Ashley's Updates

In the last month I have been a part of two land based outreaches to inland villages surrounding Port Moresby! I spent hours and hours riding in the back of our truck, and although they were both challenging in different ways, I still saw God move so much, and we had so many impactful encounters with people! I think the first miracle worth mentioning is that I led an entire outreach on my own and it wasn’t a terrible disaster! There was hiccups, yes, but God proved himself so faithful throughout each and every situation, and I also wouldn’t have been able to do it without the awesome supportive team of leaders on board the ship, as well as the extremely flexible team God gave me who were so full of grace! There was one day that we were driving back to the ship after clinics, and our truck broke down in what I found out later was a super dangerous area. The vehicle behind us pulled over to help, and the driver just ~happened~ to be a mechanic from the enclosed company comp

  When I was twelve my parents took our family on a trip to Disneyland, and there was this one ride called the Mali-boomer (like Malibu but boom, yeah?). It was kinda like a drop of doom, but you started at the bottom and it would launch you up and then you would free-fall, and it would do this over and over for a few minutes. That’s pretty much the best way I can describe how these last few weeks have been. There has been so much uncertainty, so many great blessings and so many challenging things all along side each other, and it keeps coming so fast I don’t even know how to process it. The last month has been an absolute whirlwind. We traveled up to Mount Hagen on October 2, not knowing if we would be there for two weeks or two months, because our plans for the last two outreaches had fallen through and we weren’t entirely sure of what God had in mind for us. We didn’t know what type of accommodation we were going to have, but that the hospital was providing it and we di

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  On Saturday, I returned to Port Moresby after spending two weeks in Mt Hagen working with an eye team, performing cataract surgeries for those who had been on the local surgeon’s waitlist for a long time. This is a long one, but its an awesome story of one of the patients that I got to witness from start to finish! I met Lucy and her daughter-in-law Rose at their village during one of our clinics in July. I was helping in the eye clinic, learning how to do cataract screening. Rose brought Lucy in, and had Luc

So I know you’re all dying to hear about our latest outreach in Mount Hagen (or rather just dying to see pictures, I ain’t judging). Boy, let me tell you, it was a wild ride. Not just because we spent hours riding in land cruisers four-wheeling to remote villages on crazy mountain dirt roads. We slept in rat-infested cabins, we sped by tribal fights along the roads because of the election happening (don’t tell my mom that part), and almost all twelve of us got sick with a gastrointestinal vomiting/diarrhea illness. Honestly, it was a challenging outreach. But despite all those things, God’s goodness and protection was so evident throughout the entire time. Mount Hagen is beautiful, with amazing, loving people who are so incredible and generous. But you can also sense a lot of spiritual warfare, like the darkness is desperately trying to hold onto something it doesn’t actually have at all, because Jesus has already won the war. But the enemy definitely has a foothold, as

Important update: I am alive and well, and I have been aboard the YWAM Liberty in Papua New Guinea for the past week! I have spent the last week settling into life with my new ship family, and prepping for our first outreach, which is a land-based outreach to the highlands region of Mount Hagen!  It has been a hectic week of planning, packing supplies, doing inventory, and arranging for volunteers to arrive. Already God has really stretched me when it comes to trusting that He is sovereign, that He loves me, loves what I am doing, and that He will come through for me in the end.  God cares about the little details; tonight as I was trying to pack for this outreach, I felt like there was no way I would get my bag underweight and still include all the supplies we need. But as I uttered a frustrated prayer, that still small voice gave me exactly the answer I needed, and lo and behold, all of our team’s luggage is underweight and we are able to pack everything we need!