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myheartofgold
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Name: Ashley
Country: United States
State: Georgia
Metro: Atlanta
Birthday: 7/8/1983
Gender: Female
Interests: photography, art, music, spending time with family and friends, traveling, Italy, cooking, baking and decorating cool cakes, dreaming of being on some far away island, my faith in Jesus, trying to make a difference, people watching, painting, concerts, sports
Occupation: Other
Industry: Entertainment
Message: message meEmail: email me
AIM:  SUChic55
Member Since:
7/25/2005
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| ...to keep my account active. Keep in touch on my blog: http://loveinlibera.blogspot.com Love from Liberia, Ashley | | |
| For those of you who even still use xanga, you can keep in touch with me on my blog: http://loveinliberia.blogspot.com Ashley | | |
| I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas! And I'll go ahead and wish you all a happy new year! I'm leaving in about 6 hours to drive to St. Louis to go to Urbana, and I won't be back until Jan. 1st. I don't have much of an update....more of an appeal. So here it goes.... Dear Xanga Friends, It’s with excitement that I’m writing you today to tell you about an amazing opportunity that God has provided me with. I have the privilege of traveling to the West African country of Liberia . I will be traveling with a team to Monrovia , Liberia to work with the Bishop Judith Craig Children’s Home. The home serves more than 90 children between the ages of five and eighteen who have lost their parents due to either the civil war or through health-related issues such as HIV/AIDS. I will be departing Atlanta on February 15, 2007 and returning to the States on March 20, 2007. The purpose of the trip is tri-fold, but our main objective will be to build a school building for the children of the Bishop Judith Craig Children’s Home. Another major objective will be to interact with the children through Bible study, recreation, crafts, and tutoring. We will also be providing healthcare for the children, and teaching them about basic hygiene. I guess it would only make sense to give you some background for you to understand why this trip is so monumental for me. I graduated last December from Georgia State University with a degree in marketing, with the hopes of working for a Christian record label. However, for the last year or so, God has really been opening my eyes to the needs of others around the world. I have felt God calling me to Africa for almost a year; and more specifically to go and help the children of Africa . My heart’s desire is to minister to the hurting and oppressed people of Africa , and to share Christ’s grace and unconditional love with them. More recently, I’ve been researching how to start a non-profit, which is something that I’m very interested in doing in the future. In a nutshell, that is why the trip is so important to me—because it’s something that I’ve felt called to do for awhile now, and also because God might use this trip to reveal His plans for my future while I’m in Liberia. My personal hope on this trip is that I will be an open vessel for God to use. I’m praying now that God will make me aware of the people and situations around me, and that my awareness will allow me opportunities to minister to those who need to experience Christ. I also hope that God will reveal to me whether or not this might be something I can be involved with in the future. I’m writing to you today to ask for your prayers and support for this journey that I will soon embark upon. I am seeking people willing to be a sponsor. As a sponsor, I will include you as part of my ministry and this trip by sharing my experiences along the journey with you. I will send you information about my trip preparation, share my trip journal and pictures and prepare a photo CD for you. Any amount of financial assistance will make a difference and will be greatly appreciated. Most importantly, and regardless of how you might be led to participate in this ministry, I would be grateful for your prayers and encouragement. If you are led to participate financially, please contact me. If you would like, you can make the check payable to PTCUMC. Also, please give me your email address if I can communicate with you that way instead of US Mail. I look forward to sharing with you along the journey! Seeking the heart of God in the children of Africa , Ashley P.S. Please keep me in your prayers as I travel to St. Louis to be immersed in missions for a few days. Pray that God will really speak to me and show me where I fall into place in the whole scheme of missions. | | |
| Sarah Louise Hardy is here!! She arrived today (10/24/06) at 11:28am. She weighed in at 7 lbs. 15 oz. and is 18 1/2 inches long. She's a cute, tiny little thing! Mom and baby are both doing great. The delivery was pretty easy once the 2nd epidural kicked in. Sarah Louise arrived about 10 minutes later. John Ryan is still trying to figure out how Sarah got out of mommy's belly, so he's still alittle skeptical. Hopefully they'll be able to leave the hospital sometime Wednesday afternoon/evening. Thank God Sarah's healthy, and Les feels super! She's pretty dang cute; but who would have thought those two would produce a non-cute kid. Anyway, here's a pic to get all of your little hearts 'a flutterin! 
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| I suppose it's finally time for an update. So here it goes.... This past weekend was great!! I went up to Kennesaw on Thursday night to begin a weekend of sister bonding time. Julianne and I went up to north Georgia on Friday, and it was awesome! We went to Burt's Farm to get pumpkins, Amicalola Falls State Park to take in all the great fall colors, and Hillcrest Orchard for some apples! The weather was perfect for a crisp fall day....and since we went on a weekday, the crowds were minimal, which was nice. We actually decided to make a full day out of going to north GA because we were eventually headed to Berry College on Friday night for a Shawn McDonald concert! We were volunteering with World Vision, and of course, got an excellent concert in return. I cannot get enough of Shawn! Alli Rogers opened for him.....and she was amazing! We just went to the show to help with WV because we already have tickets to the show in Athens on the 31st......but, I can say that I'm super excited to see and hear it all over again! By this time tomorrow, another kiddo will be in my life. Leslie's being induced at 7:30am, and I'm guessing that by early afternoon little Sarah Louise will be here!! I'm so excited to meet Sarah, but I'm kind of worried because I'm not quite sure what to do with little girls, haha. It will be interesting to see how John Ryan reacts to her, and if he really gets that "Seawah Wouisee" is here to stay. I'll post with some pics of the cutie-pa-tootie when I've got some. Because of the upcoming excitement, I've been taking today super easy; just hanging out. I get this feeling that I'll be spending the next few days at the hospital, playing late-night mommy, like I did with John Ryan. Or, I'll be playing late-night mommy to John Ryan again. The job hunt is still going.....kinda. I've been emailing someone in Tanzania, trying to get a connection there. I emailed my contact at World Vision on a whim Sunday afternoon, and he actually emailed me back today--unfortunately, no openings. I applied for a job with Compassion International this afternoon. Tomorrow I'm going to email an organization in Buckhead to try to find out more about a position they're hiring for. I'm supposed to make a meeting with the missions director at my church, according to my mom who talked to him after church yesterday. I dunno, like I told my mom today.....there's always been a dangling carrot. I'll keep you all posted. I bid adieu with some fall pictures from Friday......    
fall corn, mini pumpkins, pumpkins the size of small children, top of Amicalola Falls (729 ft.) | | |
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