William's 1st Month

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Reminiscing

Make a Smilebox photobook

A New Week To Work

Sunday is always a long, hard day for us which makes it hard to get out of bed and get started on Monday. Today, we seemed to have had an especially difficult time getting started. The house is a mess and I have realized it will probably stay that way, in a sense, until things start getting put into boxes. We have almost gone through everything we had in our storage room. We do school work in the morning and after lunch and a rest, I am able to work on separating items for selling or packing. It is hard not to overdo it. Even though it has been almost five weeks since I had a cesarean, there is still a lot that I cannot do. I am so thankful that God has allowed me to heal quickly, but getting my muscle strength and tone back is going to take some time! Randy and the children still help out in a lot of things and my mother-in-law has been an added blessing.

I realized yesterday that we are only going to be here two or three more Sundays. We have mixed emotions about leaving. These people have become family to us. We love them and it is going to be hard to leave. However, we are excited about reaching another people in another country and culture. We fell in love with those people last April when we visited Thailand.

Please pray for us through the next couple of weeks. There will be tough days but God will give us grace to get through them. When God closes one door, He always opens another one. Habakkuk 1:5 is the verse God has given us for our new endeavor for Him. It says, "Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvellously: for I will work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though it be told you." We are praying that God will use us to help Him "work a work" in Southeast Asia. What a blessing that would be!!!

Getting Back To Normal

It is hard to believe that William was four weeks old yesterday! And, four weeks ago yesterday, I did not think that I would feel as much like myself as I do. I thank the Lord that He has allowed me to recover faster than I thought I would. I still have a ways to go but I was able to start walking for exercise yesterday and that has made me feel better, also. As of last week, William weighed 5 pounds and 11 ounces! God is so good!

Now that William is here and things are pretty much back to normal, we have started the task of going through our things and dividing out what is to be sold and what is to be kept. We have been able to sell quite a few things so far, so now we just need to get some boxes and start packing. Our time here is quickly coming to an end. Please pray for us as we make decisions on things here. Please pray for our children also as the reality of moving is becoming more real to them.

We are sad to be leaving people we love, but we are looking forward to making new friends in a new land!

William Randyle Ashcraft

William Randyle Ashcraft arrived via emergency cesearean at 5:10 a.m. Wednesday morning, August 26, 2009. He weighed 5 pounds and 1 ounce and measured 17 1/2 inches long. He had to be on oxygen for several hours, but praise the Lord, he is healthy and happy and we were able to come home Thursday afternoon! What a blessing! He was due September 18th, so he came at 35 weeks and 6 days. My water broke early Wednesday morning and thanks to a Dr. who recognized a problem and made a quick decision, our last and smallest child came into this world quickly! The problem was placenta abrupto. The placenta started detatching when my water broke. We could have very easily lost him. William is a very good eater so we know he will be growing fast! Thank you for your prayers and please pray for a quick recovery. We still have much to do!!! Praise the Lord for the newest addition to our family.

Waiting!!!

We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our 5th child. The children keep asking how many more days until their new little brother will be here! I wish I knew!!! Randy went to Ft. Worth, TX, last week to get his mother and bring her down. It has been so good to have her here. She has been a tremendous help, especially during the last few days as my strength has been running out! Waiting is always the hardest part. I was reminded tonight of Isaiah 40:31 which says, "But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint." What a relief in the reminder!!! I will have more strength. I will soon be able to run again and soon will be able to walk and not waddle! Please continue to pray that the end of my pregnancy goes well and that I won't let the weariness get me down.

We have finally had a relief from the intense heat! Praise the Lord!!! Almost every day for the past week, we have had rain and thunderstorms. Several times, it has practically rained through the night! I have enjoyed the sound of the rain, also. It brought back many memories from my childhood when my family lived in a house with a tin roof and I remembered how relaxing the sound was! I must say, it has been a pleasant relief from the stress of pregnancy.

As I look ahead at a new week in front of us, I pray that God will send you a special blessing. He has done so many wonderful things in our lives and blessed us beyond measure. When I get down and discouraged, I count my blessings, as the old hymn says, to get myself back on track. Sometimes, "it will surprise you what the Lord hath done!" God has done marvelous things for all of us. So, when I feel the pressures of life weighing me down, I think back to all that God has done to bring me to where I am today, and it seems then I feel all the heaviness lifted. There IS peace in knowing that He is in control. There IS help and comfort. What a mighty God we serve!!!

A Visit From My Parents!!!

At first, "A Visit From My Parents" seems so commonplace. Two weeks ago, my parents flew down from Virignia and they left yesterday. The children are quieter today and looking for something to do! However, "commonplace" is truly an understatement. My Dad owns a funeral home and it has been 13 years since he was able to visit Mexico! The last time he was here, was when my family came for a visit right before Randy and I were engaged!!! There was so much to share with him. He was amazed to see all the buildings Randy and his Dad, Lanny, had built on the ranch. The pond on the ranch is bigger than it was back then and there was actually a building NOT there that was there the last time he visited! There was a flood of memories to share with him due to all the changes since then. Which, of course, led to a flood of feelings for us knowing he and my Mom will probably never visit here again with our upcoming move to Thailand. I am so thankful to God for allowing them both to visit one more time before we leave Mexico. It would have been harder to leave had my Dad not had the opportunity one more time to come and visit and see all the things that the Lord allowed to happen through our ministry. As we have said, God doesn't bless things or places. He blesses people and ministries. I think we are safe to say that since we have followed God's will to the best of our ability, God truly blessed La Fe Ministries.

While my parents were here, my Daddy helped Randy change out a toilet in our rental house. We visited the ranch and ate watermelon while the kids swam in the pond. My Mom helped me do some school work with Lee, Cynthia and Andrew. Of course, they all had to take turns sleeping in their sleeping bags on the floor in my parents' room! Caleb loved taking walks with my Daddy. We went to Parral one day to be with some missionaries there, Jason & Ellen Thomas, to kick off their Vacation Bible School. We had a cookout one afternoon. And, we spent the last night in Chihuahua City as their flight out Monday was 8:30 in the morning! We had a great time while they were here. It was wonderful for my Daddy to not be carrying around his cell phone and seeming not to be thinking about work. I believe he and my Mom really needed this trip to get away and have fun! It was a great blessing for us to have them here and share what God has laid on our hearts for our future in Thailand.

The upcoming weeks are going to be filled with many emotions - another soon-to-be born Ashcraft baby and packing to move. Jimenez has come a long way since the Ashcraft family moved here back in the '80's. The town has grown in size. It has been commercialed. There are paved roads and American-style stores. Most importantly, Christianity has boomed. Jimenez has a mature, independent-Baptist church with a Pastor who is extremely blessed -blessed with a wonderful family who are a great example. They know what it means to live by faith. Bro. Jose Luis Ayala and his wife, Mari, have become dear friends of ours over the years. They can relate to the members of the church in many ways that we never could and never would be able. Having a Mexican pastor is the best thing for La Fe Baptist Church. The Holy Spirit is felt like never before. We are dreading our last service, but looking forward to how God will bless them through having a pastor of their own nationality. That is the job of a true missionary - move in, plan an exit, and work toward that goal. Then, a national from that area can take over as the Pastor. I believe that is the hardest part of being a missionary - knowing when you have come to the point that someone is trained enough to take the ministry. As in most cultures, these trained people won't have spent four years in a seminary and probably know as much about the Bible as a Christian in the States who has spent about one year in church. However, that is the blessing we receive -keeping in touch and then watching how the Holy Spirit leads and guides them. I get the feeling sometimes that we as Americans think the Holy Spirit can only work through us. I believe I have seen the Holy Spirit work at a much deeper level in the lives of these people here. These people have no choice but to live by faith - free of the American dollar, credit cards and handouts. They truly depend on God to provide their next meal many times. I have learned much as being the wife of a missionary but I believe the last two years have been the greatest learning years of my Christianity. Missionaries shouldn't be pastors, otherwise, they would just stay and steal a blessing from everyone. We are ready to move out and begin in a new place in which we are really needed. Thailand is most definitely in need of missionaries. There are hundreds of thousands of people have never heard of Christ or His saving faith. They have never seen a Bible. Their religion dates back to before Christ. The interesting thing is that Buddha told them that one day a prophet would come and tell them things they didn't understand. We have the opportunity and great privilege of going and telling the Thai people who that Great Prophet is. It was from the idea of this that I got the heading for this blog - Ashcraft "Thai"dings. We, the Ashcraft family, being led of God, are going to the Thai people to spread the Tidings of Great Joy that Jesus came to earth, died for them, and rose again so that they can spend eternity in Heaven. Then, we can report home of great tidings from a far and distant land that you may only have heard of. The Thai people need these great Tidings of eternal life. Hence, I changed Tidings to "Thai"dings. God has great things in store for us and this people we have come to love as much as the Mexicans. Please pray for us over the coming weeks as we prepare to leave and embark on a new endeavor for Christ.