Week 1

Wow, I can't believe it's been an entire week since I arrived in Kunming! God has done some amazing things! My heart has grown, been stretched, matured, and had a deeper faith level since being here. And my summer has only just begun!

Most mornings, when it is not down-pouring =), Amanda and I meet with Sunshine and Joyce in the local park to pray. It is so much fun to encounter God together and encourage one another! During the week days, Jason teaches a class to about 7 Chinese believers. In this class I have learned so much and grown immensely! One thing that has hit me in these teachings is that everyone is an image bearer of God. The Muslim, the terrorist, the white janitor, the island boy, the African mom, the Irish street vendor, the American business guy, the busboy, the South American girl stuck in human trafficking----they are all shangdi di xin xian (image bearers of God)! It is so cool to see people in this way. You end up viewing them as someone who is very special to God, and treat them as such. Another thing I learned is that we should not worry about our future but let God uphold everything in His hands because He truly has our best interest at heart. Another one was that we should pray continually......like all the time. That is crazy to think about! I got to lead the devotion for one of the classes this week and I did it on prayer.

We also got to go to a Mosque and pray for the people there. God has really burdened Amanda's and my heart for the Hui people and the minority groups in China. They are so open to the gospel and only need someone to just share with them! God, send me! I was also moved by the scripture, "Seek first the kingdom of God and righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." So if I follow God's will and His kingdom, then everything God wants to give me He will! I got to help teach English to some children at the EZ Talk school with Jason and Amanda. There was a little girl who was only 4 and could read and write English!!! That was amazing!

I've also been able to sit down and talk with both Jason and Felicia. It is so good to hear what is on their hearts and learn about the people around me! God has used, and is using them in amazing ways! On Saturday and Sunday I was sick, but I am feeling much better. I had dumplings (joutsa), the thing that I think made me sick the first time, again last night and it made me feel bad again. It is sooooo yummy though. I guess no more joutsa for me. =( Please pray my tummy keeps adjusting. Culture shock wise.....I'm doing really well. I am learning lots of Chinese and lots about Chinese culture. I am learning so much! And my jet lag is all gone now. =)

Some fun things I've gotten to do:
-I got to eat at the Grass restaurant...it was yummy!
-I have eaten lots of yummy Chinese food!
-I went to Walmart....it is kinda like USA Walmarts....but not really
-I've been to down-town Kunming and got to see many western stores and restaurants plus really cool old Chinese gates
-Go shopping at the Bird & Flower market---they sell squirrels for pets!
-Go to the Green Lake park---it was so beautiful!
-Have coffee and encourage a teenager of some missionaries here
-Meet lots of fellow Chinese believers and encourage them
-Eat arqui (a middle eastern breakfast burrito)
-Spend time with Joyce (one of my good Chinese friends here)


You can check out pictures on my facebook page! Thank you for praying!
Ashton

One of three old gates of the city in downtown Kunming.

Ni hao from China!!!!!!!!

Hi everyone!!!!

I'm in China!!!!!!!!! WOWOWOWOW! I arrived in China on Thursday, 3pm China time. All of my layovers, switching planes, luggage checking, customs, immigration, flights, all went really smoothly! Thank you so much for your prayers!!! On the way to my first stop in China, I sat by Mr. & Mrs. Wei. It was fun to be able to talk with them and learn a little Chinese. Mrs. Wei also gave me their address and phone number so that when Amanda and I go to Beijing, we can meet up with them and she can make us dumplings. =)

After arriving in Kunming, I met Felicia and Amanda who took me to their home. I was able to shower(!!!!) and then the whole family and Joyce, a former student of theirs, took me to the Grass restaurant. Dinner was amazing! I love Chinese food! After dinner I was able to talk with Felicia for a while. It was really good to get to hear her heart and about the lives of those now around me. I was able to stay awake until 8pm and finally crashed into bed. But now it is 6am and I'm wide awake! =)

Today, Amanda, Joyce, and I are going to the square (2 blocks from their home) to pray at 8am. Then the students get here at 9am for class. Please pray that my stomach will rapidly adjust to Chinese food and that I won't get sick, pray that I'll recover from jet lag quickly, pray Chinese comes quickly, and pray that I will be used by God to impact the lives of those around me!!!!

Blessings,
Ashton

Leaving today!

WOW!!!! I get on a plane in 4 1/2 hours! From Kansas City I fly Frontier to LAX airport. I have about a 7 hour layover and then I fly China Southern to Guangzhou/Baiyun. I have a 5 hour layover and then head on to my final destination, Kunming, again on China Southern. =) The really nice thing about being picked up by two foreign women........they are the only blonde and red-head in the whole airport! =)

Please pray for safe travel, that my luggage arrives with me, safety, ease of switching planes, ease of culture changes, and that God would encounter me in this time!

Next time I blog will be from China!!! =)

Blessings,
Ashton

4 Days left in the States

4 Days.......4!!!!! I can't believe how much time has flown by! I leave on Tuesday the 21st.....wow!!!! So many of you have been such a key part in this journey supporting me in the planning stages, financially, prayerfully, logistically.....thank you so much for being part of this stage in my life! I still find myself saying, "Oh, I want to go on a mission trip!" and then realizing.....I am! =) As I read my old blog posts, it has been fun to see my missionary heart learning how to take flight and follow God's leadership. God has blessed me immensely! Not only am I 100% funded for China, God has raised almost $8000 this past year for both Taiwan and Japan, and now China. I always said that if it's God's will, He will bring in the money.....and He has proven Himself faithful! In both cases the time in which the bulk of the money had to come in was too short for man's timing and could only be God. He is so faithful to complete the work He has started in us! =)

My grandparents came to visit on Friday and we went to Boonville, MO to go bike riding on the Katy Trail and stay at the Hotel Frederick. It was lots of fun! We rode about 24 miles on Monday and about 15 miles on Tuesday. =) It has been really relaxing the past couple of days to enjoy time with them. This weekend we are going camping at Stockton Lake. I apologize for not blogging sooner!

As the day of my departure for China draws nearer, I guess the prayer on my heart is that God would encounter me in a fresh way and that His presence and Spirit would flow from me to the Chinese people. I want my life to be a testimony to the Chinese people. In a country where Christianity is outlawed, I want my every day actions to be my words. I want my dance to speak to the hearts of the Chinese. I'm so excited to see the ways that God is going to use me this summer!!! It is such a blessing to be His tool to do His purposes.

One of the things He has been teaching me is how to respect people; my elders and friends alike. It is so important that we learn how to treat our fellow brothers and sisters. And what I have found is that it mostly boils down to the fruit of the spirit. If we are utilizing all of these in our daily lives, respecting and honoring others comes almost naturally. Respect is also a part of marriage! It is part of our marriage to God as well as to our earthly spouse. All to say, respect is important! I have only discovered the edge of the Grand Canyon of God's mysteries!

Some prayer requests:
>Safe travel
>Peace for my parents as I'm traveling by myself
>That my suitcase arrives safely
>Amanda (the other intern in China) as she was sick yesterday
>Blessing on the Winkle household
>Blessing on the students in the school the Winkles teach in
>That God would be made known by me living summer 2011 in China

Have a blessed day!!!! Thank you for everything!

Love,
Ashton =)

16 days

Wow.......16 days. Well, soon to be 15 since it is late tonight. I'll give you a quick update on life. My dance studio just performed Firstborn from the Dead this weekend. The performances went really well and I'm so blessed that God showed up in the performance! The show begins showing a picture of what the throne room looks like with the Trinity, 4 living creatures, 24 elders, and angels. It then shows the incarnation, the shepherds in the fields, the birth of Jesus, him growing up and preaching in the temple, his baptism by John the Baptist, the temptation of Satan in the wilderness he overcame, the calling of the disciples, the feeding of the four thousand, the little children coming to him, him as the healer, the sinful woman/woman at the well/woman with the issue of blood, Mary Magdalene sitting at his feet listening to him, him calling Peter to walk on the waves to him, his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the last supper, Gethsemane, the crucifixion, the saints rising, the veil in the temple being torn, the burial of his body, his time spent in Sheol and him taking back the keys of the kingdom, and his ascension. It's a full and impactful performance!!!!! (In one show alone I was in 16 pieces!) One of the things I was pondering throughout the performance was the humanity and real-ness of Jesus. He was a real human being with real siblings; with real friends. Seeing one of my good friends, Stanton, play the role of Jesus made it really easy for me playing the role of a disciple to see how after 3 years this was one of my good friends and my leader whom I trusted. It made the Bible so literal and real to me. Sometimes I think we forget that Jesus wasn't just a nice story book character. But he was an actual man with actual flesh who really suffered and died for us. It was really cool to be able to place myself as an actual character in the stories from the Bible. Especially since the disciples were all my good friends and we were actually a band of friends like the real disciples were.

Another thing I have been pondering is that God also knows every desire of your heart. It says in Ps. 37:4 that if we delight ourselves in God, then He will give us the desires of our heart. That has been one of my favorite verses for years. Because when you delight yourself in God, His desires become your desires! It also says in Ps 38 that He knows all of our longings and that they lie open before him. So even though sometimes we think God doesn’t know what’s going on inside of us and inside our mind, we can take confidence in the fact that He knows us completely and knows all our thoughts, desires, and life problems. He created us with those desires! I’ve been learning lately to stop trying to run my life and let God run my life. It’s so much easier when we know God is in control! He wants all of us, our time, money, energy, dance, school, work, hang time……He wants to be the center of attention. =) And if we live our lives as arrows pointing to Him throughout our daily activities, we have accomplished a great goal.We were made for His glory!

Just some food for thought. =) Wow, I still can't believe I leave in 16 days.....so much to do! Pray that I am able to spend my time wisely and all the preparations go smoothly!!!! The intern that will also be there while I am there, Amanda, left today.....so exciting! Pray for traveling mercies for her! =)

Blessings!
Ashton

41 Days!

Today is an exiting day! At about 12:20am, my dad and I purchased my plane ticket to China!!!!! =) I will officially be leaving on June 21st, 2011 and arriving in China on June 23rd. I will return on August 8th, and get to Kansas City about the same time I leave China.......gotta love time change. =) I fly to LAX on Frontier Airlines and then to China on China Southern Airlines. Coming back I fly China Eastern Airlines and Frontier again to KC. Please pray for these airlines and pilots that they will be blessed and everything will run smoothly. I still cannot believe this is happening! God is so good! So, I will be getting on a plane in 41 days. =) Wow!

I also have another praise report. I am 95% funded! Please continue praying and believing with me that the rest of the money comes in.

Now the packing process begins. What to take, what not to take. Pray that God would cause me to remember everything that I need to take and that if I'm not supposed to take it, that it will stay behind. I've never gone somewhere for 7 weeks, so this is a new experience! Please pray for my parents and sister too as they are adjusting to the reality that I won't be here this summer.

I can't get over the fact that I'm actually going.....I'm going to China! God's plans for our lives surely take us on the most amazing journey we could ever think of! Three years ago if you had told me if I would go to China by myself, I would never have believed you! But God is so faithful to continue to draw us after His plans and purposes!

Thank you for praying!
Ashton

Visa finally came!!!!

My visa finally arrived today at about 4pm. =) Yesterday I got an email from the FedEx tracking system saying that my visa was delivered to my front door but when I went to get it, it was no where to be found. I went up and down the street to see if they had mis-delivered it to a neighbor's door but still couldn't find it. I ended up calling FedEx who discovered the driver had delivered my passport/visa to a completely different house on a different street. So they said the driver would have to retrace his steps, find the package, pick it up and deliver it to my house. So today when I still didn't have the package, I called again. They said the driver had yet to locate the package. So my mom and I prayed, they found it, and delivered it to my door! =) God is good!

This is just another sign I am supposed to go on this trip! If they had lost my passport there would not have been enough time to get another passport, send it to the visa agency, get it back and purchase a plane ticket even if we had expedited it. God obviously has big plans for me for this summer! =) This has been such a fun journey to see how if it is God's will, He will bring it to pass if we do our part! =)

Have a blessed day. Thank you again for praying! =)
Ashton =)