Grand Lux Cafe - mmmmm. After appetizers, salmon, desserts, coffee and LOTS of soccer talk, the nice part of the evening is over and it's time to get to work on "the paper" again.

Well folks, "that's all she wrote."

Well, it's over guys - my last soccer season as a manager officially ended today with our last game of the season, which the guys won, go guys! They had a great game, I'm so proud of them. :-) Now it's just tying up some loose ends and organizing equipment, then we'll have a few weeks off before we start looking forward to taking the team to England in March. Tomorrow night I'm going out to a nice dinner with the coaches, that will be good times.

This morning I got an email that just made my day - Simone (who is working with the youth at the church I went to in England this summer) wrote me and told me that two of the girls in the youth group have become Christians! Praise the Lord! These are girls that were part of a weekend retreat that I put on this summer, and I have been praying for them ever since I left... It was so awesome to hear that they are now my sisters in the Lord! I've been smiling all day whenever I think about it.

That's pretty much it for today, I need to head to the library soon and continue working on that paper for Youth Min. I wrote 4 pages last night, that means I'm 1/5 of the way there, oh boy! Have a great weekend everyone, and leave me some fun comments while you're here!

Whew, life sure is a roller coaster sometimes... Except it's not always as fun as a roller coaster, but you get the point. The past few weeks have been extra crazy, but a break is coming soon, praise the Lord! Last weekend we had Regionals for the soccer team, and though our guys did well they did not win the final game so our last game is tomorrow and then that will be the end of the season! And the end of me being a manager - I'm a bit sad at that, but also relieved that I will be able to have a normal life again!

I would write more but basically my life has been soccer soccer soccer since I last wrote anyway... This weekend I have to write a 20-page paper for my Senior Seminar Youth Ministry class, stating my Philosophy of Youth Ministry. That's huge... I would appreciate your prayers on that one! Then once that and a few other major assignments are out of the way, my mom, aunt, cousin and a friend are coming up for the weekend to visit and shop - this will be their third year to do that and it's always a blast. The weekend after that I'm taking a trip away for a few days, then it will be Thanksgiving just days later! That means I get to go home, SCORE!

Well that's enough rambling for now, I have to go get started on that massive paper. Into the Land of Youth Ministry I go...

Back home agaaaaain, in Indiana! That's a song, by the way, for those of you who are not from around these parts! Yes it's true, I am at my home in Indianapolis for just a few days, I came in last night and I have to leave again tomorrow but two days of relaxing really isn't a bad deal at all! Last night I watched the film "The In-Laws" which was funny enough I guess, it had a very interesting story line. Today I went up to Ball State University to visit my brother Brandon, and I got to go to his church, meet his friends, and see where he lives, which was great. It was a really short visit but I still enjoyed it... Now my Mom is downstairs making dinner and I'm going to eat with the rest of the family in just a bit!

I want to tell about this past week but it was so crazy that I'm not sure I can tell all that happened in an understandable way. Basically, I went to some soccer games, watched some movies (including Out of Time, Matrix Reloaded, and Phone Booth), had a Nintendo competition on Thursday night (girls vs. guys) at Kevin and Scott's and lost soooo badly, and the biggest thing of the week was Missions Conference at school. It was really great but made for a really busy week, so things just flew by. Gary Witherall spoke on Wednesday night and his message really impacted me in a few different ways - God has been doing SO MUCH in and through him in the past year, and Gary is just an awesome testimony of God's grace and love in our lives. Wow, go God.

The other day I took a random quiz online, it was called "What Matrix Persona Are You?" Here's the results:

You are Morpheus, from "The Matrix." You
have strong faith in yourself and those around
you. A true leader, you are relentless in your
pursuit.


What Matrix Persona Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

So there you have it folks... I watched the movie a few days after I took the quiz, and I think it was pretty accurate. Those of you who know me, do you agree or disagree with that? Comment, people! I sure do like comments... Who doesn't? Ok I hear silverware clinking downstairs which means dinner is near! So, bye for now!

I am continually amazed at the unique and amazing opportunities God places before me as a result of being a student here at Moody. Tonight, the national soccer team from Uruguay practiced on our field here downtown - never in my whole life did I expect to even see such a team, let alone host them on our own soccer pitch! And they are coming back for two practices tomorrow! So guess where I'll be? God is blessing us with this awesome chance to be a witness and testimony for Him to these teams :-) Wow... We are going as a team to their game on Wednesday night at Soldier Field, they'll be playing against Mexico. I just think this is so cool - as Paul writes in Ephesians 3:20, God is able to do "exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think", and here He is, doing just that when I least expected something like this. What an awesome God.

Today I slept a lot. Two whole hours in the afternoon... I didn't even mean to, really, but I suppose I needed it. I think my body is saying, "Hey, I need some rest, girl." Life just gets increasingly busy as time goes by, doesn't it? Speaking of busy, I need to get going now, it's time to go to the radio station and pray with people over the phone. Goodbye, my friends...

This morning, I awoke to the sounds of hundreds of people cheering - not just cheering for a moment, mind you, but for hours... Today is the Chicago Marathon. Over 30,000 people running through our city a course of over 25 miles, all pressing on toward the same goal. Not only did I hear it when I woke up, but when I went down to head to church, I SAW IT. And not only that, but then I WENT THROUGH IT! To get to my friend's car I had to cross Wells Street (one of the streets on which the marathon was being run) - this involved me gathering up a lot of nerve, because as I looked North down Wells, all I could see was an endless stretch of runners. It was amazing. And crazy. And all of a sudden I made a break for the other side. Looking back on it, it reminds me of a river, just a huge river of people, constantly flowing its course. I'm so wowed by the fact that I get to see such unique things as this because I live here in downtown Chicago. Do I live in the coolest city in America? Yes, yes I think so.

This morning at Harvest Bible Chapel, Pastor James MacDonald preached about spiritual gifts, and as he went through a list of about 20 which are listen in the New Testament, I thought about where I feel God has gifted me. On the way home, my friend Annette said she thinks I'm gifted in Helping and in Mercy. It's just such an interesting topic to think about. You should take a second and think about it! What are YOUR spiritual gifts?

Yesterday we had a soccer game which ended as a tie in double overtime. Double Overtime! It was stressful to watch, Kate and I were freaking out on the sidelines at the end... Whew. Oh yeah, and Friday night we got to go to a Chicago Fire soccer game, and sat in the Club Section (it was niiiiiice!). I felt famous or something. We sat with the parents and wives of the players, which was interesting and cool. That was a sweet way to end the week! This next week is Missions Conference, and I'm looking forward to a break from classes and being immersed in missions for a week! My prayer is that God will really use this conference to give me major direction for the next year...

That's all for now, folks. The week has left me a bit tired, and I am going to have a little nap now. God Bless you all!

There's this song I've been listening to over the last week, a Daniel Bedingfield song - honestly I'm not sure what it's called but I think it's amazing. The chorus goes like this:

I'm never gonna leave your side,
I'm never gonna leave your side again
Still holding on, I won't let you go
Cause when I'm lying in your arms, I know I'm home...

Now I like that. First I thought, hey that's a nice love song there. But the more I thought about it, the more I would rather make it a song of worship - a love song toward God. Years ago I sat in a seminar where the speaker said worship means "a kiss towards" God. In light of my renewed desire to strengthen my relationship with my Lord, I want to commit myself to Him alone because truly, in His arms I am home.

Why is it that I so often forget how important He is? Maybe because down here in my little world it's so easy to only see things from my perspective, to let my problems overshadow the fact that He is in total control. I want to give this up to Him - this life is His gift to me, and I want to offer it back to Him through praising and serving Him.

Now I picture God reaching down to me and, with His gentle hand, lifting my chin up toward heaven and saying to me, "Ashley, don't worry. I've got it." He's got it, He's in control and He loves me. He's taking care of it all, guys! It's so freeing to be able to say that. It's funny how we gain such confidence through surrendering it all to Christ. Whatever it is, give it to Him, and experience the freedom of abundant life and love. In His arms, we are home.

Alright kids, I'm having to blog downstairs here in the library at school, because the computer in my room hasn't let me get to the blogger site in over a week! Not that I've got loads of time to blog or anything, but at the moment I'm in between class and lunch so I thought I'd take a quick second to shoot out a post. Here we go!

This past week was so full of academic stuff that I thought I was going to explode! But by the grace of God everything got done (not necessarily well, but done at least). To top that off, we had three soccer games in a row last week: Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. The last two were in Michigan, and some shady weather made for an interesting game on Friday but thankfully things were gorgeous on Saturday. We won all three games, scored a total of 23 goals during the weekend, and I'm pretty pumped up about the postseason!

I just realized that in my last blog I made myself out to be a MAJOR video game nerd... I was hoping that wouldn't happen for a least a few more months! It's just a nice way to relax I guess. I played Nintendo once last week and it brought back so many childhood memories that I just had to laugh as I was playing!

Do you ever feel like you're about to reach your breaking point? Like if things carry on this way for a few more days you'll just go bonkers? I've felt a bit like that over the past week - even though I don't need a vacation, I sure do want one. Thinking about that, it has come to my attention that I am going to be travelling a lot over the next year. For the sake of my own excitement, I'll tell you about it: First, there may be Nationals for soccer in November, which would take me to Florida! Then, I'm going West Coast for a weekend, but that's all I can say for now. After that, my family is thinking about going to Florida for a few days after Christmas, which would be ACE. Next, I'll be going to England (feels like going home, almost) with the soccer team in March! Let's see, after that I will probably have a few weddings in Michigan and Seattle, then I'll have to start thinking about packing up for a more permanent trip, destination unknown. That would be wherever God leads me after I'm done with Moody, most likely somewhere in Western Europe, but I am realizing more and more the importance of seeking His wants over my own, so we'll see where He guides me with that.

And now, it's time for lunch! Hope you're all doing well, leave some comments, my damies! (Did anyone ever see "Pootie Tang?")