priorities

Have you ever been so busy that you forget what it means to rest? I think that was how I was feeling in my last post. For the past two weeks, but mostly on the weekends the Bible School had some exciting things happening which was mentioned in my last post. These were lots of fun, but it really left me needing sleep and more importantly alone time with God! I just felt deprived of my time. And because of that I was on an emotional roller coaster. Secretly, I was home sick, tired, frustrated, and wondering why on earth was I here.

This week things have been more routine. And although I am getting sick, my time management has been 10 times better, which makes me happy. Sometimes I wonder if there will ever be a routine when your involved in full time ministry. There are always things that come up, and things that steal your 'me/God time'. Needless to say, I am learning the importance of PRIORITIES.

First of all, my walk with the Lord was struggling last week because I wasn't making time for it. And yes, I say making because it is a choice. I have no excuse [not even the mandatory activities my work has me involved in could even be consider as a good excuse]. This means that there are times I need to get up really early just to make sure I have set aside time to spend with the Lord. Other times my schedule allows me to sleep in, but still I make sure I have enough time with the Lord before my day begins. [Oh how thankful I am for those days!]

Secondly, my relationships were a wreck. Because I didn't have time alone, I found myself wanting to be alone and distant. I don't think it was wrong for me to want this time to myself, but I saw the effects. My job is ministry. My job is loving, caring, and being available for others. Many times this means I can expect to have to comfort, talk to or listen to someone during crazy hours- when I had other plans. Don't get me wrong... I LOVE EVERY MINTUE OF IT. But if my relationship with the Lord isn't my focus, and main priority then it is so much harder to have the right, loving attitude.

I love what the Lord is teaching me. Sometimes I get so mad at myself because I think "Ashley, you grew up in a Christian home, you went to two year at Bible school, you stayed on staff for two more years. Why are you just now grasping this concept?" But God is so good.

The Youth Workers Conference was so awesome last weekend. It was such a blessing to have Rich Andrews [Fl camp director] here. First, he knows how to share the word of God passionately and secondly, it was a little bit of home [sort of]. We were all challenged and encouraged through the Word on how to have a Godly influence on those who we work with.

Ministries, Work assignments, Mentorship program [see the picture below], and classes are well on their way. As well as dorm life, figuring how to live with 5 other people from all over the world can be challenging. These keeps the students really busy and honestly a little overwhelmed at first, but things are going smoothly.

This is a picture of Yana, her mentee- Elyse myself, and my mentee- Nicole. Word of Life pairs each student with a mentor. We meet weekly and do a Bible study together. As a mentor we are investing in the lives of our mentee, teaching them what we already know. No only do i have a mentee. I am blessed to have a mentor. What an awesome concept- as we learn, we teach others also. Discipleship.

Thank you for your continuous prayers for Graham Stump. He was able to permanently move home. The doctors didn't even think he would ever walk again, but praise God that they were wrong. Graham is walking, eating a normal diet, laughing, talking, and doing most normal things. Please continue praying for Randi and Graham. This is going to be really hard on Randi. She, with the help of many others I'm sure, will be providing for and watching and meeting all the needs for the boys and her husband. Graham's memory is still not the best, but slowly improving.

My support has remained the same since my last post. Please continue praying for this.

Also please be in prayer as we are looking for FLIGHTS! Yep you read that right.... despite my plans to stay here over Christmas I have changed my mind and have decided to fly home. :D

I continue to miss you all -some days are harder than others, but Christmas is not that far away!

SO MUCH TO TELL....

"This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us - whatever we ask - we know that we have what we asked of him" (1 John 5:14-15). Thank you so much for your prayers. The staff and students spent two days in Budapest sharing the love of Christ, and had such an awesome time. I must admit and anyone who knows me knows that I have never been a fan of walking up to someone whom I have never met and asking, "If you were to die today where would you go?" or "what do you believe about God?" But the reality is we live in a lost and dying world. They are all around us- the person in the next cubicle over, your boss, possibly the person who sits across from you at the dinner table, your high school friend, your sister or cousin and who knows maybe even someone who is reading this very blog. We must not merely look at these people as how you are associated with them, but as souls. God doesn't promise us a tomorrow. In James 4:14, it says, "Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes." I am not preaching at you, or saying its easy, but I am writing all of this because it is something that the Lord has been teaching me over these past few days. It doesn't matter how uncomfortable I feel when I walk up to someone, but I am commanded to share the gospel and should do it out of love. If I fail to do this I will be living in disobedience. We need to have confidence in the Lord, and share Him boldly.

On Thursday, we were located in a courtyard. We used many different tools [such as drama, testimonies, music to attract people] Then everyone simply went up and asked if the person had a moment to answer a question. This got the conversation started. Because I am in Hungary and there is an obvious language barrier, the first question I asked was "Do you speak English?" 99.9 percent of the time the answer was no, and I handed them and track and smiled. If a translator was present or near, I would continue the conversation with their help. Because of the Hungarian and English speaking ratio, this made witnessing more difficult. I became easily discouraged. I praise God for the body of Christ. At just the right moment a friend prayed with me and prayed for an opportunity for me to speak with someone who knew English. We serve a great God, and He answered that request. On Friday, we went to an underground train station/mall. This was the home of many homeless, prostitutes and a big attraction for teenagers and travelers. The opportunities were countless. Sad to say, but I allowed my discouragement and fear from the day before to control my boldness. We passed out many tracts and had some good conversations, but it wasn't until the afternoon that I realized my purpose for doing this had been all wrong. It wasn't to share the love of Christ or the gift God offers everyone. I was only doing this because I was told I had to by the staff. You may be wondering what exactly altered my thinking. Well, I was with a Hungarian graduate of WOL, and a student. I had shared the Gospel with a prostitute named KatÍ. We seemed to be going around in circles and she just wasn't understanding, so as we were closing the conversation she asked us why we were different? What changed in our lives? So we began to tell her our testimonies. She mentioned she needed to leave, but she had one more question. With a smile on her face she asked "What is flowing out of you? Why would you share this with me?" We had no better answer than "God's love." We explained that God loves her, and because of His love for her we love her. I have really be challenged by this. I should share what I believe with others because God loves them and because of His love I can love. Although I wasn't able to lead anyone to the Lord, seeds were planted. We have counted around 50 people who accepted Christ as their Savior those 2 days.

This is a picture of us witnessing to KatÍ, and her sister. Please if you think

about it pray for her. The Lord is working in her life, and hopefully she will come

to a saving knowledge of Him.

On Sunday we were able to take the students on a tour of some of the historical places in Budapest. This was a great time of fellowship and sightseeing. Below are a few of the pictures. Budapest is such a beautiful place.

This is a Cathedral, I have never been inside one, what an opportunity.

The inside.

The view of Budapest from Castle Hill.

The Lady Dean's- Monca [Dean of Women] Me [Asst. Dean of Women] and Yana [the Asst. to the Dean's]

King St. Stephen [the first King]

Please continue praying for the following:

-Language classes. The joke around here is that Hungarian will be the Heavenly Language because it will take all of eternity for anyone to learn it. Needless to say I'm struggling.

-Financial support. I have 5615.00 ~Still in need of $6385.00

-Graham Stump. Here is the lasted update on him.

As most of you know, Graham was able to come HOME yesterday! He arrived around 10am and stayed until 6:30. It was so incredible! Him seeing Wyatt for the first time was hard for me as Wyatt wasn’t sure what the wheelchair and neck brace were all about. It only lasted for about 30 seconds and then he wouldn’t leave Graham alone! It was great. Baby Keith even seemed to know what was going on and enjoyed being pushed around the yard sitting on his dad’s lap. You will probably think I’m crazy or that I’ve been lying to you about Graham’s condition, but Graham rode the 4-wheeler while he was home! I sat on the back of him and we slowly ventured out onto some trails behind the house. He did so great and it actually made him use his left arm and fingers. We are calling it “Adirondack therapy”; they say it’s the best kind.

After our great day yesterday I was excited and nervous to see Graham today. Would he remember anything from his time at home? Well, unfortunately he didn’t, but me and the rest of my family had a great time even if he couldn’t remember. That is what you can be praying for the MOST right now. His memory, as I’ve mentioned before, is pretty bad. It’s getting difficult as his wife as I try to navigate around his memory and emotions. I feel like that guy in the “Notebook” where he reads to his wife everyday to bring her back to him. That’s kind of where I’m at right now with Graham. Today over lunch he was “with me” and was very emotional as we talked about him being hurt, being in the hospital and what’s wrong with him for the hundredth time. I know tomorrow he won’t remember that conversation and I’ll have to repeat it to him all over again. It’s worth it though because it’s during those times that I really get to see Graham again.

Miracle of the day:

This one is HUGE for me! When Graham was home yesterday at one point Wyatt was being a brat and just needing to be disciplined. Before I could do anything Graham told Wyatt to “stop acting like that, or daddy would do something about it.” Wyatt immediately obeyed and you should have seen my face. I’m sure my mouth was open as I couldn’t believe that Graham was parenting right alongside me.

Humor of the day:

Graham beat me in “Connect Four” several times. I was REALLY trying to play, but he was still beating me.

This is Graham and his family when he was able to come home for the day!

-Lastly, for the youth conference which starts today! We have around 240 guest coming, housing is very limited, but we will have a great time I'm sure.

I know this is a long, picture filled post, but hopefully you will enjoy it!!! I actually took me 3 days to post it. [haha]. Just shows how busy I am. I love and miss you all.

insert a creative title here...

Since I have last wrote, I went to the immigration office and applied for my visa. :] We have chosen the RA's. It was awesome how the Lord orchestrated the RA choosing. All of the Dean staff were in agreement. Opening Weekend went well. We have 12 different countries represented this year. [i believe- this number could actually be a little lower] We had a great time in Gods word and in fellowship with one another. God has truly blessed us with a great student body who desire to learn and grow in His word. The number of Hungarian guys increased tremendously this year in comparison to the last few years. And we actually have more guys than girls in general- which is never really the case. Imagine that! The picture below are a few of them.



Work is not work at all in my mind, it's a ministry and that is exact how it is supposed to be. I love what I do. I am sure there will be days when its hard, but as of right now I couldn't ask for it to be better. Also on this note, my roommate are amazing. One is Yana is Ukrainian- but her family moved to America when she was 11 or so [so she has been Americanized if you will]. Yana is the assistant to the Deans, so not only to i live with her, but i work, eat, sleep and do everything else with her. [Good thing i like her. huh.] It is kind of crazy, because we are so much alike. We also have the same tattoo- we have the same verse and stars on our arms. Please see the picture below.

My other roommate Karolina is from the Chez Republic, but is part German as well. She is the school nurse, as well as an academic assistant. We will also be getting 2 Germans sometime this week, and 2 or 3 more Americans in January. We will be a packed room by the end of the year.

Today is the second day of classes for the students. They are studying personal evangelism. On Thursday and Friday all the students and staff will be going to Budapest to participate in open air evangelism. I count it such a joy to call this part of my job.

A few prayer request:

-Graham Stump as he continues to recover.
-Wisdom as we assign students to their work and ministry assignments.
-Open Air Evangelism this weekend.
-Visa's [we have 3 students from Africa who have been denied their visa's and are going to reapply.]
-Clubs Conference coming up September 24 - 25.
-My support- I can't check my support level due to some system complications [so pray those get fixed as well].

What day is it again??

This will just be an update to let everyone know exactly what I have been doing since I arrived in Hungary! I apologize for not writing until now. As I am sure you can tell by my title to this post, my life has been extremely busy since I have arrived in Hungary. This is a good and bad at times. Staying busy helps me to not think about all the people I have left behind in the states, but also it makes me really tired.

When I arrived on Friday, I had 2 days that were set aside with relaxing activities. I didn't want to spend those days sleeping because it would make it extra hard for me to adjust to the time change. We had a church and a fellowship, so I was able to meet many staff member during these times. On tuesday we began work. I learned more about my responsibilities and became more comfortable with those I will be working with. I am still amazed at how the Lord orchestrated this in my life. It is such an opportunity for me. I am truly blessed. Students who were coming for our RA- which is student leadership, began arriving slowly throughout the week. By Thursday evening everyone had arrived and we had a fellowship that allowed us to get to know each other. Friday was the start of training. There were many helpful classes for the RA candidate, as well as myself, on biblical counseling, rules, procedures, and responsibilities. On saturday we took the students to an Operation Mobilization home. There we were able to help clean and do yard work. This is a key opportunity for us to observe the candidates in a service position. We have continued daily in our meetings, and growing together as a leadership team. We have toured the town, went to a sweets shop, celebrated 2 birthdays, and had many one on one conversation. It has been such a blessing to already begin relationships with the students.

Please be in prayer:
1. as we make the deciding choices, with Gods leading, on who our RA's will be. We have 14 candidates and can one choose 5. We are daily seeking the Lords guidance
2. as our Bible school students arrive. Pray that they will all have safe travels and the Lord will protect them.
3. for the opening weekend as staff is preparing for the start of a new year and many students begin classes and adjust time, rules, roommate, and just college life in general.
4. that the Lord will continue to provide my support.

Financial update: I have raised 4,695. I am still in need of 7,305. If you would like more information on how to give please feel free to email me at ashley.d.wise@gmail.com

If you would like to know some specific information or have questions please feel free to ask.