Ashley's Updates

Well, it took me 48 hours, 3 face masks, and a ton of vending machine food, but I made it back to Canada! I know I posted it on Instagram and Facebook, but I realised after I posted it that I was pretty vague, and a lot of you have no idea what my plans are. Am I back for good? Is it just a short time? What's going on? I got a lot of these kinds of messages, so I think I need to clear the air. Much to my mother's dismay, I am not back for good. With all the 2020 outreaches cancelled and doing mainly admin work since February, I had been staying on board out of obedience to the Lord. It wasn't easy, for sure, but I am so grateful for the experience and all the ways the Lord revealed himself to me, and the deep friendships I developed. And to be fair, it wasn't all bad. I had some amazing times as well!   That being said, at the beginning of August I received confirmation from God that I was released to go for a break whenever I wanted to. That was scary for me, cause I w...

I think if I were to ever write a book about my life, that would be the title. Yeah Proverbs 3:5-6 is a coffee cup verse: it's everywhere, and everyone knows it; but unfortunately I think that seeing it all the time lessens the meaning of it. There's a reason it's on every coffee cup and inspirational Christian poster. It's because as humans we have no idea what the heck we're doing in life even if we pretend (or even convince ourselves through pride) that we do. The truth is that we know very little, and God knows very much, and we need to trust in His understanding and not our own. How massively powerful is that? Victory! (More to come on this later) If I were to lean on my own understanding right now, I might say to myself, "I've only done maybe 100 hours of nursing this year. I'm halfway through my 2 year commitment and I haven't sailed anywhere. I hate Microsoft excel, what am I still doing here?" Trust me, I've said these things to my...

The past month has been unlike any I have ever experienced. I guess it's been about six weeks actually. Last time I posted I was feeling devastated by the ship being evacuated due to COVID and being left behind feeling abandoned. God promised me that it would be okay and that He'd be with me through it, and obviously he was. Village shenanigans on my birthday! It's funny how dramatic things seem while we're in them. When realistically, in the grand scheme of your life, six weeks is a VERY short amount of time. Even if you've been in quarantine for three months now, if you look upon your entire life, it's a pretty small season (even if it does feel like it's been an eternity). Anyway that's a bit preachy so I'm sorry, but its also true. But I'll get on with it. I spent six weeks living on the ship with just five other people. Two speak limited English and one worked night shift so I rarely saw him, and so I basically hung out with the other two (G...

I have never related to an internet meme more. To say that this year has been challenging would definitely be an understatement. I remember leaving Canada on January 2 with so much hope and excitement for what this year was going to hold, so much joy and belief. Now it's May, and I am feeling like the girl in the passenger seat of that meme. Roughed up, filled with disappointment, and wondering how I got here. If you've been following my posts at all, you'll have noticed that the theme of the last few months has been dealing with unmet expectations and trying to walk in God's peace anyways. Well, this last week that became truer than ever. Due to the COVID situation, the engineer who was slated to come and complete the final push to get our engines up and operational was delayed until the PNG border opens up again. As a result, ship management in Kona decided that it was time to evacuate the ship until the engineer is able to return, save a small skeleton c...

It's amazing how much the world has changed in such a short time. It hardly feels real, especially because to date PNG has only had one positive case of COVID-19 and that person has recovered and been returned to Australia. The ten people he came into contact with have so far shown no symptoms and haven't tested positive. It definitely feels like God has a dome of protection over this country, which I am so grateful for. Tomorrow the country is holding a national day of prayer and fasting, which we will participate in as a crew. I think that is so incredible, and possibly a driving factor of why this country has yet to experience the full force of the illness. It is also a blessing, because PNG does not have the medical infrastructure to be able to take care of people in acute respiratory failure, which means if the disease broke out, many people would probably die. I know many of my missionary friends decided to leave their posts abroad and return to Canada during ...

So far this year has been looking absolutely nothing like I expected. One might say my expectations have been shattered, and honestly? It's been really hard. I have been so grateful for my faith community back home who have been praying for me and pouring into my life. In one of his sermons from earlier this year, the pastor of my home church said "we tend to resent God when our expectations aren't fulfilled," and it's so true! I was so frustrated, saying "what the heck, God, you promised me X, Y, and Z, and circumstances are saying that's not going to happen!" I was not only doubting God, but I was also doubting my ability to hear from God. It was after seeking some wise council, I was encouraged to run back to God again and again and again and again. The enemy wants you to doubt God when things get hard, he wants to create a rift in your relationship with him. That's why it's so important to run back to him no matter how hard it...