The Thirtieth

It's happened. I have reached my thirties. June 10, 2017. The day my 20s died. The day I conquered my twenties. I was traveling around from summer event to summer event and got to spend the day celebrating a beautiful wedding, trying to ignore the fact that I was getting older. I have since come to terms with the term "thirty." Nay. I have embraced it. I have decided that it's time to celebrate it. If you are reading this, you have been invited to my 30th birthday party. It can't be celebrated in a day because I have to live it every day; therefore, on the 30th of every month, we will have a little fun.

Earlier this year, I got the opportunity to celebrate a friend's birthday at Disney World for Dapper Day. It was SO MUCH FUN! People from all over and all walks of life dressed up in their best vintage fashion and came together for a fun outing. It would make me so happy to bring Dapper Day to everyone. So, on the 30th of every month, you've been invited to don your vintage flair and strut your stuff. I will keep editing this blog post with the pictures each month (See below) of the people who are celebrating my birthday with me. If you decide to be a part of the celebration, send me a picture of you in your dapper outfit so that I can post your picture on this blog. The only thing that I ask is that you keep it under wraps.  It's like Fight Club. We don't talk about The Thirtieth. If anyone asks about your attire, simply point them to this blog post so that they can read it for themselves. My goal is that I have friends from all over celebrating on the 30th of each month until the last 30th before my 31st birthday (May 30). Below are some pictures from our day at Dapper Day in Disney World to help inspire your outfit for each 30th. Keep coming back to see the different ways people are celebrating "The Thirtieth." Do something fun and celebrate this journey that we call life. No matter how old you are, always remember to use each day for goodness and joy and to show others love and respect. Stay classy.

Oh...and happy birthday to me! :) Thirty has been awesome.

Dapper Day for Rachel's birthday in Disney World

Dapper Day at Epcot

Dapper Day at Epcot

Dapper Day in Disney

*** Edit- August 31, 2017***

Here are some dapper photos of our first #thethirtieth
We went out to Abby Singer's for dinner as to not waste our dapper attire. It was a blast!

***EDIT #2 September Thirtieth***

Since it was a Saturday and it was beautiful, we decided to go dapper for the Red River Revel in our most patriotic attire. :)

**Edit #3 October 30th**

The Beginning of the End

I'm going to be totally honest right now, I have mixed emotions about all that is about to take place. I am finishing up photo books right now for James to take with him for his missions display, and I have been swimming through pictures of the last 3 years of the East Kenya Missions Team. I was the intern when they returned from their last furlough. I interned the next summer, and then I moved here the next. I've never once doubted that I was supposed to be a part of the work here in Kenya since visiting the 516 Missions booth at AYC in 2011, but staring at the flight itinerary back home, there is such uncertainty about what the future holds. I miss my family and friends something terrible, but I can't help but think that I may never come back to Kenya. I have accepted a job teaching middle school math next year. What if that is what God is calling me to do instead of going back to Africa? What if it's not? How do I say goodbye to people I may or may not see again?

When I got on the plane last June, I thought I would be staying in Kenya until November. Seventeen months without being home. That was the plan. Fit two years of school in before the Taylors went on furlough. It was scheduled and it was clear. I didn't know that my sister-in-law would have a baby. I didn't know that I would get to go to Israel or France or Spain. I didn't know my sister would move to a different state. I didn't know my grandmother would have cancer. I didn't know some of my friends would get married and have babies. I didn't know friendships would come and go. I didn't know we would only do one year of school. I honestly never thought I would go back into the public school system again. I didn't know how much could change in a year. I mean I guess I knew how much could happen, but I just didn't expect it. None of us know.

So, as I pack my suitcases, I'm doing so knowing that I will be returning home for the time being. I will be fully committed to pouring into the lives of middle schoolers and traveling around to churches  giving a report of the last year and encouraging them to invest in missions around the world. I would love to see other people who want to partner with current missionaries to help in some way with their ministries. God used me, a school teacher through and through, to come alongside church planters and lighten the load in an unconventional way. It has been amazing to say the least.



The last couple of weeks have been full of preparations. James, Kenya, John, and I met together to have a brainstorming meeting about James' furlough presentation. We wanted to be able to report to the churches the work that has been going on these last 3 years in the best way possible. John is talented in putting together videos, so we began creating a storyboard for the video. I also love doing work on the computer as well, so I was given the task of creating photo books for the Taylors to carry to all the churches. For all of you who came on trips to Kenya and copied your pictures onto James' computer, you know how many pictures I've been looking at over the last couple of weeks. There are 3 years of pictures from dozens of people, so needless to say, I've been going a little crosseyed at times. As of right now, I have one more thing to do with the books and then they will be finished! We are all a little antsy, being on the precipice of departure.

We were thinking about taking a trip to Nairobi as a last hoorah kind of celebration, but time and budget didn't permit, so we ended up going to the waterpark in Mombasa instead. The Taylors, Amber and Ellanora, and I loaded up and headed to Mombasa to have fun in the sun. We were literally the only people at the park. It's "winter" in Kenya right now (the rainy season), so they were repairing many of the rides/slides. There were a few working, so we had a great time hanging out and running up the stairs over and over again to ride down the slides. After the waterpark, we ate at Domino's and Cold Stone before going to a carnival-type park. These rides were straight out of a state fair from 1984 or something because they were jaaaaaankyyyy. BUT, the kids had so much fun riding rides and almost throwing up.

We had a great Fourth of July celebration with many other American missionaries. They all came to our house for lunch and many stayed the night with us. There was SO MUCH FOOD. We had burgers, ribs, hotdogs, chicken, veggies, potatoes, mac and cheese, beans, guacamole, and all kinds of other side dishes. I even made a cheesecake with Oreo crust and it was amazing, if I do say so. After it got dark, we set up the screen and projector and watched The Patriot outside under the stars.

The next day, the Taylors and I went to church in Malindi for the last time to tell everyone bye. I had to stand up in front of everyone and speak in Swahili. I know it seems like a year should be enough time being comfortable speaking a new language, but I don't even remember what I said. And it probably wasn't even correct grammar.

On top of it all, the landlord sent a fumigation company to come spray our house. We had to take everything out of the closets and cabinets and move everything away from the walls. It looked like a disaster area in here. On the bright side, I haven't seen any bugs or lizards (except for the dead ones) in the house since then. It gave us the opportunity to go through all of our stuff and purge the things we didn't need to take back with us to America. John and Amber will be moving into the house while the Taylors are on furlough, so James and Kenya have been putting all of their stuff in the school room to store it until they return. We've about got everything completely packed except for the stuff we will be using while the group is here. Ok, and by we I actually mean they because I still have a mound of stuff in my room that I need to sort through and distribute among the many pieces of luggage I have.

It's been baridi sana (very cold) this week, like in the 70s :). It has been raining a lot, which is great for the Farming God's Way plots. Getrude's fields are looking great! She said the corn is taller than she is. I'm sure going to miss having class with her every week. We've had so much fun talking and goofing off (because I'm such a model student and all... she laughs at me every time I make up new Swahili words).

The puppies huddling for warmth

Getrude and Mama Cedrick

The 516 Missions group is in the air! They will arrive in Nairobi tonight and then Malindi tomorrow morning. We will be heading to Miritini on Monday to start the basketball camps on Tuesday. There was a teacher strike, but I saw students at school today, so hopefully the strike is over. It would not be easy to do a basketball camp at a school that wasn't in session. Please pray for the team as they come over to minister as well as those who will hear the Gospel this week through the camps and the cinemas.

2 weeks until I leave Kenya... it's the beginning of the end of this chapter. Thank you all so much for keeping up with East Kenya Missions. Please let me know if I can come share at your church or group meeting about what God has done this last year. You can email me at ashleyjteacher@gmail.com.

In Christ,
Ashley

It probably slept in your bed!

I'll get to the title later...

Goodness gracious there are only 4 weeks left until I will be back in the good ole US of A. Today is also the one year mark since I embarked on the journey of living overseas. Wow! What a year! It started in Romania with my friend, Mary, helping out missionaries Gheorghe and Mia Cormos with their youth camp. We had an awesome time working alongside of these missionaries and seeing the work in Romania.

Then as soon as I got to Kenya, we put on a basketball camp in the village of Singwaya, and we got the opportunity to teach the Bible lesson to all of the students and many were saved! Praise God!

Then we transformed the school room and prepared to start school in August.

We had a wonderful school year! The kids accomplished so much!

My pastor came on a mission trip to teach at the Bible Institute and witness first hand the work that is being accomplished through East Kenya Missions.

We traveled to Israel to the International Missionaries Retreat!

We celebrated Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentine's Day, and many birthdays!

We've worked and fellowshipped with many visitors!

Missionaries Lauren Wilson, Holly Couch, and I celebrated New Year in France and Spain!

We spent time in the villages teaching and investing in the churches!

We attended the World Missions Seminar!

The kids performed at the Louisiana Destination Imagination State Tournament!

I became Auntie Ashley to the most beautiful niece in the whole world!!

We finished school with the first East Kenya Missions Field Day!

We've also seen our fair share of animals!

Which leads me to my title. Mom, Dad, you can stop reading now. Especially mom. No, I'm serious. Stop reading this. You don't want to know what comes next.

Mom, seriously, don't read the rest. Exit out of the window.

Earlier this week I grabbed my phone charger off of my bed quickly and when I did, something caught my eye and it was like I had brushed something onto the floor. When I looked down I saw a tail of some sort going under my bed. I told Kenya about it and we reasoned that it was probably a lizard. I pulled out all of the suitcases that are stored under my bed just to see if I could see anything, but I never found anything. The next day I came in my room and saw my friendly lizard running down the wall. This was strange because when I come in the room he usually runs up the wall and into the window. So, I went to the window and drew back the curtains because that usually gets him to go back out the window through a little crack. As I was tying the curtains back I saw something hanging over the tie between the two panels. It was green and hanging about 5 inches or so. I yelled for Kenya to ask her if she thought it was what I thought it was. It was. A green snake was in my room! We yelled for James and Clayton. They strategically took care of getting it out of my room (yes we killed it because it's hard to tell if it's a green mamba or not and we definitely didn't want to take a chance). After much research, it was a nonvenomous green snake. That's what I saw going under my bed the day before!! I can't believe it was in my room the whole time! I slept in that room all night! AND there's no telling how long it had been in there!! As we were talking about it, I tried to say that since my air conditioner was on all night that it was too cold to move, but everyone else said that since I was the warmest thing in the room, it probably snuggled next to me and slept in my bed... No, I didn't get any pictures of that because I didn't want to have a pictorial reminder of the day I was traumatized forever....

This week I fixed another drum! The one at the church in Malindi was ripped, so we went ahead and replaced the drum head on that one. We've been doing a lot of preparations for the 516 group and our departure. I get a little sick to my stomach thinking about how close it is! I know we still have several things to do here, but transition is always a little nerve-racking. We have been packing things up and trying to work on presentations to show the churches about what is being done through East Kenya Missions. I plan to visit churches to give a report of the last year. If you would like for me to come speak at your church, ladies' meeting, children's church, small group, or association meeting, please email me at ashleyjteacher@gmail.com. I am so excited to share all that has happened this year face to face with those who have been supporting me! I also want to pump people up to get involved with missions around the world.

Please continue to pray for all of us as we are in this transition phase.

Thank you, God, for the last year and letting me be a part of East Kenya Missions as a missionary helper.

One whole year. Wow. God is good.

In Christ,
Ashley