Be the change.

It's been awhile since I've used this blog but I figured it was time to get back into it. Have you ever wondered what it felt like to make a difference? To truly care about someone? To be the hands and feet of Jesus?

Well, if the answer is yes, then you're like me. If the answer is no then maybe you SHOULD think about those things. Ever since I was little I loved people, talking to people, being with people. I was NEVER afraid to go up to random strangers and start a conversation, I wasn’t scared of small talk in the grocery line. I love getting to know people, seeing their heart and learning their passions. Along with loving people came my desire to serve and to help others. You need help teaching? I'll be there. You need someone to pay for that for you? I'll pay for it. You need someone to help sing? I'll do it. You need someone to listen to you? I'll listen. And the list goes on.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE to help! I love to listen, teach and to help pay for others. Impacting people for Jesus? That's one of the greatest things I get to do in this lifetime! Making a difference? YES.

Which is why it's so incredibly hard for me to see people who I care greatly about and who I think love Jesus and truly want to follow him NOT do anything. (As a disclaimer this post is in no way meant to judge anyone or hurt anyone it's simply meant to make you think and question and evaluate your own heart, like I'm doing to mine as I write this) We are a generation that I truly believe wants to be different and seeks to be different. So why then are our thoughts and desires not aligned with Christ and his heart for others? Why do we only seek to help our Christian brothers and sisters and completely neglect those that have not come to know Christ as their savior {yet}.One of my favorite verses in the bible comes from Proverbs 31 and it says this, "Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy." Paying close attention to the last half of this verse, the poor and needy. Defend them. Take care of them. Are we taking action? Am I taking action? A popular worship song has the line "break my heart for what breaks yours" and we sing those lines like they're nothing. Oh yes, we sing the lyrics "Jesus break my heart for what breaks yours," but we don't mean them. We say them simply because they're in the song. Because if we truly wanted Jesus to break our hearts for what breaks his we would be called to ACTION and we wouldn't ignore the poor and needy or the helpless or the ones who can't take care of themselves. We would be called to HELP them and to SERVE them and ultimately show them Christ.

Because that's what Jesus did. He loved. He served. He cared for the people that no one else cared about, the ones who were sent away. And we just sit here, and watch and let someone else be Jesus for us. We say thank you God for blessing me yet do nothing to try and bless others. We see a need somewhere and we choose to consciously ignore it. And yea, maybe our hearts aren't always in the right place (that's a whole other blog post in and of itself). But, even so we should still be striving to imitate Christ with our lives and one of the biggest ways to do that is to take action.

James 1:22-25 "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do."


Let's make a difference in this world.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Huitzitizilingo.

I love Mexico. I really do. I don't want to leave but in 4 days I'll be on a plane headed back to Pennsylvania.  Don't get me wrong, I'm super excited to be heading back to my hometown and to see my family, my friends and honestly go out and eat not Mexican food.  I love it but I'm ready for some American food.  Today, we got these letters back that we wrote to ourselves the 3rd day we were here in Mexico.  And i'd say that the goals I had to accomplish God did.  He tore down the walls of my heart and showed me who He was.  He gave me purpose and identity.  He really proved to be my everything.  And now i'm going to show you a little bit of the journey of outreach that i've been on.

Julianne and Lena.

Those two girls they are two of my favorite people in the world.  They were there for me through all of my outreach.  Which was there outreach too of course.  If you only knew how these two came beside me during some really hard times.  They are two people who are inspiring and people who's love for Jesus outflows over their entire lives.

dear, sweet Allyson.

God has really defined my love for children through otureach.  I got the nickname portable childrens director because at every program we did there would be children all around me.  Maybe it's because I made the effort to talk to them or maybe I just look presentable.  Whatever the reason I don't know.  All I know that playing with them was one of the greatest blessings from outreach.  I love children.  It's plain and simple.  Working and playing with them is literally what brings me the most joy.  And hey, if I can put some joy back into their lives then why not?  You literally never know the circumstances of the children.  They could never be shown God's love again, do I really want to be the person who show's them what God's love isn't?  Nope.  I'm going to pour out love on them every chance I get.  Even if it means pushing through a nauseating stomachache just to show a few kids that they are loved i'll do it.  Isn't that what missions is about?  Putting aside our own desires for others to show them that they are loved by Christ and worth the time and effort to get to know.  And honestly the way that is best for me is by working and playing with children.  I really have never felt happier than when i'm with one child playing a game or hugging and just pouring God's love out over their lives. Try it, I dare you.

His name's Miguel and he's the biggest dorkbutt I know.

Now, i'm basically just putting a few pictures on here and I can talk about them a little bit. Hmm. This is Miguel.  He's from Guatemala.  He's one of my best friends.  It doesn't matter that i've only known him for 5 months.  He's someone with strong faith and he isn't afraid to tell you like it is.  He's someone I look up to.  And he's someone I know is going to be there for me.  We talk about Jesus, we share what he's done in our lives, we hang out.  He's been a great help to me on outreach. (:

Miguel.

This was taken on top of the pyramids in the state of Mexico.  It was beautiful there and we had to walk up 224 stairs to get there.  I really don't know how the Aztecs built it.  It's pretty intense work if you ask me.

Monique and I at the pyramids in Tlalnepantla, Mexico City.

Mexico City.

My beautiful outreach ladies.

Well, that's all I have time for right now. I'm about to go watch Glee. I'm in love with Jesus, his love in my life, the people here, my DTS, life, my best friends here and there, and Mexico.  These truly have been the best 5 months of my life. :D

City of Wonder.

So I`ve been in Mexico City for a month.  I leave in 2 days for some unknown place to me called Pachuca.  People will remember me or forget me depending on the impact I had on them.  My impact could be good or bad.  There´s been quite a few people I´ve come into contact with here.  Whether it was from reading the bible in the park and praying for people or the hours spent in church, or the children I´ve had the pleasure of loving on.

This city is beautiful.  Full of people crying out for a savior, who are just waiting for someone like me to show them God´s love.  Anxiously waiting for someone to tell them what life is really about.  Ready for truth.  This city needs a Savior.  It needs saving.  It needs redeemed.  It needs me.  I´m just one person with a little bit of spanish, what can I do? Oh, I can do a lot.  I have an impact. Maybe not on the city itself but on the people who make up this city. This beautiful city.  God´s City.  Mexico City.  Have you ever heard the song ¨God of this City¨? Well, the lyrics go like this

¨You´re the God of this city.  You`re the King of these people.  You´re the LORD of this nation, You are.¨

A couple more lines then:

¨Greater things have yet to come, Greater things are still to be done in this city.¨

Except last night I heard this song in spanish and the words were changed to Ïn Mexico¨  This song alone has an impact on me.  I´m sick of wasting time waiting for someone else to come and impact this place.  Why not me?  I have just as much power in Jesús name as anyone else.  I want to change Mexico.  One person at a time.  This city needs change.  It needs what it has so desperatley lost.  Hope.  People like me can bring that.  Mexico city may not have it´s sights on hope but it is NOT hopeless.

You see there´s these children that I´ve had the honor of playing with these last couple of weeks.  They are sweet, exciting and extremely paitent with a show spanish speaker like me.  They are the hope for this generation.  Except how will they know that unless we show them that Jesús is hope.  They are loved by Him.  And oh how grand that love is.  A love that would lay it´s life down for you, for me, and for every single Mexican living here.  It´s time to Stara living a life unafraid of evangelizing.  When will we wake up and realize this is a life or death matter?   Life in Jesús or an eternity apart from Him.  Do we care that our closest friends, our neighbors, our familias don´t know Jesús personally.  Where is our heart for God´s people?  ¨For God so loved the World.  Total.  Every person, race color, gender.  That verse is so overlooked but what does it really mean?  God sent his son to die for the World.  For every person.  He loves every person equally and wants to spend eternity with them. Except how Hill they know unless we obey and go forth.  We are equipped to share the gospel.  Do we go? No, we are afraid, timad and don´t relieve we can make an impact.  WRONG.  We can I´m not even talking about going away from your home to a foreign country, that´s awesome too and it´s what God´s called me to do, but i´m talking about the people you work with. Your neighbors, the lady in line at the grocery store.  Don´t be scared, I was but i´m not anymore because this is about people´s souls.  It is not fun and games.  People need Jesús, they need hope.  They´re crying out, wanting what they are missing.  We can change that, we can make an impact.   

We can bring hope and His name is Jesús.

when life hands you lemons.

"The spiritual disciplines are time tested activities that are an essential means of receiving life transforming grace." -Jeff Pratt

Last week our topic was on spiritual disciplines.  I missed the first day of this week because I was visiting home.  It was a good week that had a good bit of revelation for me.  I'm not going to talk too much about it because I have more important things to ramble about.  One thing we did that was really awesome was we spent 4 hours alone with God in silence.  We were not allowed to talk to anyone else, just God.  We went to this beautiful spot in Mexico right by the ocean.  I was in awe of how beautiful God created the ocean.  I  loved watching the waves crash against the rocks. It was beautiful.

Mexico

I leave for outreach tomorrow. It's a scary thought because the people here have become my family and having to split from half of them is going to be extremely hard for me.  I'm the official kids director, which is a very exciting and challenging task for me.  Exciting because working with kids is my passion, challenging because it's in a whole other language than I'm used to teaching in, spanish.  I've been practicing songs and learning as much spanish as I can in preparation.  There are 15 of us on my outreach to Mexico City and Southern Mexico.  I love every single person on my team and cannot wait to spend two more months with them. It's just going to be hard because I'm close with the people on the other outreach as well.  I will not have much computer access so I'll update this when I am given a chance.  

My best friend & twin Kara

I have two amazing experiences to share now.  They both have to deal with the faithfulness of God.  One, when I first came here to YWAM I brought with me my camera, needless to say it got ruined the first night we were here.  So, not wanting to be without a camera I ordered another one.  This time a nicer one with more features and better zoom.  It was dropped about the 7th week here.  The lens broke but luckily one of my friends here was able to fix it.  And it worked well till this past sunday.  The motor for the lens is completely shot and it won't work unless I send it in to Canon.  Which obviously won't be happening since I leave for outreach tomorrow.  I was trying to keep a positive attitude about it and know that God had a plan in it breaking.  I knew that I did not want to be camera less for outreach though since I love to take pictures.  But guess what? We serve a faithful God.  I got a comment on my facebook status that someone was sending me theirs.  Upon hearing that I couldn't help but yell out in praise. I was completely humbled and in awe of how faithful the God I serve really is.  I was struggling with doubts for awhile before that but all of that was smashed.  God is GOOD.

Two, my outreach team has ALL the money needed and MORE. Thank you so much for your support, financially and by prayer.  It means the world to me. 

Jumping Rope.

Mikey, my brother Adam, and me. :D

Fabiola and I at local outreach, Circulo Andante.

Alex and I.

Ensenada at night.

Well, that's all I have for right now.  I hope you enjoy the pictures of some of life here in Ensenda. :D

We can't control the situations we find ourselves in, or the struggles.  What we can control is our attitude on the situation. We have the power to speak life or death.  Choosing to be positive and realize that God is GOOD we are able to overcome the struggles and move on to a place or joyfulness that only God can give us.  When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. 

Hello,

Another greeting from Mexico! I'm on my last week of school here.  I leave this friday at 6 in the morning to fly to Mexico City, where i'll be spending approximately the next month of my life!  I'm very excited because I have a really great outreach team.  There are 15 of us in total going.  We will be working with another organization called MegaCities.  They are known around the world in "big" cities.  I'm not sure exactly what i'll be doing besides working with children. I'm the official "Kids Ministry Director" on my outreach team.  And if you know me at all you'll know that children are my passion. It'll be a great learning experience for me as well. My room is a big mess right now because if you can imagine 7 girls trying to pack.  Our team almost has all the money needed to go, I still need about 400 dollars I found out.  I'm trusting that God will provide.  He has me here for a reason. If you'd like to help contribute you can mail it to the san diego office the address is 

YWAM San Diego Baja

Ashley Woods ENS DTS

100 W 35th St # C
National City, CA 91950

If you do send money if you could let me know, that would be best so I can inform the office to look for it in the mail since I cannot go on outreach without being paid.  Do not feel obligated to give anything, I need your prayer most of all.  Outreach is going to take a lot out of me and it'll help me grow into the person God has created me to be.  I can't wait.

In Christ,

Ashley

seeing through the eyes of Jesus.

This week has been great.  It's been a rough two weeks for me because i've been struggling with severe homesickness, emotional stress, burned out feelings and this constant lack of joy i'm so used to having in my life.  This week we talked about team building and what it really means to be united.  It was really a moving week.  It started off where people were hesitant to share personal things but by today everyone was   opening up and being vulnerable with each other.  The kind of vulnerable that only happens when trust is formed and you really start to see people for who they are and not for their crap.

And that's really what happened this week. We grew. Together. As a team.  I'm not really one to look down on people, i get annoyed easily yes, but i don't judge others for what they've done.  So, when past struggles were revealed this week and hearts were poured out I began to love people more than i already had.  Because of peoples honestly, it allowed me to see them and to be able to understand them more.  It gave me more of a heart for them and I truly want to see everyone on my team succeed.

I've felt like i've been in this spiritual slump lately.  It's kind-of expected though being here & learning all this new stuff.  It's easy to get burned out because you're taking so much in and i'm gaining head knowledge but unless i move that knowledge into my heart it doesn't do much for me.  I'm starting to see that.  It's been hard for me lately to accept God's love.  He loves me regardless but I have to be willing to recieve that love.  It's something i've really been struggling with.  Even though i may say I relent something to God it doesn't always mean that I gave it to Him and a lot of the times I don't. It's a motion that I go through.  He knows that but he continues to tell me over and over and over again. I love you. No matter what you think or do or say, I love you.  It's hard because I struggle with not being able to feel God's love around me even though it engulfs me all the time.  He holds me close to His heart because he can. Not because he has to but because he wants to.  It's quite an amazing feeling when you are finally able to grasp that.

He shows his love in many ways and the biggest way to me is through people.  If you've ever studied people or just watch how they are we have such quirky mannerisms. It's great.  I've been given a new appreciatin today for the people here on my DTS.  I've been dealing with thoughts of not being loved or liked by people here but God kindof put a stop to that through my friend Emily.  Emily is a beautiful friend who I admire greatly.  She has a heart full of love, a chill spirit, and a passion that burns for God.  We had taken a walk to get tacos and I poured my heart out to her about my struggles with small group and groups of girls in general.  I'm not going to go into detail but it was a conversation that really helped me.  I'm someone who likes to hear that they're loved it's my biggest love language.  I like to know that I have value in peoples lives ya know?  So, it's been hard sometimes here when I don't feel like that.  It stems from an insecurity I have about myself and a lack of confidence.  Emily helped me see that today.  She told me it was going to be a daily struggle and that I would have to keep telling myself things over and over again. But she helped me regain some joy that was lost by helping me to see things and people in a whole new light.

Well, it's 1 'o' clock in the morning and i'm quite exhausted.  I figured i'd pencil all of my thoughts out while I had the chance though.

love. love. love.

live like a disciple of Jesus.

This past week here in Ensenada, Mexico was great! (: We learned about how to be like disciples of Jesus.
There's two main things you need to do. Are you ready?

1. Love Jesus
2. Love Others

Plain and simple.  If we love Jesus we want to be in his word.  By being in the word we want to love others.  By loving Jesus we want to be in communication with him through prayer.  It's a circle that just keeps going.  Our speaker Art Collins was AMAZING! He told it like it was and didn't cut corners.  He gave us each the version of the bible called "The Message."  Well, we were supposed to pay him so i'll be sending him some money.  I really like this version.  It's not necessarily something I'll study from but it's worth reading.  It words things in a way that's easier to understand. We were given a guide to reading the bible and right now we are supposed to be reading through Matthew.  We underline, highlight and write what stood out to us.  It's a great way to go about learning from the bible.  In Matthew 5 it says this

[from the message]
"You're blessed when you're content with just who you are--no more, no less.  That's the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can't be bought."

How true is that?  Being content with who you are is SUCH a hard thing.  I can totally attest to that but the message puts it so well. Once we are content with who we are then we see the beauty in how God made us and we find ourselves totally lost in a beautiful world with Jesus.

Go buy yourself the message.  Just do it.  You might not agree with everything in it but it's something that will help you comprehend the bible.

Well, that's all for now! I'll write again soon!

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