Ashlee's Story

Ashlee is an exchange student from China, and we met her through Kathleen. We put on a prayer and worship night at one of our Geelong campuses; Kathleen came and brought Ashlee with her (keep in mind both of them weren't Christians at this point and they came to a worship night, pretty incredible). They both really enjoyed the night and stayed through the whole thing. I actually met Ashlee while we were cleaning up; we couldn't get our own students to wipe down a table but here was this perfect stranger helping us!

Throughout the next few weeks Ashlee started coming to our Nooma discussion group (we would watch one of the Nooma videos by Rob Bell and talk about them afterwords, meant to be open to anyone, no matter what their beliefs). One day after Nooma Ashlee ended up talking with Adam and Jenny for quite some time. They shared the whole gospel with her, asked her if she wanted to respond to Jesus, and she said yes! Jenny and I were then able to go through a CE with her, and we got to watch her and walk alongside her as she discovered the basics of her new faith. She is extremely intelligent, and definitely kept Jenny and I on our toes with all her questions. Getting to minister to her was so sweet, being able to be a part of a new Christian's growth is such a privilege that I certainly don't deserve. But it also brought me back to the basics and gave me a new found appreciation for just how amazing the truth of the gospel is. I know that I'm going to spend my whole life seeking to understand it and still only graze the surface.

Ashlee's story also reminds me of just how sweet God is in His timing. Matt and I were in Ballarat for our last day with the UCLA team when Ashlee placed her trust in Christ for the first time. We had just gotten off campus and were on our way to the team's apartments for our final goodbyes to them when we got a text from Jenny with the good news. We were able to tell the team, the day before they left Australia, that they were a part in bringing one more student to Christ. Their reactions were priceless, and what an amazing thing for them to end their time in Australia on. God didn't have to do it that way, but how sweet that He did :)