Politics in America: Why I'm Better than You

(Disclaimer: I don't really think I'm better than you. The title is intended to be a reflection of how we as Americans feel as a result of the way certain things in our country are done. Here, let me explain: )

Well, it's an election year, which means that it is officially time for one of my least favorite American traditions: presidential campaigning. Now, before you write me off as some anti-American yuppie, hear me out. I understand the importance of the presidential election, and of the governmental system in place in our country. I am not "anti-politics", I have in fact worked extensively on two political campaigns in the past year. This post is not an attempt to bash politicians, or either candidate, or America at all for that matter, but instead, a look at the "why" behind certain aspects of the campaigning process, and the messages that they send to our culture. Also, it should be known that I borrow some of the ideas towards the end of this post from Donald Millers "Lifeboat Theory", which is in his book Searching for God Knows What.

I was watching CSPAN the other day because I had lost my remote (I mean seriously..why else do people watch CSPAN?) and they were re-showing Romney's campaign event in Virginia, the one that was held to announce that his running mate would be Paul Ryan. It was exciting-it reminded me somewhat of a high school pep-rally, in the way that the event was bursting with energy, and how everyone was wearing red white and blue and cheering and clapping at all the right times. But after about 5 minutes of watching and listening to what the speakers were saying, I couldn't help but think to myself, "I wonder what this looks like to God". The reason I asked this question is because one of the republican senators who was speaking at the event spent every third sentence or so bashing the current legislation for one thing or another, and then praising Romney for having the solutions to the problems Obama has caused. And it just struck me as odd, this idea that it is completely acceptable in this country for grown men, with jobs and families, to stand on a stage in front of thousands of people, millions if you count those watching on TV at home, and openly criticize and humiliate another person. And not only is this acceptable, but if you happen to like the person that is speaking, you cheer for them and buy t-shirts and bumper stickers, and you argue with other people who don't like the person you like.

Think back with me for a moment now to the days of elementary school. Surely we all remember the days of grade school recess, when we got an hour every day to run around and swing and play kick ball and tag, and the teachers got to sit on benches and talk about their husbands and kids or soap operas or whatever it was they talked about. And if you're anything like me, you probably also remember another part of recess: the fights. If you didn't witness this personally in school, you've probably seen it in a movie: the class bully would single out that quiet awkward kid, you know, the one with the butt-cut and the horrible teeth who wore weird shirts with pictures of wolves and dragons on them, and make him give up his lunch money, or call him ugly, or even worse: call him a loser (que dramatic music now). And before long, there's a circle around the two kids, and all the other kids take a side as the two in the middle start to fight, and they all start yelling and arguing about why the kid they like is better than the other kid. And it goes on this way until the teachers hear the yelling over their juicy conversation about Days of Our Lives and rush over to break up the fight and take the kids to the principals office where they will no doubt get detention. But everybody else still outside talks about the fight for the rest of the day, about how their friend was totally about to take the other kid if the teacher hadn't broken it up, you know, that kind of thing.

When I was watching the Romney event on CSPAN, I couldn't help but wonder if these kinds of political campaigning events don't look something like a play ground fight to God. I wonder if from all the way up in heaven, the microphones that are used at these events to magnify the insults and put downs directed towards the other candidates don't sound to God as small and high-pitched as the kids voices on a play-ground, shouting about why they are better, or stronger, or cooler than the other kids. I can't help but wonder, from way up there looking down, how silly it must all seem to God that we as grown adults are still picking sides and throwing insults towards each other like we did when we were eight, about how we are on the "winning" team, and how the other guy is a loser, and sucks at his job, or doesn't pay his taxes.

I understand that it is important for the presidential candidates to travel around the country and speak about their stances on certain issues. And I think that we as a country deserve the right to get to know these men who want to lead our country, and that we should listen to what they believe. I don't think that campaigning, in and of itself, is a bad thing. What I don't understand is why so much time and energy and money is spent on making the other candidate look bad. I mean, would it really be so awful if each candidate simply spoke about what they believe and want to see in the country, and how they plan to accomplish that, without bringing in how horrible the other one's ideas are or how awful it would be if they were put in charge? Something inside of me just can't believe that this is what God intended for us- to pick sides, and to hate the other side, and as a result to spend our time and money going to great lengths to make sure our side wins.

And I guess that's my problem with all of this-it's not only about what the candidates say and do, but how it effects our culture on a larger level. In America, we want to win. We're kind of competitive here, if you really think about it. We wanted to win the olympics, and we did. We love competitions and sports in this country because we love to pick teams and cheer them on, and when they win it makes us really happy and gives us the rights (so we think) to be total jerks to everyone else who goes for other teams. And when our teams lose, we make excuses for our team or get in fights about why they should have won or could have won if only so-and-so wasn't hurt or the refs weren't so terrible. We will do anything to feel like we are better than everyone else.

And unfortunately, presidential or large political races and campaigning, as they are being done now, does nothing to stop this behavior, but instead encourages it. As if sports weren't enough, we now get to pick sides in politics, and we will argue and fight and put signs in our yards and stickers on our cars and attend rallies and post rude and hateful statuses on Facebook and twitter so that everyone will know...

what?

What is it that we really want everyone to know?

Or is it even about what other people know?

Could this all really be about how we feel inside?

I'll put it this way..it's not about who we are going to vote for. If it were, we could easily communicate that without all of the other crap. Yes, believe it or not, we could actually support candidates without hating the others and criticizing them at every given opportunity. And there are people who do a great job of that, I'm not saying that there aren't. But most of the time, I think that we don't care really about whether or not people know who we are supporting, what we care about is that people know that our guy is better than theirs, thus meaning that we in supporting him, are also better. It's the same thing with sports. We want so desperately to be associated with the winning team, so that people will think we're important, so that they'll like us, and so that we will feel valuable and important at night when we lay in bed. We like it when our guy or our team or our country wins, because of how it makes us feel inside.

It makes sense if you think about it, all of our ridiculous obsessions with our team winning, when you start to realize that there is a lot more at stake than just bragging rights, that it is our very identity and self-worth that are on the line. You see, the problem here is that we are supposed to be receiving our identity and value and worth from God, because that was how we were made. We were wired as humans to get our self-esteem from our creator, not from anything else. But because that relationship is broken for so many of us, we go looking for our worth and our identity in all of these other things or people. This is why it's so important for us to associate with the winning team and candidate so that we'll feel valuable and so that people will like us, and because if they don't, we feel like we're less important and valuable as people.

Please don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying that everyone is involved in politics for these reasons. Or sports for that matter. I know that some people truly believe in the candidate they support, and are supporting them because they believe that they'll take our country in the right direction. And I have no problem with that. My problem is with the hurt that we can cause when we put down and criticize others in an attempt to support our guy or our team. I know that that's not always our intent, but the truth is, it's unnecessary.

Think with me for a moment about the way our country would look, if everyone truly believed that they were loved and valuable to God...if everyone really got their identity from the fact that the creator of the universe loves them and thinks they're beautiful and important. If we lived this way, we wouldn't need all of these other things to fill that void. We could support teams and politicians just because we liked them, not because we cared so much about people liking us and thinking were smart or cool or whatever. And it wouldn't matter if our guy or our team lost, because it wouldn't affect our worth as a person. We would be secure in who we are because we would know that God loves us, that God thinks we're valuable, and that we are important to Him. I can't think of anything more beautiful than this, if you want to know the truth.

And so my prayer is that we as followers of Jesus can live our lives trusting that our identity and worth come from our Creator, and in so doing start a movement of people who are able to show our support for the political candidate that we believe will take our country in the right direction, without ever expressing hatred or criticism towards anyone else. If we know and love Jesus, our identity is secure, and our focus should be on introducing others to that freedom that is found in Him, not on trying to redeem ourselves by associating with the winning candidate or sports team.

"Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." -2 Corinthians 3:17

May we all find freedom in the fact that God made us, and loves us- so much that He thinks we are worthy of the sacrifice of His only Son. I mean think about it..without Him, none of this matters anyway..

darkness to light

A couple years back, my church did a series on Genesis, which I was pretty bummed about at the time, to be honest. I think I was a freshmen in college, and at the time I thought was way too cool for the Old Testament. But I went to church during that time anyway, and I'm glad I did, because my preacher Dave said something on the first night of that series that I will never forget:

"Some of God's greatest works begin in the darkest of places."

Now when he said this, he was speaking on two levels. Obviously, since we were in Genesis at the time, he was talking about the world, and how God spoke it into existence from nothing but darkness. But he was also talking about how Jesus has this way of speaking life and meaning into the worst possible situations in our lives. And that's why that quote has stuck with me over the years, because I have seen that happen time and time again in my life and in the lives of those I love. It's like God has this thing about taking the things we've given up on, the people we think are out of reach, or the situations we think are hopeless, and turning them into the most beautiful and precious things in our lives. If you have ever seen or experienced this, then you know how what I'm talking about, you know how beautiful it is to see God turn the darkness to light, because it's like seeing someone or something raised from the dead. Right when you think it's over and you've lost, God lights a spark that eventually fuels a flame, and next thing you know, the darkest and most hopeless aspects of our lives have become lights to everyone around us, showing everyone the amazing redemptive power of God.

I am thankful that God works in this way. I am not too proud to admit that I am incredibly stubborn and independent, and I can honestly say that there have been times in my life that it has taken God turning terribly awful things into amazingly beautiful things to make me believe and understand His nature and His power. But I do believe, and I always will. Because the way I see it, pretty much anyone can take a good thing and make it better. But only God can turn the darkness to light.

on voids

I was feeling pretty thoughtful last night, because I get like that sometimes when the temperature drops unexpectedly, so my friend Chelsea came over and sat with me on the step outside of my bedroom and we talked for a while about life and love and God. It was one of those rare moments where everything seemed immensely clear, like everything we said made sense, more than ever before. There is just something about sitting outside on May night in Nashville talking with a friend..you get the feeling that you’re out in the open, that you’re free and that there’s no need to hide anything. It was like I was piecing together who I am, and who God is, in the midst of the world and in the midst of me. We talked about everything from politics to love to church and God and families. It was beautiful.

When we were talking about families, something snapped into place in my mind, and it was one of those moments I’ll never forget because I knew that from that moment forward I would see things differently. Chelsea and I both come from good families, but they are both different, and our conversations about them, and about our friends families, led me to the realization that some people find and experience God through a void and a longing left by something they never got from someone else, and others find God as more of a continuation of what they already know to be true about love and forgiveness and grace. What I mean by that is, people who have lost something, say a parent or a sibling, or who have never had a real family or known true unconditional love, find God through their longing to fill that void, to belong and to feel loved and valued. And people who have had good families, and parents that came to their soccer games and Mom’s who wrote them notes in their lunch boxes, come to experience God not as a void being filled, but instead as the ultimate example of the unconditional love and respect that they already know from their own families.

I realize that this may seem entirely simplistic, like common sense, but on my step last night with Chelsea, it made a lot of things make sense to me that had never made sense before. Maybe you had to be there, I don't know. But It was like I could understand so many things that I’ve seen happen over the years, so many things that I myself have even done even. If you think about people experiencing God in the context of the voids inside that they either have or lack, things really start making sense, so much so that you get to thinking you can understand everyone, like you’re a shrink or something. I got to feeling pretty smart for a little while, but I didn’t let it go to my head or anything.

The problem with all of this is, with the voids, is that God is not usually the first thing that people who have voids inside of them try to fill them with. It’s usually things like sex or money or drinking or anything, really, to the excess. I mean, have you ever seen the show Hoarders? Talk about voids. The truth of the matter is that people who feel an emptiness inside of them will go out of their way to do just about anything to feel like they are whole and complete. And it works for a while, I mean, I know a lot of really rich people who probably just got that way to fill a void, to try to make people like them or tell them they matter, and for the time being, they are happy. But they’re not as happy as they could be, and the worst part is, they probably don’t even realize that. Because the thing is, we are not supposed to feel complete in anything besides God. We were actually made that way. He is the only thing that can fill our emptiness, and trying to find wholeness with anything else or with anyone else will only disappoint us, time and time again.

My favorite book of the bible is Ecclesiastes, because I think that Solomon and I are very much alike. I mean, besides the whole super rich king thing. Solomon knows about the voids. The whole book is about all of the dumb stuff he does in order to fill the emptiness that he feels inside. He’s determined to find the meaning of life. And lucky for him, he was the king at the time, which meant that he could do whatever he wanted, and so he does pretty much everything imaginable. He gets really smart, really laid, really rich, and really fat. The whole book is like a break-up mixed tape on repeat-he keeps trying to find what he’s looking for, and he fails every time. It's almost painful to watch. But at the end of the book, he finally gets it. He realizes that living for God and doing His will is all that matters.

I like Ecclesiasts because it’s my story, and I’d venture to say that it’s many of yours as well. That being said, you would think that we would recognize this and learn from his mistakes, so that we can go straight to the good part at the end of the book where he gets it, right? But we don’t. We do the same thing that he did, every single day. We think we can make ourselves happy with that car or that job or that person. But we are wrong.

So the question is, how many things will we try to fit inside ourselves before we realize that God is what we’re looking for? How much money will we blow on useless crap, how many cars will we own, how many promotions will we go relentlessly seeking before we understand that those things cannot fill the emptiness we feel? How many broken relationships will we throw ourselves into before we realize that they will never love us like God can? I believe that people are good, and that we are all made in God’s image, but we were designed to receive our love and value from God, not from other people. I know this is true because I know a lot of people who have everything in the world going for them, but at the end of the day, they still feel empty inside. For us as humans to try to live happily and feel loved and whole outside of a relationship with Jesus is impossible. It is only in our Creator that we can find the completeness we want so badly. I mean, It makes sense if you think about it. God made us, so He must know what we're looking for, right?

So whats the good news? Whether you have a void or not, we all need Jesus. We may have all come to understand our need for Him through different circumstances in life, but we all need Him nonetheless. And He is always there, waiting and eager to take us on the journey He's planned for us all along. So take a lesson from me and Solomon, and save yourself a lot of pain and heartache: seek Him first.

thoughts on grace, but mostly my stupidity

I’m just gonna cut the crap and start off by saying: Life is simply not worth living without God. If you don’t believe me, go ahead, try it. I know that I have, and let me tell you where got me: nowhere, fast.

It can only go on for so long, this idea that we can really accomplish something worthwhile in our lives, apart from the One who gave us life to begin with. That being said, I am neither too ashamed nor embarrassed to confess to you that I have tried to operate under that very idea for much of my adult life.

It happens the same way every time: things really start going somewhere for me in life, and so I take off running, leaving God in the dust, thinking that any success I achieve is happening as a result of something good that I have done. It sounds awful, I know, but I’m not afraid to admit to it, because I have a feeling that I’m not the only person guilty of this. And I justify my behavior by tossing up an occasional “thank you” or cry for help to God along the way, and then continue to cruise along in the life that I pretend to be in control of until one day, I am stopped dead in my tracks, either humbled or broken enough to see that I was wrong all along. And the best part is, God always seems to use the most unlikely of circumstances to bring me to my senses, which at the time, feels like an extra proverbial blow to my already wounded ego.  Not that I can blame him, I’m sure it’s somewhat enjoyable to plan this all out, piecing together different ironies here and there to accomplish the necessary “come to Jesus” moment that I have been putting off for months at a time.

Now, it’s important to understand that I am not trying to make God sound like some cruel puppeteer, inflicting pain on us whenever He feels it’s necessary, or as the film Bruce Almighty put it, “a mean kid standing on an ant hill with a magnifying glass”, but rather a genius, the grand architect of our ever-complicated and constantly changing lives, who knows exactly what we need and when we need it. I believe that God knows exactly what will make me turn back to Him, and as much as I hate it when it happens, looking back over the course of my life, those moments make up many of the most beautiful moments of my life. If you want a good mental image of what this looks like, read Luke 15. As much as I fight against it, my life is like the story of the prodigal son, played on repeat for 22 years.

My most recent of these moments began last night, at a booth in my favorite restaurant, in a conversation with one of my favorite friends, Billie. Billie is one of the most beautiful and resilient people I have ever met, and at 21, she already possesses so many of the qualities that I wish to attain in life. She is unshakingly joyous, genuine, loving, and incredibly wise beyond her years, to name just a few. She was a part of one of the pledge classes in my social club (social club is church of Christ for: “sorority) that I was in charge of, and over the course of the two weeks that she pledged, a large group of her pledge sisters and I developed somewhat of an interesting relationship, which has been compared to many things, but most often is described as “Mary and her little lambs”. And while yes, at many times over the course of the past three years, I have looked out for these girls as if they were sheep under my care, what they don’t know is that they have just as often done the same for me. Last night was one of those moments. Billie and I were talking about life, catching up over the past few weeks, and she kept mentioning prayer, over and over again, to the extent that I became extremely proud of her and at the same time extremely humbled to be talking to her.

Prayer seems like a pretty basic concept to most of us who go to church. I mean, I’m a Christian, so you would assume that I pray all the time, right? Wrong. In fact, of all of the “spiritual disciplines”, I think prayer is the one with which I struggle the most. Now don't get me wrong, I love talking, but only to people that I can see or hear. So for me, talking to someone who I can neither see nor hear has proved over the years so be quite the challenge. I do believe in prayer, and there have so many moments in my life when I have been able to clearly see the benefits and blessings that come from praying, yet I still struggle with it, day in and day out.

But to hear Billie, someone who is not only younger than me and who I have had somewhat of a mentoring relationship with, but someone who has also had a way harder life than me, talk about praying often, over every decision she makes, was yet another one of those proverbial blows to my stupid ego. And again, another moment where I realized that I need God, and that I need prayer, and that trying to act like I don’t is really very stupid of me.

Which takes us back to where this all began: Life is simply not worth living without God.

I don’t know where you are in your journey in life, or whether or not God is any part of it. But I hope that maybe this will give you something to think about, even if it's nothing more than knowing that if you find yourself caught up in the constant prodigal son cycle, you are not alone. That’s really the reason that I write to begin with, so that people will know that they’re not alone. Maybe you, like me, are needing a proverbial blow to your ego, or a reminder of how rich God's grace and mercies are. I don't know what you need, to be honest, but I do know that God does, and that trying to avoid Him and the life He wants to give to you is dumb, for lack of a better term.  

Kony 2012, part II: It's not over

My last blog post was about Kony 2012, an global movement to arrest war-lord Joseph Kony, that was fueled by one of the most successful social media campaigns of all time, which began and was sponsored by Invisible Children. Kony 2012's first video, which came out on March 5, swept the nation off its feet, achieving over 87 million views and gaining national and global recognition on news networks and media outlets everywhere. The campaign lost support, however, when one of its leaders, Jason Russell, was detained after police received multiple calls claiming that Russell was acting "in a bizarre and irrational manner" and described as parading through the streets of San Diego behaving highly inappropriately in his underwear and at times perhaps nude. Russell was later placed in a mental institution, and his family released a statement about his condition, which they referred to as "brief reactive psychosis". Russell's wife claimed that the stress on Russell following the release of the film, due to its unpredicted global popularity, was too much for him to handle, and that he took it very personally when the criticisms of the film starting rolling in. "Kony 2012" was replaced in search engines with camera-phone images and videos of Russell's rampage through San Diego and nasty nicknames to match his behavior. I'll admit, when I first heard the story, I was embarrassed, as I had publicly and enthusiastically shown my support for the Kony campaign on my facebook, twitter, and blog, and I quickly took down the photos I had posted on facebook to hsow my support.

What embarrasses me now, however, is that that is how I reacted to the stories I heard ab Russell, and the hasty and judgmental comments I made before I did any investigating into whether or not the stories were true. I almost tweeted something so incredibly mean and hateful that just the thought sickens me. Turns out, they were true, and it appeared that Russell did indeed go through some kind of short lived psychotic episode, but that still doesn't give me, or anyone else any right to point a finger at Jason Russell or to revoke our support of the Kony 2012 campaign. As human beings, and more importantly, as children of God, we owe it to one another to extend grace and love to one another, and to stand up for each other when we are in need. Despite what happened with Russell, the truth of the matter, and what started this entire movement, is the fact that innocent children in Africa have been (and are potentially still being right this very minute) abducted and forced commit horrendous crimes as ordered by Joseph Kony. I personally find it an enormous tragedy that the people of America, and that I myself, were so quick to relinquish our compassion for this cause because of the actions committed by one person. So I'm asking you to join me in forgetting about whatever did or did not happen with Jason Russell, and in continuing to fight for justice to be given to the thousands of innocent children whose childhoods have been stolen from them by Joseph Kony. 

It just seems like such a shame for all the progress that was made on the global level towards arresting Kony, who is #1 on the list of global criminals, to be lost or forgotten, for any reason. We are so close. Please watch the second video, and participate in Cover the Night on April 20th if you are able to. 

Kony 2012

Many of you have probably heard by now of Invisible Children's Kony 2012 campaign, and unfortunately of the criticisms that it's now receiving. Jason Russell, who created the Kony 2012 video that has garnered an astonishing 67 million views in the past week, was interviewed by Ann Curry on the Today show this morning. Curry adressed two of the bigger criticisms of the film: that Kony is out of Uganda now and currently has only 200 "followers" (aka abducted child slaves). Russell replied, "If 200 children were abducted from San Diego or New York City, and forced to kill their parents or become sex slaves, would we not take immediate action?" The fact that Konys current "army" may be smaller now, and that he may be somewhere else in Africa doesn't excuse him from the horrible and evil atrocities he has committed, and it also doesn't mean that he will not begin to rebuild his army all over again if he is not caught. A child's life is a child's life, and regardless of where they live or what they've been through, they matter. No child should have to live in fear of being abducted and forced to murder their family or be raped, or even worse-no child should believe that they would be better off dead because of their fear of those things. The sooner Joseph Kony is caught, the more children can be saved from these evils.

Here is the Kony 2012 video. It is worth 30 minutes of your time, trust me.

Click here to visit Invisible Children's Kony 2012 website, and click on the Critiques tab in the top right corner to view their responses to some of the other criticisms made about this effort.

I hope to live in a country, and in a world, that is rudely awakened and deeply disturbed by the injustices before us, and I pray that we as a people can put aside our differences and exercise the courage, grace, and compassion to stand by and support those who are making bold and valiant efforts in leading us towards peace. If we truly desire a better world to raise our children in, we must lay aside our differences and trade our criticisms in for love and our apathy for benevolence. 

Please join me, and the over 67 million others, who are fighting for this cause.

Ashley Miller

For those of you that don't know, this is my dear friend, Ashley Miller.

Ashley and I have grown up together, and over the past 23 years, we have maintained a strong friendship. My first memory of Ashley is playing on the same t-ball team (Go Mets! Coached by none other than James Miller!), and playing Little Mermaid on the floor of her bedroom in the small white house on Gallatin Street. We then conquered (or survived I guess I should say) our awkward stages together as little youth group tag-a-longs, and then onto jr. high students where we wasted literally hours a day in her mom's classroom at school. Then eventually, she became cool in high-school, and I was still awkward, but somehow we were still friends. Over the years, we've shared family beach trips, road trips, Auburn games, dozens of Saturday Night Live episodes, and even one unfortunate visit to the principals office in 11th grade (haha). Ashley is one of those friends that I consider family, so needless to say, I was thrilled when she decided to move to from Auburn to Nashville after she graduated from college to be a nurse at Baptist hospital. And now, a little over year and a half later, I can say that it has been an absolute joy living in the same city as her again, and getting to share in things like watching Auburn games, running random errands, or meeting for dinner at the Local Taco. We don't talk or see each other every day, but when we do, we pick up right where we left off. But the best part is, over the past year and a half, I feel like I have truly seen Ashley grow up, despite the fact that I have practically spent the past 23 years of my life, physically growing up with her. When she arrived in Nashville two summers ago, she was different, and I think it's safe to say that God was beginning a work in her life then that He is now making a reality. Tomorrow, Ashley moves to Honduras, where she will serve as a missionary and a nurse, working alongside an organization called Mission UpReach. Making this decision to move to a third world country, leave all her friends, family, her job, and her material possessions, was no doubt unbelievably difficult for Ashley, and I think I can say, pretty shocking news to both her and her friends and family. But I love her story, because it is such a beautiful testimony to what God can do when someone truly gives Him control of their life. I heard Don Miller speak recently, about the kind of people that change the world, and he described them as being "completely over and done with themselves", and I love that so much because that is who Ashley has become and who she is choosing to be.  She is done with herself, and she is now giving up the next two years of her life (at least) to serving God and serving others in Honduras.

So Ashley, thank you, for listening and responding to God's call even though it wasn't easy. Your selflessness and sacrificial heart are truly an inspiration to us all. You are, and always will be a constant reminder of what God can and will do in our lives if we truly turn things over to Him. I could not be prouder of you for the wonderful person you have become, and I am honored to call you a friend and a sister in Christ. You will be in our thoughts and prayers daily. We love you, very much! Now go, change the world!

(To stay posted on Ashley's adventures and ministry in Honduras, or if you're feeling generous and want to contribute to her cause, please click here ! )