Since September, God has shown us in the most amazing ways His immense love for us and His longing to take care of us. He has provided us with another sister to join us on our adventure, Miss Leanne Van Veen, an incredible amount of support from our loving families at home, at our churches (Brockview, Listowel, Rossland Ridge and Southdale), our brothers and sisters in the Brock Christian Fellowship and even from people who we did not know directly. Most importantly, He has given us His peace and confidence in knowing that He desires the three of us to join together and serve Him in this way this summer.

As, I was reading through my journal, preparing to write this post, I came across an entry from January 13, 2011 in which I wrote down sections of Isaiah 49: "The Lord has honoured me, and my God has given me strength. He says, 'You will do more than restore the people of Israel to me. I will make you a light to the Gentiles, you will bring salvation to the ends of the earth.' I will say to the prisoners, 'Come out in freedom,' and to those in darkness, 'Come into the light.' I will make my mountains into level paths for them, the highways will be raised above the valleys."

As I read further on in this passage tonight, verse 10 jumped out at me, "They will neither hunger nor thirst, nor will the desert heat or sun beat down on them. He who has compassion on them will guide them and lead them beside springs of water."

Today we have been given this opportunity; to be guided and led by springs of water. If you "confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord", and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." (Romans 10:9) Twelve years ago made this decision, and although it has been a difficult journey, in which I have fallen many times, He who has compassion on me is continually pulling me back up to His side, guiding me and leading me beside springs of water.

If you too have made that decision, then verse 5 & 6 of Isaiah 49 apply to you! God will honour you and give you strength. And He has called you into something glorious; to share what He has done in your life and through that bring salvation to the ends of the earth!! That is exicting! God is using us, to reach out to those who don't even know they are longing for His love! Friend, do not ever doubt that God has something incredible up His sleeve. He longs to use your life the same way He is using mine. There were times this year when I broke down crying out to God, "why me?!" when I have done so many shameful and unspeakable things to disgrace You, how can I even be used? But, in His divine ways, He has been shaping my ugly and damaged being, into something beautiful to be used for His glory alone. And there is still sooooooo much work to be done, but God isn't finished with me yet, and friend, He is not finished with you either. Cling to Him. He longs for you to run to Him and allow Him to start molding and shaping you into the person you were meant to be.

This is most definitely not where I thought I was going to be going with this post this evening, but that is the beautiful thing about God. He knows what He wants to say and if we let Him speak and actually wait, be silent and listen, we might just start learning more about who He is and who we are in Him.

I long to share more with you, but for now I must get some sleep. I am hoping to share more about this upcoming trip to Zambia as the three of us are leaving on Saturday. Internet access will be limited so I apologize now for the possible lack of posts. I am hoping that Erika and Leanne will be able to share a little bit with you about where they are at and maybe we will be able to write joined posts, sharing about our different experiences in Zambia.

As strange as it may sound, I am sitting here with my heart full of love for you who is reading this right now. I may not even know you, or maybe we haven't spoken in a while, but I am praying that something that God said through me tonight touched your heart.

May God continue to reveal Himself to you this week!

Love,

Ashley