I read the book of Acts this week. It's really incredible! If you don't think Christianity is cool, read Acts. In chapter 8, the Spirit teleports Philip. Straight up. It's right there, in the Word, which is the Truth...

39 When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord took Philip away. The official did not see him again, but continued on his way, full of joy.40 Philip found himself in Azotus; he went on to Caesarea, and on the way he preached the Good News in every town.

I can't get over it. I can't. God is way too amazing. FREAKING TELEPORTATION. It's so nonchalant. God. Ah. God.

The best part though- the Spirit that lived and worked in the apostles who performed so many signs and wonders- raising the dead, healing the sick, growing the population of believers daily- is the same Spirit that lives in me, in us- the believers today.

WHAT?!?!?!

God revealed that to me, and it BLEW MY MIND. If I will KNOW MY GOD and BE A VESSEL for Him, My life will be like Peter's or Paul's. WHAT?! Absolutely WONDERFUL. God is WAY TOO GOOD . Anyway, READ ACTS!

I have so many wonderful friends here. I cannot tell you ENOUGH how thankful I am for the people God has been putting in my life. The kids here doing the School of Ministry Development are so great; Jimmy and Sienna and Jade and Noah and Kaitlin are, basically, the evangelist team of Sunland/Tujunga, and they have been HUGE blessings to me; my family here at DTS continues to astound me with their love. I'm so happy here. Pray for me- I want to stay here for another season.

Also, we have $1300 due FRIDAY for our Chile outreach! In all, we'll each need about $3500... We leave in just a month. Craziness. Anyway- By God's grace, I only need $1080 for Friday, so pray for me! (Or send money, I would really appreciate that, too. Not only do you fund ME, Ashley, with your donations, but everything you send in my name goes to helping the base sustain what ministries it supports here. So, you're a part of WAY more than sending Ashley to Chile to share Jesus. You're a part of educating youth so they can be youth ministers and raise up a generation of warriors. You're a part of Infusion- a two week summer camp for high school kids to begin their transformations. You're a part of the up-and-coming Calling All Skaters DTS, which will be premiering this fall and will be a school SPECIFICALLY for skaters by skaters to reach skaters around the world. Anyway, donate if the Spirit leads you to!)

Ashley Jhaveri Spring DTS 2012 11141 Osborne St Lake View Terrace, CA 91342

(:

Also, God has given me the opportunity to help lead worship Saturday night for a GIANT youth BBQ we're hosting here at the base(: I'm so excited! AND! Our DTS is in charge of the service on Sunday at the church we attend in San Fernando! Our pastor is SO cool(: Be praying a lot for us that the Spirit would MOVE. I'll let you know how it goes(:

Lastly, the Holy Spirit needs to be your best friend. End.



Love,
Ashley Elizabeth
Daughter of the Most High God.

Oh man oh man oh man! God has just been showering His blessings down on me this week, and it's been overwhelming. I'm sorry I haven't written for a while. I'll try my best to get you up to speed!

So, last week's topic was identity, which is seriously the most important thing ever. The first thing God did for me when He started working on me was to give me a new identity. That identity, by the way, is sunflower. Praise the Lord(: I was talking to my dad about it today, and he was saying that: A sunflower grows with sunflower roots; sunflowers are designed by God for other people; and ...........

And, we've been sharing our testimonies with each other. I haven't shared yet. But anyway, Wednesday I was thinking about what my testimony is, and it hot me so down. I haven't been in a sad mood for suchhhhh a long time, and I couldn't get out of it for some reason. I was doing laundry with the boys later in the day, and finally Luke managed to get me to talk. Literally, as soon as I finished getting some things off my chest, Pat and Isaac came back from walking around with a Bonsai tree for me because they saw that I wasn't having a good day and they hated to see me down(: It made me so so happy. Then, as soon as we got home, Jimmy showed up with a new pair of shoes for me (which I freaking dig) and Kaitlin had a rose for me. God just super blessed me, totally cheered me up with His love. He just reminded me how much He loves me, and it was overwhelming(:

Later in the week, we were watching these movies, Furious Love and Finger of God, both excellent, both HIGHLY recommended, all about God's love and His incredible miracles. He's so phenomenal. We serve such an incredible God.

Friday morning, the girls went to get frozen yogurt for small group. We were sitting at Menchie's, and the manager came an talked to us for a second about what we were doing- talking about the incredible things Jesus has been doing in our lives(: Then, a few minutes later, he came back with his arms full of prepackaged frozen yogurts! He doubled that amount when we told him about how we have a BBQ every Friday for the homeless people in Sunland. It was CRAZY. Dani was crying she was so filled with Joy(: It was incredible. God is so mind-blowing and He loves to provide in ways we would never expect.

There were also several healings this week- a man at the park had his shoulder miraculously healed, a headache was removed by the Spirit, Asma's knees were healed... Praise the Lord! He is SO much more powerful than we give Him credit for. Just let Him work through you.

Oh yeah, Asma left. She's going back to Pakistan.

Also, I have a new skateboard now, with John 3:16 on the bottom(: Praise God. I'm so so happy. You probably have no idea what this means, but I'm learning to do a shove-it right now! I've almost got it down. It's super cool(:

Also, some dude at In and Out bought me fries. Just because. It was lovely(:

And, today, God gave me this sweet dress and a new backpack and necklace.

See? He's just been blessing me like mad this week. It's incredible. Blows my mind. God is so good.

This week is Holy Spirit week(: Sooooo stoked!

May God bless you this week(:

So it's late, and I'm wiped out, but I have TONS of praise reports for the day that I want to get up here before I go to bed.

Also, more things happened earlier in the week... So I'll start briefly with Wednesday night:
Luke, Ryan, this girl Sienna, Jimmy, and I were going out to go to church Wednesday night, but we were already late, so we asked God to lead us to where He wanted us to go. We ended up at Jimmy's church when we realized there was an open mic night across the street and we happened to have my guitar with us. It was all God. So we signed up and went to do "How He Loves", which is a worship song, and a few songs before us, this lady sang this awful song about how Mary's conception of Jesus was "immaculate", basically accusing her of being a liar and an adulteress. We were praying HARD, man. And when it was our turn, the Spirit moved in that place. It was INCREDIBLE. So awesome. God is SO awesome.

Side note- Jimmy is a local. He's 18 and totally on fire for Christ... People in town know him as "Jesus Jimmy" or "Jimmy the Evangelizer". He's the assistant youth pastor at one of the churches out here. Totally anointed. Always an adventure when Jimmy's involved.

On that note..
Today, we (the DTS) went to Jimmy's church with him, and the main message for the youth was like this: If you knew someone was going to get hit by a bus, you would do everything you could to tell them and save them from that, right? If you are a follower of Christ, you live under the law of love, right? Well, if you know there is a Heaven and a Hell, and you know how people are saved from Hell, how much do you have to hate someone NOT to tell them the Good News of Jesus Christ?
Crazy, right?

So, Jimmy, Pat, Ryan, Luke, Sienna, Kaitlin, Noah, and I all went out to Venice Beach today to share Jesus.

It started with Iggy and Pan, two vagabonds with an accordion. We just sat with them and talked to them, learned their stories and told ours, shared Jesus with them... It was so so cool. We got to pray for them and give them a Bible afterward.. The best part of our conversation, probably, besides the fact that they were so receptive, was that Pan was recognizing that in their situation, they have a lot of opportunities a lot of other people don't get to have. They've traveled all over the place, basically with the freedom to go wherever they please. God totally showed us the parallel between that and living as a missionary, so I got to share that thought with them... About how they can totally go all over the country spreading the Good News of Christ with everyone. It was such a blessing to meet them. Keep them in your prayers.

We ran in to so many other people today, so it's hard to talk about everyone. We pretty much walked up and down the market place and told everyone we could that Jesus loves them, and to share the News with those who listened. It was so much fun. We were full of love and joy; the Spirit was totally there and working HARD today.

There was an eclipse today, which was SO COOL. I was on the beach with Luke and Kaitlin just freaking OUT at how wonderful and beautiful it was, praising God for His greatness and splendor. Luke and I related it to Creation... First, there was light, God. Then the Earth brought darkness. When Christ finally comes back, there will be light once again, and it will be MARVELOUS! (: Cool stuff.

God just broke my heart for the people today. So many lost people with no clue... God just overwhelmed me with sadness for them. We were praying so much. It was incredible.

We were doing a worship jam sesh on the grass by the sidewalk, which was so much fun(: I saw the atmosphere around our group get lighter. Then, we saw this homeless guy-his name, we later learned, is John- who looked as if he was preaching really angrily to a group of kids. We ventured over to share the Good News, and as we did, John got angrier and more defensive, even getting in my face at one point. Thank God that His joy was running through our veins, or things could have gotten messy. John stormed away but returned a few minutes later demanding we follow him and discuss love. So we did, and, much to our disbelief, he goes, "Let's worship the Lord with a song." Crazy! We ended the night in a worship circles with a hodgepodge of people. God is incredible.

Such a phenomenal day at Venice. God is SO good.

Oh man, God is SO good! He just keeps reminding me of that over and over and over(: It's really wonderful.

I had the privilege of spending the weekend with my parents, who came down from Portland to see me(: It was really a great time! I missed them a ton so it was great to see them again and to be able to introduce them to the people I'm always talking about here and show them a little bit of what my life looks like these days(: I can tell that my experience here at YWAM is as much a part of their faith walk as it is mine... Maybe even more so on their part(; It was such a blessing to get to spend Mother's Day with my mamma, too. She's so great(: I love my parents(:

In other news, read the comment my dad posted on the blog right before this one... Seriously some mind-blowing stuff! God's incredible.

This week, Mitch is here from the base in Pichilemu, Chile (which is where we'll be for a nice chunk of our outreach) and, ironically enough, he's speaking on missions! This man is FIRE- I'm telling you. Since he's started Monday, we've just been getting amped up about what the Spirit's been doing in his life and what it's going to do in ours as well, especially since our crew is so ignited for Jesus right now. We are so down to live the rest of our lives for the Lord, man.. It is nuts how much fire we've got between the eight of us. God is MOVING, that's all I can say. He is SO SO GOOD! Anyway, Mitch has been super inspiring already, and I'm thinking I might not be coming back from Chile (; Haha, just kidding, parentals, I have to talk to God first(;

Anyway, God's so good. I'm getting to be pretty good friends with Luke's mate Avi back in Australia (through Skype and Facebook) and am just realizing how VITAL it is to be surrounded by people who are lit up with the Spirit. This kid is legit. Super inspiring; his faith is an inspiration. Anyway, just realizing the importance of having really faithful friends.

I'm thinking about going to Hillsong College. Maybe. It sounds pretty exciting. Plus, it's in Australia. I'm praying God leads me there, heh. It's hard to pray with bias that strong. Pray for me(:

God is showing me how to not limit Him, because He has an EPIC adventure planned for me- in case you were unaware, basically the one thing I've always wanted was an epic adventure, so I'm already excited out of my wits- and that it's silly for me to try to tell Him what to do with my life. He's got it under control. I'm so happy(: I'm so free(: I'm so excited(:

PS: Today is national chocolate chip day. Whatever THAT means. Eat some chocolate with someone you love(: And then tell them about Jesus(:

We keep staying up until ridiculous hours of the night... or morning, I suppose... so I'm EXHAUSTED. But! Praise reports are constant because God is ALWAYS good(: I'm totally digging the fam here; my brothers and sisters are phenomenal, couldn't have hand-picked a better crowd(: Our leaders are so stoked for us- they keep telling us they realize how significant we are; today, Jonny told us we're world-changers(: So encouraging. In other news, my actual earthly parents are swinging by tomorrow! I'm so stoked; I can't stop dancing around and reminding everyone(: My parents are the best. I told Sarang and Luke that if they bring my puppy, they're LITERALLY the greatest parents on Earth and NO ONE could top them. BUT, they're the best anyway, even if Ewi didn't come with them(:

I'm really happy, and God is changing SO much in me. I'm really really excited about our relationship(: God is wonderful.

Also, we're studying Spiritual Warfare right now, which is VITAL to living a Christian life. You can't live a Christian life without evangelism- the last thing Jesus said before He went up to Heaven was, "Go and make disciples of all nations"- and you can't have evangelism without spiritual warfare. Any time we start gaining ground for Christ, we're going to face opposition. In Ephesians where it talks about the full armor of God, it doesn't say that some of us will have to fight the Enemy or that we'll have to fight him sometimes... No. Spiritual warfare is a constant thing, which we are always participating in whether we realize it or not. This week has been my favorite week of teaching, I think. They've all been my favorite, though.

I'll write more later- it's time for small groups(:

DUDE! My daddy FINALLY texted me and... Guess what he said!!!! "Baby, I am sooo proud of you." I cried when I read that, too. It's very important to me that my parents are supportive of me and what I'm doing for God. They're coming to visit me this weekend. :D I'm SO excited. Everything is SO exciting right now. There's way too much to say... So much that I have no inkling of an idea of where to start. Ask me questions. Anything.

Love,
Ashley

You know, I didn't come to YWAM for a life-changing experience. I just came here for a learning experience. Do you know what I learned? Encountering Jesus IS a life-changing experience.

Well, hey..

So....

I had to make a big decision this week about the University of Washington, which is my DREAM school. I was going to just send in my acceptance, but I realized I needed to consult the Big Man first. I prayed and prayed- others were praying as well- for clarity and confirmation. The day before my decision was due, I fasted speech (which means I didn't speak in order to hear God more clearly) and God made it quite apparent that He wasn't going to TELL me what to do. He wanted me to take a step in faith. So... I prayed more. And... God still didn't tell me. BUT. I believe He pulled my heart in the direction I was meant to go. Through a lot of hard conversations and difficult reasoning, I finally came to realize that I'm not meant to go to UW this fall. It was such a hard decision to come to. You have to understand- EVERYONE in my family is counting on me to go to school this September. Almost every one of them supported my YWAM endeavor but needed reassurance that I was planning on going to school immediately afterward. I knew, most of all, my parents would be incredibly disappointed with me. Knowing this, knowing that by going to UW (which, by the way, is a super great university) and earning a degree in just two short years there I would have almost complete financial security, knowing that by refusing my offer to attend the UW this September I was pretty much forfeiting any hope of getting in to the school, I made the decision not to go. That's a huge part of knowing that I made the choice most pleasing to God. For the time I've been here, God's been showing me that He is faithful and that I can trust Him to take care of me. I know that the choice I made is what God wants because He wants to show me (and probably everyone around me) that He is TRULY the provider and will always care for His people.

During a conversation with Luke, He reminded me of Matthew 6:33-

"Instead, be concerned above everything else with the Kingdom of God and with what He requires of you, and He will provide you with all these other things." (Good News Translation)

The morning of the mailing of the letter, God prompted me to look through the entirety of Matthew chapter 6. The last half- verses 19 through the end- really caught my attention.

First, I looked to see what "all these other things" referred to in the verse. Verses 25-32 are the "Do not worry" verses (If you don't know what I'm talking about, I strongly encourage you to look them up) in which Jesus tells us not to worry about what we eat, drink, or wear because God will take care of us... BUT the section is concluded with verse 33, which tells us that God will provide for us when we are "concerned above everything else with the Kingdom of God".

Then...

6:19-21
"Do not store up riches for yourselves here on Earth, where moths and rust destroy, and robbers break in and steal. Instead, store up riches for yourselves in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and robbers cannot break in and steal. For your heart will always be where your riches are."

6:24
"You cannot be a slave of two masters; you will hate one and love the other; you will be loyal to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money."

^^ These verses especially were confirmation of my decision. The only thing I really felt God saying to me about UW was "Why?" My answer essentially boiled down to financial support for myself. These verses were God confirming to me that He would take care of me, that I didn't have to worry about it as long as I'm pursuing His will. 

Man. What a tough decision. God gave me a lot of confirmation though.
I called my parent to tell them, and, needless to say, they were immensely disappointed. I spent a lot of time crying and crying out to God, apologizing for making the wrong choice (which was silly, really, considering the amount of confirmation He gave me). I had the worst morning. I finally started to feel okay again when I felt God ask me how I came to my decision. I answered that I made it in an effort to please Him, and He told me He knew that. Then, I was talking to Luke (again. He's really good about making himself available) and I checked to see if maybe my parents had sent me any texts or called or anything. Lo and behold, I had a text from my mamma telling me she had prayed and God had helped her to accept my decision and have peace about it! I was so excited I started crying. I didn't need the confirmation from her, but it was such a blessing. God knew I needed it. Man. I was, I AM, so stoked.

SO! The big question- what happens next? Next as in after DTS ends in August. You know, I have no clue. It isn't up to me, though.

When I mailed my letter in, it was so symbolic. God asks us to lay down our lives for Him, to give up everything for His sake. I mailed my future away. I mailed my security away. I mailed my earthly success away. And you know what? I'm more excited now than I was at the thought of going to school. God is good. He is SO good. I'm not saying I'll never go to school- for all I know, it's in His plan for me to earn a degree some day. I just know that for now, He's proud of me and my choice to put my whole life in His hands, and His hands alone. He has total control, now. Ooooo buddy. I'm SO STOKED! Keep praying for me to stay focused. You guys have been so great so far, and I'm incredibly thankful.

Our finances for the lecture phase are due tomorrow- as a school, we owe about 7K as of right now. If you feel prompted to give, please do! Don't give to me, though- give to my school mates: Isaac Spencer, Azaa Lkh, or Asma Yousaf. Just click the link in my sidebar, type in one of their names, and give what God tells you to. We would be honored(:

God bless.

<3