finding myself

So I don't consider myself to be the most spiritual person and find myself not going to God when I should be going there first. So I have made it a mission during this trip to understand the bible and to fully embrace God and accept his love. I have been struggling to grasp the information I am taking in and applying it to my life. So I have been using my journal to write things out and to really remember what I am learning here in Nepal and making sure I can apply these new things in my life now as well as when I am back in Orange County again. I have been trying very hard to understand the Nepali language and grasping the way they love God and how they apply it to their lifestyles. it seems so simple when you watch how they embrace it and just love what they are learning and are so eager to learn more about it. I have been trying very hard to just understand the basics again, almost like starting over in my faith and relationship to really understand everything I need to know.

The things we have been doing have been just adding to the awesomeness that I am building up in my life again, I am slowly figuring out what I want to do with my life and deciding the type of lifestyle I want to live at home.

The people on this trip with me are such a blessing, they have been there every step of the way not just for me but for everyone else, watching us hike for more than a couple hours and if someone is not making it up the mountain us all taking their stuff for that person and helping them make it. I have never seen this kind of support and love in a group and its just been amazing. The family we have built on this trip grows stronger everyday and I love that God is apart of it and he is the one guiding us and not letting us down.

Whenever we are lost and dont know what will be happening, he always steps in and finds us a way, he shows us the light.

I am only at the beginning stages of understanding what I need to understand but this last month has brought me to a whole new light, of understanding myself better and understanding people more.

I love that I have the ability to see what is happening in the world and the effects other countries have on each other.

Spiritual growth has hit me and has and is the best thing to happen right now, it has made this trip much more enjoyable and has given me that love in my heart that I need to give to the people of Nepal and India.

Till next time...

with love,
Ashley

India is beautiful

we spent two weeks at the Darjeeling Hills Bible College and it was a wonderful trip. We flew into Calcutta the first night and all I can say I was thinking was why am i here! it was such a culture shock and where we stayed really was not the greatest but then we flew and got to Mirik and that all changed. we were so high in this little village that some moments it felt we were above the clouds. it was the perfect temperature and thunderstorms at night. we got to read Pilgrims Progress with the college students and then we broke off into groups where i worked with the children. my class was the kindergartners they were so cute i will post picture when i can! i had 6 students that were very smart! they all knew how to cursive write which was amazing to me because i didnt learn to do that till I was at least in 2nd grade, they were all just so eager to learn that it was amazing that the teachers let us take over and teach their students. We were able to walk around the town and get to meet the locals who were all very nice. Suzn was a man who owned the internet cafe we would go to and he was just the sweetest guy and really enjoyed all our company. He even rocked out on guitar with us and we sang songs with him it was just fun to see everyone so happy to see us and what we are doing. The Rai's are who are in charge at the school and they are the nicest family I have ever met it was very hard to leave after spending two weeks with them. they even took us to Kolampong where they grew up and we got to go to their church they went to and went on top of the 2nd largest bell tower in India and that was beautiful and such a rush the mountains were gorgeous!
We have been doing a lot of driving but the taxi drivers have all been very nice and quick about getting us where we need to go. we just got off our 18 hour bus ride to Kathmandu which was interesting. I was glad i could sleep through most of it and really not have to deal with too much! we are in Kathmandu now looking for local places to go volunteer at i hope we find some cool places! we also have a mount everast flight prepared and we are going to the monkey temple soon too!
all of us our getting along well no drama yet and we are just one big happy family! i dont know how this trip would be if it was anyone different! The trip so far has been such a huge blessing and has been so life changing!

I will write more and post some pictures in a couple days but for now that is what has been going on!

with love,
Ashley

No Chanting this morning...or i slept through it..

Its 7 am here and i feel fine waking up this time its really strange, because if you know me i really like to sleep... i didnt here the chanter this morning so i dont know if it happened or not, but im glad it didnt wake me up it always scares me! yesterday we went hunting for the art festival..which we couldnt find no matter how hard we tried and so we ended up just walking around the mall and calling home for the parentals. We took the singapore subway! that was really cool its super fast and they have escalators that are slow but the minute you step on they speed up really fast, its pretty scary because you barely have enough time to even get on it! i also went exploring through little india we went into a store that was like their walmart or target that was fun to see the things they sale, and the imported chocolate which is our chocolate. makes me happy!

we went to a vegeterian indian food place, learned a lot of cool things that have to do with their religions and faiths and who they follow, and what they are allowed to eat and what they are not allowed to eat, its really interesting.

today we are going to the Botanical Gardens where there are orchid farms and other really pretty flowers, and then tonight we start our trip towards India! we will be most likely very exhausted but that is ok!

the team is getting along so well! people keep asking if we are one big happy family and we of course say yes! its exciting that we are getting along so well! we had family time last night and just talked about the funny stuff that happened during the day and sang some worship songs, it felt like home because it was a thursday night and thats when we have Shout back at home, it was a good couple of hours of talking!

i must go get ready now for the day!

i miss you all and i will update the minute i can in india!

oh and i just found out from Dana that i definitely slept through the Chanting.. oops lol

with love,

Ashley

Facebook is not working :(

so facebook is not working but i am able to access blogspot so im going to give a quick update!

things are great went around the town today and just got to go to different environments, little inida, china town, and just singapore in general its very diverse its awesome!

we went on the worlds largest ferris wheel it was so cool!

oh and mom the pool on top of that casino wasnt open so we couldnt go up there but we saw it and its huge!

singapore is great. so clean. friendly people. and all around a great time. and our hostel is great. a really cool environment plus free internet cant go wrong there! and its in the center of little india! and we had a loud thunderstorm to wake up to this morning, it was nice though we dont get those at home so i enjoyed it!

ive been sick since we have gotten off the plane not sure what it is.. probably just jet lag idk tomorrow we get to sleep in. so hopefully that will fix my problem! then we are going to head out sight see a little more before we fly in the india on friday. tomorrow and friday are probably the last days i will get internet for awhile.. depends probably 2 weeks or so before the next update.

all is well though dont worry about us.

i miss you all! i hope your summers are well and i cant wait to hear about all of them!

with love,
Ashley