Our Mission Field

Whether it is in China, Texas, or Mexico, I think it is safe to say that our church has a heart for missions. I never realized how much missions can play into someone’s life, and I am the perfect example of how it can make a huge impact.

I have been on multiple mission trips in my life to many different places; Myrtle Beach, West Virginia, and Mexico just to name a few. When our church first started talking about mission trips to China (2015) I was intrigued. I attended the first meeting and soon came to realize that my dream of going to China was not going to be able to happen that year due to school and other things in my life. I told myself, ok, next year (2016) I will go to China. As the first trip came and went I grew even more excited to go on this what seemed to be amazing trip. Michele Cordray and I started talking a lot about the work they do in the orphanages and how they help with ICC. My excitement kept growing and I couldn’t wait till the next trip.

It was finally time for the church to start planning the second trip to China and I was the first to tell Michele that I wanted to go and I once again went to the information meeting all wound up about going to China. As I found out more details about the trip, I came to realize that I was once again not going to be able to go on the China Mission Trip this year. I was disappointed and somewhat heartbroken, but I tried to tell myself that it would all work out and maybe there was a reason I wasn’t meant to be on this trip.

As we know, the China team is there now spreading God's love to many people. I love seeing all the posts about how happy the children and workers are to have our fellow church members there to help. Even though I was happy they were there I was also bitter because I wanted to be in China this year helping and loving on the children. I had been praying and praying for God to show me the reason I was not on this trip and I was quite honestly getting upset because to me it seemed like I would have been doing a lot more in China for Him then I am here.

That was when it hit me like a ton of bricks. Why did I have to be in China to witness and share Gods love? I DIDN’T. God had a plan all along to keep me here these past two weeks and now I know why. I have a dear friend that invited me to dinner one night and over for a girl's night just to catch up. As always we had a great time and when it came time to go to sleep she just looked me dead in the eyes and started asking all these questions about God and The Bible. I was completely shocked when she started asking me these questions. I have been praying for my friend for a long time, that she would realize she needed to become a follower of Jesus Christ. As the questions and answers kept coming I soon realized that this was MY mission field for these couple of weeks. God had placed me there at her apartment for what we thought was going to be a normal girl's night and yet it ended up being a chance for me to witness and show God's love to one of my dearest and best friend.

I want us all to think about “our mission field” and how can we share God's love here.  We don’t always have to be a long way from home to show how God has impacted our lives. I would also like to ask if you would help me pray for my friend and pray for me and others that are sharing God's love to her. Hopefully she will realize she is lost and will come to know Jesus as her personal savior. 

Ashton