Papa Steve and Internship 2013!!

Hello everyone! After a year's absence, the blog is BACK! I had a draft of the blog from the last 2 weeks of my last internship, but life got away from me. So, I apologize for not keeping you updated for the time that the group was there. It was crazy busy!

So the school year has come and gone and another group of 5th graders is now prepared for middle school. I took my precious DI team to Global Finals last week, and we had a blast. Now it's off to my next adventure. Kenya Internship 2013!! I just want to say thank you for everyone who donated money or prayed for me and my trip. I am so blessed to have such wonderful friends and family.

I didn't sleep last night because I guess I just like being incredibly busy. My mom, dad, and I left at 4:30 AM. As we are chugging down I-220 I suddenly realized that I had forgotten my passport in the safe. *GASP* So....we ended up leaving Bossier a little later than planned in order to get to Little Rock. We all planned to meet at the airport at 8:30 to meet each other and get checked in for our 11:00 flight. As I entered the airport and saw my fellow interns, I felt an overwhelming sense of comfort. As many of you know, I travelled alone last year, which was fine, but having a group of people to share this experience with just makes it all the more enjoyable. I've only known these people for a day, but this is going to be an awesome summer with an awesome group of people, even if they were born in the 90s. :)

So we got through security and onto our first flight in Little Rock with ease. It was a great flight and we arrived in Charlotte, NC on time. Since we were STARVING, we decided to eat at this little cantina place close to our gate. As we are standing in line to eat, this older couple was standing behind us, and I simply asked where they were from. We interns began a small conversation which turned into a huge blessing. The couple was from northeast Tennessee and had been in Houston seeing their oldest grandchild graduate from high school. As we continued to talk, he told us that he was stationed in the Congo during the liberation in the 60s. This was a neat coincidence in that Julie was just reading a book about that exact subject on the plane. The couple then switched lines to a different restaurant and we went on our way....or so we thought. As we were sitting there eating our delicious Mexican food, the man, I call him Papa Steve, came and pulled up a chair at our table and continued with the conversation we were enjoying earlier in the line. We told him all about what we were going to be doing this summer and he told us a little about himself. After about a 10 minute conversation we said our "take cares" and he went on his way....or so we thought. A few minutes later Papa Steve came by and placed a hundred dollar bill on our table. WHAT?! Did that just happen? He told us to treat ourselves to $25 each and wished us a safe summer. We all shared our thankfulness as we parted ways. Logan, Brittany, Julie, and I sat there in amazement at how wonderful our God is. We decided to put the money in the missions account to buy more Bibles for our camps we will be doing this summer. It's incredible to think about what a simple conversation can lead to. Take those small opportunities to show kindness to others and let God do His thing. This simple act of kindness gave us the umph we needed to get through the next 4 hour flight delay there in Charlotte. Apparently our plane needed some sort of maintenance, and the announcer kept informing us of our later departure times. We got to know each other a little bit and I even fell asleep sitting straight up.

We finally got on our plane around 7:45 and made it to Washington. A couple of our bags did not come out with the rest of the bags, but we got it all taken care of and thankfully got all of our luggage. We are staying in DC tonight and will return to the airport tomorrow morning to get our our long jump across the pond tomorrow at 11:00 AM.

Please continue to pray for Logan, Brittany, Julie, and me as we continue to travel and hit the ground running when we reach Kenya. We are so excited about what God has in store for us this summer.

In Christ,
Ashley