Category: LESSONS

No Answers Yet

Ashley Ramírez

ashley_blog-no-answers-yetTuesday started out as a perfectly lovely day. Granted, it was 6am and I could barely actually see the day, but I knew it was going to be good. I had woken up early to join a few close friends at church for an early morning prayer meeting. Corporate prayer, people praying together, is a mighty powerful thing. It’s one thing to know the prayers that I am praying, but it is a whole other level of beautiful when someone gets down on their knees and echos my prayer. So even if it means waking up before the sun, it’s worth it to start my day in conversation with God and His people.

Another reason I wanted to begin my day by handing it over to God was because Tuesday was shaping up to be a very good, but very busy day. I needed to know that the day was God’s and He had His eyes on me. When I got back home after the prayer meeting for a few hours of Bible reading, I received a message from my friend Brittany. “Let me know when we can reschedule for!” Umm…what? Our 2:30pm coffee date had been in my calendar and confirmed for a week! I wasn’t cancelling!

“Let me know when we can reschedule for!”

“Why are we rescheduling?”

“You sent me an email canceling?”

“No? I didn’t mean to! My calendar has been acting up! But I’m still available today if you are!”
“Oh seriously!!?!?! Nuts!!! I told my cousin I could pick her up from school at 3pm because I thought you cancelled!!”
I had been noticing that Sunrise, my iPhone and Mac desktop calendar app, had been on the fritz lately. My phone would have certain events scheduled while my computer had ruthlessly deleted them! #rude
I reached out to Amanda, my super cool, techy friend who introduced me to Sunrise, to see if she was having similar problems. She was, so we both began to Google their website to send Sunrise a strongly worded Tweet. Simultaneously, we stumbled across this headline of horror:

Microsoft Announces Plans to Discontinue the Popular Sunrise Calendar App

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

WHY GOD, WHY?????

DO YOU EVEN LOVE US????

Ok. Let me quickly explain why this was just devastating news – Amanda and I, and many of our friends, LOVE that app. Number 1, it’s pretty. And we’re all about the pretty. It’s easy to use. It syncs your calendars from iCloud, your Google account, Facebook, all of ’em. It allows you to quickly and easily invite people to appointments. It had an iPhone app AND a desktop app. Most calendar apps only have one or the other. It only cost a few bucks in the App Store. And dang, it was pretty!

For the time being, my Bible time had been pushed aside in favor of finding a new calendar app, because if I don’t have a working calendar, how will I even know when I have time for Bible time?!?

Amanda and I Googled. We Pinterested. We found ugly calendars from 2013. We found ovulation calendars. We found Make Out Calendars (side note: THAT is why we need Youth Ministry!). After almost 2 hours of searching and coming up empty-handed, the question remained:why

Well, isn’t that just the story of my life the past 2 months?!

“Hey Ashley! Soooo…you’re still here! Why?”

“No Answers Yet”

“Hey Ashley! It’s been 2 months, when are you headed to San Salvador?”

“No Answers Yet”

“Hey Ashley! Has anyone given you any idea, even a ballpark, of when you’ll be able to move?”

“No Answers Yet”

But that is just how God works sometimes. We pray and we pray and we pray, but God is silent. I have begged of Him, God, please! Just send me already! I’ve done everything I know to do! When is it my time? Silence. Ok, God, fine. Make me wait. I will wait. But can you just tell me how long I have to wait? Please don’t leave me in this tunnel! Give me a light at the end! Silence.

So I wait in the tunnel. But what’s that noise?? Hello?? “OH HEYYYY FRIENDS! You brought me a present? I LOVE presents! It’s a flashlight…That’s actually just what I needed! Now I can see in this darkness! And a To-Do list? You know I love a project and a plan! What’s that? Oh! A cozy, little nook in the tunnel for me to live in! I guess I’ll just cuddle up here on the floor…A bed! Oh…that’s niiiice! Well, it’s still kinda dark in this tunnel, but now it’s kinda livable! Thanks guys!”

There is a big, over-arching part of my life that is uncertainty. Darkness. But God has not left me alone in that darkness. He is fighting for me. He knows what I want and He knows what I need. Obviously, I want to know when I will move to San Salvador! But do I need to know? Well, since God hasn’t told me yet, I guess I don’t. God doesn’t show us His love for us by giving in to all of our wants. Like a good Father, He shows his love for us by making sure our needs are taken care of first and then He tackles our wants. Can I trust the God of the Universe, the Creator, the One who knows all and sees all to know which of my wants are best for me? Well, when you put it that way…yes, of course. But do I also get frustrated when I cry, pray, and plead for a timeline and instead of opening the clouds, tapping me on the shoulder and yelling, “ASHLEY! Hey! Yeah! It’s me! That date you wanted to know? April 3rd! Ok, talk to you later!” God remains silent on the issue? Of course.

While I was at Missionary Training International in Colorado, I learned the importance of the word “Yet.”

  • “This culture doesn’t make sense to me…yet.”
  • “I haven’t learned how to do my new job…yet.”
  • “I don’t know how to speak Spanish…yet.”

“Hey Ashley! It’s been 2 months, when are you headed to San Salvador?” I don’t know…YET.

“Yet” means that I am still pursuing an answer, that what I am praying for will happen at the right time and that I still have hope. I rest in the truth that just because God is silent does not mean He does not hear me. God hears my cries and He will answer my prayer. He just hasn’t…yet.

Because He bends down to listen I will pray as long as I have breath

Psalm 116v2

 

This is The Day

Ashley Ramírez

ashley_blog-this-is-the-day

Today was my day. Well, today was supposed to be my day. The day everything changed. The day I left Columbus, Ohio with tears of sadness for the people I would leave behind. The day I stepped onto Salvadoran ground with tears of joy for the people God would touch through me. Today was going to be the day I changed my Facebook country of residency from The United States to El Salvador (because we all know it’s not really real until it’s on Facebook).

Today is not my day. Today, I sit in on a couch in Columbus, Ohio. Today, I long for my Salvadorans. Today, I meditate on what the apostle Paul preached and I practice walking by faith and not by sight.

Today is not my day.

One month ago today, November 23rd, I purchased a one-way plane ticket to San Salvador, El Salvador. I found the perfect ticket with the perfect departure time (so long as I didn’t mind kissing friends and family goodbye at 5am!), the perfect landing time, the perfect window seat and the perfect amount of free checked luggage. But if I am being honest with myself and with all of you, it didn’t quite feel perfect. But nevertheless, leaving at the end of December was the plan! I’d be in San Salvador for Christmas, I’d make it to the youth conference with the Salvadoran youth and I’d finally have my dream beach birthday in January! Nevermind that something felt a little off, the plan was coming together!

My plan.

Since the beginning of this journey, I pleaded with God to stop me in my tracks if moving to San Salvador to become a full-time missionary was a road not meant for me. I prayed, God, open the doors that will get me to San Salvador. But if this is not Your plan for me, shut the doors. Slam them. Lock them. Holy Spirit Super Glue them closed because (like He didn’t already know,) I will knock DOWN a door if what I want is on the other side. Father, make it hurt so that I learn my lesson. 

Proof that God hears my prayers: This hurts. I believe with my entire heart and spirit that God will get me to San Salvador. But I was on a road of my own planning and my own paving. And just as I asked, God gave me an obvious and painful detour. Telling my Salvadorans that I am not sure when I will be moving broke my heart. Explaining to supporters that my plans had been shaken up and that “this happens all the time in missions!” felt like slowly pulling off a scab each time it happened. Shouting at God in my moments of despair and frustration felt like an act I didn’t have the right to do.

I  don’t have any concrete answers yet as to why God still has me here in Ohio, but what I do have is healing. What was initially an excruciating pain is now a dull ache. The initial shock has worn off and I have settled into this new phase of my journey. The truth is, I may never know until I see God face-to-face why He has me on this particular detour.

Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
I say to myself, ‘The Lord is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him.’
Lamentations 3v22-24

Because I know that God loves me beyond measure, I do not let my feelings of uncertainty and frustration overtake my spirit. Of course, I have moments when I wonder if God even knows what He’s doing up there. In these moments, I must make it a practice to close my eyes, envision God’s hands tenderly cupping my face and hear Him lovingly whisper, Little girl, didn’t I tell you that if you believed, you would see my glory? And I do believe. Even when it doesn’t make sense, I believe. God’s compassion for my weak spirit will never fail. He will continue to whisper His truths to my heart and the glory of His plans will be revealed to me.

My motto this month has been “I don’t ‘Be still and wait!'” I am wonderfully made by God and He made me a planner. I love a good, solid plan. Most of my plans are set in stone because it’s pretty dang difficult to erase stone carvings. Knowing that God has purposely placed me in a season of “Be still and wait” doesn’t exactly go along with my plans. But what choice do I have other than to do as I have been told? Bitterness against the people deciding when I can go to San Salvador will only cause me regret. Dreams of what could have been only wound my heart deeper. And making my own plan, outside of God’s will, certainly is no longer an option.

Because God is all I need, I will wait on His timing.

Because God bends down to listen, I will pray as long as I have breath.†

And because He saved my soul, I will give Him all of my days.

Today is not my day.

Whatever plan for the day I come up with pales in comparison to the plan that God has already written for me. I trust that He knows my heart, knows my desires and as long as I keep my eyes on Him, whether I am seated on a plane headed to San Salvador or cuddled up on my best friend’s couch in Ohio, today is God’s day, and I will rejoice and be glad in it.

† Psalm 116v2

Keep My Eyes Above the Waves

Ashley Ramírez

ashley_blog-above-the-waves

It came and it went – 4 weeks in Colorado for missionary training was jam-packed full of language learning, culture learning and lots and lots of life learning. I was blessed to make friends with 29 other adults and 16 kiddos (all under the age of 7 going with their parents) headed to the international mission field. My time out west was a beautiful time of growth and restoration. I had spent 5 long months raising support and needed the time to relax.

While I was in Colorado, Reliant (my missionary sending agency) blessed me with their highly coveted “Hallelujah Call,” releasing me to assignment in San Salvador. I spent much of my free time scouring the internet for the perfectly timed flight with the perfectly placed window seat. Not quite finding what I wanted, I came home without my much sought after one-way flight. As it turns out, God was hiding it from me for a reason.

 

As many of you know, it has been my “big, bold prayer” from the beginning to be able to move to San Salvador by the end of December so that I could join their youth group in Honduras for Infinito, an annual youth conference for Central American youth. But what began as a huge prayer, deceptively turned into a huge goal. Praying for something big means knowing that the only way it can happen is with God’s intervention. Working towards a huge goal means knowing that it’s highly unlikely, but if you work hard enough, you can achieve it. I unknowingly had begun to take over control from God.

Over the past 3 days, I have come to realize that God is going to answer my big, bold prayer in a different way. Even though I have checked off all of the necessary boxes in order to be released to San Salvador, God has more work to do in my spirit and in my heart. After many honest and vulnerable conversations between Reliant, Pastor Victor in San Salvador, Rock City Church, and myself, we have all decided that it is best for everyone if I spend a little more time stateside before moving internationally.

One of the lasting lessons I learned in Colorado is that in life, we will have “Yay Ducks” and we will have “Yuck Ducks.” Yay Ducks are the good things that happen in our lives – things we are joyful about and thankful for. Yuck Ducks are the opposite – things that don’t go as planned, bumps in the road, moments that make it hard to be joyful. Life is full of Yay Ducks and Yuck Ducks. When you have both of them, as we all do, you have a pair of ducks…a pairaducks…a paradox.

{pause for eye roll and forced laughter}

Life is a paradox. I’ve heard it said before that if you want the rainbow, you’ve gotta tolerate the rain. In the midst of my troubles, I must see the joys. Deciding to extend my move date has been one of the fieriest trials God has allowed me to walk. It has taken me more than 48 hours to believe it, but God is in the midst of all this. He has still called me to mission work in San Salvador and He has not left my side. He knows that it is better for me to stay here a little while longer, building my faith muscle, than to go and have to come back because I wasn’t as ready as I could have been.

I will spend the upcoming weeks strengthening that faith muscle by learning to trust God in the midst of the unknown. God created me to be a Type A planner, but as many people know, life doesn’t always go according to plan. God is going to build up my “be still and wait” muscles as I attempt to do just that – be still and wait for His next move.

I will continue to work with Rock City Youth (HUGE Yay Duck!) to prepare myself for work in youth ministry in San Salvador. When asked what I will miss most about home, the answer is without a doubt Rock City Youth. Those kids fill my spirit with life and I believe that any extra time with them is the closest I will get to absolute joy this side of Heaven.

If you’ve ever been to the mission field, you know that one of the most important qualities you can possess as a missionary is flexibility. For better or for worse, things rarely go as planned and it is my job to remain flexible. Changing timelines are a perfectly normal facet of mission work. I have had story after story recounted to me over the past two days of missionaries who thought they were leaving in a month, which turned into 2 weeks, which turned into 7 weeks…they all eventually got to the mission field, but it was only after a season of flexibility.

During this time, I ask for your continued prayerful support. Trusting God is a moment by moment decision that has been made especially difficult in this time of uncertainty. What we can all be certain about is that I am going to San Salvador, we just don’t know when quite yet. I promise to keep everyone updated as things are made clearer.

When I prayed “Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders,” this isn’t exactly what I expected, but God knows what He’s doing. He’s never failed me and He won’t start now.

Calm My Storm

Ashley Ramírez1 Comment

ashley_blog-calm-my-stormMy life is chaotic. There is not one room in my home that doesn’t look me in the eyes and berate me with a tirade of to-do list items. I am overwhelmed to the point of standstill.

In exactly 10 days, I must be completely, 100% moved out of my home. On October 25th at 6am, I fly to Colorado for 4 weeks of cultural, international missionary training. On November 1st, while I am gone, the first of my two renters moves in. I am simultaneously maniacally deciding which of my life mementos I want to keep, packing for Colorado, packing for San Salvador and attempting to continue raising support so that I can get to San Salvador and begin walking out God’s call on my life. Oh, and at 8am this morning, I had my right eye tweaked (not to be confused with twerked. Nothing ever needs twerked. Ever.) and “re-lasered” because, although it was much better, my vision wasn’t quite perfect after my Lasik procedure 2 months ago.

My life is chaotic.

I have so much to do, just a few days to do it in, and yet I find myself sitting at my borrowed table (the only item of furniture left in my home is my bed), scrolling through Facebook for minutes on end. “Netflix and chill” is not longer a reward for a day of hard work – it has become an escape from the hundreds of things needing to be done in my life. After reading status after status about people actually doing things with their days, this becomes my thought process:

Do I go through my hundreds of earrings or do I sort through my office supplies? Will I need envelopes in San Salvador? I should keep these earrings – Mom bought them for me when she went on that one trip and now she will never be able to buy me earrings ever again. I wish mom were here. This is hard. I literally can’t even right now. Just ONE episode of Friends while I basic white girl out with my coffee with pumpkin creamer and pumpkin bagel with pumpkin cream cheese. Do they even have pumpkin flavored things in San Salvador? Awwwwww this is my last season of pumpkin flavored everything! Just one more episode. CRAP! There is so much to do and I’m not doing any of it! This will never get done!

Amidst all the turbulence in my life, I have become like Jesus’ disciples in the boat during a raging storm. Water is sloshing into the boat. Waves are threatening their buoyancy. It is dark and the land has disappeared. Jesus somehow sleeps through this turmoil, and His disciples awake him and clamor,

Teacher, don’t you care that we’re going to drown?

That, my friends, is where I don’t want to find myself – crying out to Jesus, HELLLOOOOO??? Do you even care that I am drowning here??  Rooms remain unpacked, my fine things are piled up to be sold in yard sales, my memories scattered to the wind…yet I know that Jesus is here among the disarray. I know that He is using all this disorder to teach me things about my own character and His. I know that Jesus is holding my flustered cheeks in His mighty hands, and as my eyes dart from room to room, from item to item on my to-list, He patiently whispers, Hey! Hey! Look at me! and when my eyes are finally able to focus on His eyes, Jesus asks of me,

My sweet girl, why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?

I am forced to ask this of myself – why AM I afraid? Am I afraid that God won’t get me to San Salvador? Am I afraid that I won’t pack the right things? Am I afraid that if I forfeit a memento to the trash that my memory of that moment will be forfeited as well? Because my answer is yes to each of those fears and so many more, I can only have faith. Without faith that God WILL get me to San Salvador, provide me with all that I need and fill my spirit with memories of my previous life, without that faith, my ship will founder. I will give into living in fear. I must have faith.

And as if in an attempt to remind me why I have faith in Him, Jesus draws me close and calms my storm. It is in the arms of my Savior that I am able to exhale, let go, and trust in Him.

Suddenly the wind stopped, and there was a great calm.¹

¹ Mark 4v35-40

Half-Grown Humans // Over-Filled Heart

Ashley Ramírez

ashley_blog-halfgrown_humans

A year ago today, I followed what could only be a nudging from God and became a @rockcityouth leader.

August 28th, 2014: Rock City Youth Goes to Hillsong
August 28th, 2014: Rock City Youth Goes to Hillsong

Since then, I have watched our kids grow from intimidated newbies to seasoned Youth veterans. I have witnessed one of my girls go from classroom troublemaker to group-chat preacher. I have learned new ways to describe a first kiss and been privy to the maturing and strengthening of what was once a father/daughter relationship at risk. I have seen the sparks of best friendships ignited. I have listened to their tangible fears, wiped away tears and whispered words of affirmation into their ears. I have screamed at God when their hearts get broken and pleaded to Him for words of wisdom when my own words seemed weak and inconsequential.

I know that I have much to learn before I move to San Salvador. What I didn’t know was that God would be using His half-grown humans to do the teaching.

My Rock City 9th Graders…who are now 10th graders
My girl, Olivia

Push fear aside. Love.

Ashley Ramírez

ashley_blog-momToday, August 18th, 2015, would have been my mom’s 67th birthday if it were not for an enemy of her health, one that we all know much too familiarly. Cancer. Mom fought bravely through one round of it, but the second was just more than she could stand. Mom was exhausted. She was in pain. And based on the hundreds of people in attendance at her funeral, she had done enough.

Mickey

As I progress through this adventure of moving to San Salvador for full-time youth ministry, I often wonder if my mom would be proud of me. Would a smile grace her cheeks as she revealed to someone that her daughter is moving to a foreign country to become a missionary? Would she brag to her closest friends,  “Well, Ashley is hoping to leave in a few months for Central America to work with the teenagers there. She has such a gift for working with young people – she gets that from me, obviously!” Would her Facebook wall be covered in updates on my move and posts sharing my blog updates? (The woman learned to text T9 style on a flip phone. Facebook would have been no problem for her)

Or

Would she be so scared for my safety that every conversation we had would somehow be themed around convincing me that I should not move to San Salvador and that I could be just as happy in Columbus and serve God just as thoroughly through Rock City Youth? Would she roll her eyes and change the subject everytime a friend brought up my impending departure? Would articles about the dangers of San Salvador await me at my place at the family dinner table?

I know that what my Father in Heaven thinks of my mission work supersedes what my family here in the world thinks. But I love making my parents proud. There have been few happier moments in my life than when I overhear my parents singing my praises to their friends and our family. Mom spent the entire day beaming with joy when we celebrated my college graduation. She was so proud when I got my first teaching job! I was following in her footsteps in the education field. But there have also been few moments as anxiety-filled as when I know I have let my mom down. Math tests often earned C’s, which led to tear-filled, “I SWEAR I studied!” phone calls in the middle school lobby. Quitting the high school rowing team mid-season was most certainly not an option because I had made a commitment to  my team. My career in teaching went on as long as it did partly because when I considered quitting, the look on my mom’s face when I showed her my above average score on my teaching licensure exam has been emblazoned in the back of my memory.

My mother’s name was Lois, and in the Bible, a woman named Lois is only briefly mentioned once. It is in a letter from Paul, one of Jesus’ disciples, to Timothy, Paul’s closest friend.

I remember your genuine faith, for you share the faith that first filled your grandmother Lois and your mother, Eunice. And I know that same faith continues strong in you. This is why I remind you to fan into flames the spiritual gift God gave you when I laid my hands on you. For God has not given us a spirit of cowardice and timidity, but of power, love, and self-control. {2 Timothy 1v5-7}

Lois and Eunice were a mother/daughter team raising Timothy to love and serve God. They succeeded in nurturing a young man who would grow up to build churches, strengthen the faith of new believers and take care of Paul’s needs while he was imprisoned in Rome.

As I spend today honoring my mom’s memory through smiles, laughter, and a few tears, I realize that she absolutely would be proud of me. Like the Lois of the bible, Mom was raising a child of God and  “fanning into flames” my spiritual gift of ministering to teenagers. She would encourage me to be brave and to see this thing through with perseverance. I know without a doubt that she would also be scared out of her mind. I am going to a country she knew nothing about with people she had never met. Even so, Mom would set aside her fear of the unknown for the love of the unseen. She would rest on her most important lesson as a mother – loving another person, especially a young person, is one of the most important things a person can, and must, do.

That love has the ability to persuade a child to know that they are seen. They are not walking through life under a cloak of invisibility.

That love has the ability to sustain a teenage life for precious hours into years.

That love has the ability to demonstrate to a person that if I can see you and love you as much as I do, you can’t even begin to imagine how much your father in heaven loves you.

That love was Lois Elaine – my mom and my biggest admirer. Would she be proud?

Abso-freakin-lutely.

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My first day of high school – 1999

 

#ashley&amanda

Ashley Ramírez

God’s timing is often confusing.

I don’t know why some prayers are answered immediately (like the time a few nights ago when I bumped a car parked on the street – I examined the damage and realized I didn’t just bump it, but scraped the entire driver’s door! LORD! Please let this car owner be graceful and merciful with me! Turns out, that scrape had been there for months. I hadn’t actually done ANY damage to the car!)

Some prayers take a little longer to work out (Last August I begged, Lord, get me to San Salvador AHORITA! NOW! God will get me there, but this year has been so amazing. I wouldn’t have spent it anywhere else, other than Columbus, Ohio)

And some prayers just don’t ever get answered (Lord, my mom is a good woman. She has life to live. I have life to live with her! Take this cancer! Mom passed away almost 5 years ago. I know God has His reasons, and I trust him, but I haven’t quite figured them out yet.)

And sometimes I get answers to prayers I never prayed.

Amanda is the Youth Pastor at Rock City Church. I am a 9th Grade Girls Leader. Over the past year, Amanda has become possibly one of my closest and truest friends. She honestly gets me. And when she doesn’t, she just smiles, shakes her head, and says, “I love you.”

I don’t know why God brought such an influential, imperative person into my life when He knew I would only have a short time with her before jetting off to San Salvador to live out His call on my life. But I am blessed by every day I get to spend in the midwest with Amanda. She has taught me how to love teenagers, even when they’re crazy idiots (which is most of the time). She has shown me how to love and be loved by the people around me that might not always understand me, but love me just the same. She has taught me the importance of holding teenager’s feet to the flame, pushing them to look inside themselves and come out stronger, more faithful and more independent.

I could go on, but at this moment, I am late (story of my life. I’m on that El Salvador time) for birthday dinner with my best girl, the Harry to my Ron.

“Go in peace! The two of us have vowed friendship in GOD ’s name, saying, ‘GOD will be the bond between me and you, and between my children and your children forever!’” // 1 Samuel‬ ‭20‬:‭42‬

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Prayer works.

Ashley Ramírez

ashley_blog-prayer_worksA little over a week ago, on Monday night, I flew to Orlando, Florida for a week of New Staff Training at Reliant Missions (the organization formerly known as Great Commission Ministries) HQ. I spent 8am-9pm each day learning about Reliant policies, health benefits, retirement plans and how to share my vision of what God is doing in San Salvador through me.

This had every potential to be incredibly stressful and overwhelming.

But prayer works. In the weeks leading up to the training, I knew the potential for complete emotional, professional and spiritual anxiety, so I beat Satan to the punch and asked for prayer. I asked my Youth co-leaders to pray. I asked my LifeGroup bible study to pray. I asked my best friends to pray. I asked Dewey to pray.

And it worked. I was saturated every day with information imperative to my success as an international missionary. I became a sponge and soaked it all in. I know that I am working in God’s will because I worked harder over the past week than I have in all of my past 5 years of teaching. Through the hours of hard work and hundreds of informational PowerPoints, I never once became overwhelmed. At the end of the weeklong training, I knew what had to be done and I knew how to do it. I just wanted to get started.

My Prayer Warriors’ work isn’t finished!

Now that I am back home in Columbus, I am hitting the ground running. My life now consists of phone calls to set up appointments, appointments to build my Ministry Team, Rock City Youth to keep me fresh and cool, my Premier Designs business to finance my life once my teaching paychecks cease and whatever else gets thrown into the mix. NOW is the time when overwhelmation and stress can bring me down. But my eyes are on Jesus and “that exhilarating finish in and with God.” Jesus has done what I am doing. He has run towards God, bringing everyone with him. He never lost sight of where he was headed and tolerated everything along the way. {Hebrews 12:1-3 MSG} I believe in a Savior who understands my anxiety because he has experienced the same anxiety firsthand.

My plea for my Prayer Warriors is that they would ask God that I remember His son’s example and run this race without fear and without exhaustion. This is God’s plan and nothing can get in the way of its completion. I need only a mustard seed of faith.

Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her! {Luke 1:45}

With God as my strength and the Salvadoran Youth as my motivation, I will not tire.

Look up there ➶ At the top of the page, I have added a “Devotions” section to the site! This is where you will find my ministry prayer requests & praises! Join the Prayer Warrior Tribe!

#GOALS

Ashley RamírezLeave a comment

ashley_blog-goalsJune through August are months for sunning poolside, coffee & a good book on a warm, quiet morning and the sounds of an Ohio summer tiptoeing through my open windows at night. Summer is meant for relaxing and rejuvenating.

But not this summer.

This summer, I’ve got GOALS. Sure, I will engage in purposeful relaxation and rejuvenate my soul for my upcoming Salvadorian adventure, but there is work to be done. A few short months ago, I was looking to June 2015 saying to myself, Okay, there is much to be done before  I can move, but I’m getting ahead of myself. I will worry about those bridges when I get to them.

Well, my friends, those bridges are within eyesight and I need to prepare myself to cross them.

• SUMMER GOALS 2015  ➳

I have a big, bold prayer to be moved to San Salvador by the end of December 2015. Yeah. That’s THIS year. Great Commission Ministries (GCM), my missionary employer, requires that I fundraise a year’s worth of my salary before I can move. Don’t ask me how much that is because as of today, I have zero clue. I go to training in Orlando June 1-8 and it is there where I will learn my yearly salary and exactly how much money I must raise before I leave. The Salvadorian Youth go to a conference in Honduras every December and I believe going with them would be an amazing start to my ministry. I also get to spend 4 weeks in beautiful Colorado for culture training in September. But before I can register for this training, I must raise 80% of my funds.  If this big, bold prayer is going to happen, I need God’s big, bold hands all over my fundraising efforts. Challenge accepted.

Goal_2

There was a time in my life when I found very few reasons worth getting out of bed in the morning. My mom had recently died from endometrial cancer and my heart was broken. I knew God was there and loved me, but I needed a visible, tangible reason to dry my tears and put my feet on the ground.

Enter in Dewey.

Dewey is my 4-year-old Boston Terrier. He is my best friend in all definitions of the term. He wants to hang out when everyone else is busy, dries my tears with his cuddles and comforts my soul with his eyes. Dewey is there when my humans aren’t and loves me when my humans can’t.

The little man deserves a few carefree, mud-covered, butt-sniffing hours at the park each week.

Goal_3

This time last year, I was ripped. I had dedicated my life to various, fun, creative ways of exercising and my friends were part of the experience. Whether we were doing yoga on paddleboards, running races dressed as pretzels or kickboxing in downtown Columbus, most of my social activities somehow involved working out.

And then I got involved at Rock City Church. Suddenly my priorities changed and I wanted to contribute to the church just as much as I was consuming. Evening yoga classes were replaced with Youth Leadership meetings, volunteering to serve at multiple church services replaced Sunday afternoon Bootcamp, and my beloved Wednesday evening outdoor Kickboxing & Hip Hop classes in the heart of the city were swallowed whole by Rock City Youth Nights.

I am happy about my life’s new focus, but I definitely miss seeing my friends everyday and the feeling of accomplishment after a good sweat session. I don’t know if I will ever be able to go back to my 6+ workouts per week, but I would like to get back into the gym, see the people I love and share in the gratifying pain of growing solid muscle. Plus, I will need a break from the full-time work of fundraising. If I am to put my body, spirit and soul through the intense life change God has planned for me, my spirit and soul need to be healthy and my body needs to be ready to kick butt and take names for Jesus at a moment’s notice.

Goal_4

My father has always been my #1 supporter. I love my dad more than my limited English language allows me to say. He and I have had our peaks and valleys, but at the end of the day, I am my daddy’s girl and I am going to miss him grieviously.

Very soon, I will not be able to call on Dad to dog-sit Dewey, change a hard to reach light bulb, or answer one of the hundreds of questions I have weekly about how to be a grown-up. In a few short months, we will only be able to see one another through a computer screen. I am grateful for the blessing of technology, but it will not be the same as seeing his giant smile, smelling his delicious, home cooked spaghetti sauce or throwing my arms around his broad shoulders.

I want to take every opportunity possible to spend quality time with my dad before our kitchen chairs are pushed thousands of miles apart.

Goal_5

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:5

So now I have goals. As each day passes, I realize more and more that nothing I do or hope to do is possible without God’s intervention. God provided financial and prayerful supporters who enabled me to go to San Salvador TWICE last summer. Because of those visits, I was able to hear God’s call for my life and fall in love with a country and people that will forever be a part of me. God provided time in my schedule to complete GCM’s extensive and intense application. And God is daily providing patience and perseverance to strengthen me until I can actually make my move south.

The most important relationship I have is the one I have with God. He calms my anxieties, celebrates my successes and provides for my every need. Just like any relationship, it requires spending quality time together. It has been my goal since June of last year and will continue to be my daily goal for the rest of my life to become closer God by daily spending time with Him in His Word. The days when I am most busy and can’t possibly squeeze one more thing into my schedule are the days when I will need Him the most.

Many people look to summer as a time kick back and throw away their To-Do list. But not me. The next few months will be spent turning my To-Do List into a To-DONE List.

#CRUSHINGit