The First Time I Felt Love


Spring Break 2012 I have the wonderful opportunity of going to Guyana!! :)

Why go to Guyana? This is a great opportunity to serve together with students in the Guyanese InterVarsity movement to help make Jesus known on their campus. It is an opportunity for us all to grow in evangelism, prayer, and kingdom leadership.

How can you get involved? First, I would really love if you would pray for me. I have found that this is the most important aspect of anything that I do and with your prayers I believe that God will do amazing things. You can also help financially. I am responsible for raising $750 through gifts from friends, family and churches by March 1st. Would you consider giving $15, $25, $50, or $100 towards this ministry? Please give and pray toward my goal, as God leads you.

To give online go to this website and type in Guyana- Central Region Missions: https://donate.intervarsity.org/donate .

If you have any questions or want to talk more about the trip I would be more than happy if you asked!!!

Email: acarte30@slu.edu
Phone: 414-517-7408 (call or text)
Or you can send me a FB message :)

Sincerely,

Ashley Carter

Ask Me Anything

9th March 2012

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GOD IN GUYANA: DEPARTURE!

Hello Family and Friends :)
Today at around 9AM I will be starting an amazing week long journey to Guyana. I am extremely excited to see all of the amazing things that God will do through this trip and how he will reveal himself in new ways! Thank you so much for all of the ways that you all have helped me to be able to go see God in Guyana!! It means so much to me to be able to say that I am fully funded for the trip :)
I just wanted to let you all know that I will not have access to a phone, internet or any other communication while I am away. This means I will not be able to call or email or update, BUT 
I have put you all on a list and you will be receiving updates about the trip!
I also wanted to let you know what you could be praying for the team as we head out:
1. That we would have safe travels!
2.. That we would truly be able to immerse ourselves in the culture and connect with both God and the Guyanese people.
3. That lives would be changed :) Our own lives and the lives of the Guyanese people.
4. For health and wellness. 
:-)
Thank all of you for your support. I will take lots of pictures and I am looking forward to talking with you all when I return.
Love,
Ashley

17th February 2012

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You Alone <3

17th February 2012

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I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world you may have trouble, but take heart! I have overcome the world.
—

Jesus

(John 16:33)

13th February 2012

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Fundraising for Guyana Update!

I still have about $500 to raise for my trip to Guyana!! :) Thanks so much to everyone who gave and to those who are praying for me :) I am so thankful and prayerful that God will come through for me and provide all that I need!

If you’d like more information about the trip, see my FB group:

https://www.facebook.com/events/217679058322382/

If you would still like to give, you can give online through this link:

https://donate.intervarsity.org/donate

Just type in Guyana Central Region Missions 

If you would like to mail donations, you can mail them to:

Ashley Carter

MSC #3201

Busch Student Center

20 N Grand Blvd

St. Louis, MO 63103

**Please make all checks out to IVCF, in order for them to be tax-deductible.

Also, please fill out a response card! It can be found in the text of the FB group!

<3 

12th February 2012

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<3

A little girl staring. She didn’t understand why her heart hurt so badly. She’s staring through a glass box in which she had placed her heart to be protected. She did not understand why her heart was hurting. She prayed and asked God to protect it and He said he would so why? Why was her heart hurting so badly?

In this moment, God came to her. He began to show her images of what her heart looked like in the past. How it was small and dark and dull. How it murmured its beats. How the world had destroyed it. He began to show her what it looked like now. How it has grown and is bright red, how it thrives and beats with life. How it pounds a song of it’s own and how He has began to grow it so large that it is filling this old protective case. 

God began to show her the new case that he has. How it is large enough to protect her heart, yet small enough to give warmth. How the case that he wants her heart to be in is no longer made of glass, but of flesh. He tells her how his hands would like to hold her heart and protect it as His own. 

God begins to dance with her while showing her images of all of the amazing things he has planned for her heart. He shows her places and things and people. He shows her how her heart will hurt sometimes and how His love, His hands, can comfort her heart, better than the glass case that she has entrapped it in. 

She hands him the key to the case. He opens it, takes her heart, holds her heart, never lets her down. Never lets her go. 

<3

12th February 2012

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Moments Like These…

That moment when you are sitting in church, drained, feeling alone, losing hope and the pastor begins to speak directly to you. Not to your ears, he never looks in your eyes, but he begins to speak life into your heart. 

All of the questions that you had; all of the doubts and fears and disappointments, they all seem to disappear. Nothing else matters but the trust that you are building in God. The faith that you have in Him that you know cannot let you down. You hear truth. You’re reminded of his word. You know that you aren’t alone and that you can make it.

It’s moments like these that make me love God even more. That he takes the time to speak to me in each of my seasons and that he uses August Gate to give me the strength that I need. It’s crazy that no matter what I am facing, moments like these happen every Sunday.

Today, I am thankful.

8th February 2012

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I can honestly say that I believe in Love. Used to think it was for people who were weak and needed it, but now I realize that only the strongest people can actually give and receive it.

The truth about it? It hurts sometimes, but in a good way.

The kind of hurt that grows you, transforms you and builds you up. The kind of love that even when in pain you choose to dive deeper because the trust that has been built isn’t betrayed through the heartache, it’s strengthened. I believe in that kind of love.
The kind of love that compels you to do right.
The kind of love that will never fail because it’s built on something greater that you.
I believe in that kind of love.

7th February 2012

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dagtwinz:

If you judge people, you have no time to love them

Source: dagtwinz

7th February 2012

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spiritualinspiration:

Came To My Rescue

I called you answered
And you came to my rescue and I
I wanna be where you are

Source: spiritualinspiration

5th February 2012

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It’s been a really long weekend. I wish I could find the words or a phrase to sum up all of the things that have happened. I wish I could write a poem or a book maybe. But today at August Gate I think Noah (our pastor and the dude in Genesis) summed it up best.

Obedience.

This weekend I learned what it means to obey God, no matter how long, lonely or blind the journey is. 

I love it how God used Noah and Noah to speak such a powerful message to me. No matter what happens today, tomorrow, this week, etc. I am going to obey God in all that I do. I am going to make decisions that honor God and have faith that He will work everything out. I’ll place my hope completely in Him.

That’s all that I can do.