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| Ashley served on the Josie's Angels teams in the Philippines. |
The Philippines has two seasons: rainy and dry. It has two categories of people according to wealth: the rich and the poor. It has two types of mangos: the amazing . . . And the incredible. And it has captured my heart my heart in two ways: before being here and after.
It was for four months that I knew I was coming here. When I am thinking about it now, that was really only sixteen weeks, and somewhere around 120 days. It seemed like an eternity when I found myself wondering what the weather was like, what language was primarily spoken, which peoples would I be working with, and in what ways God would move. I was mesmerized with everything Filipino; I grew to love this country through prayer and wonder, months before even stepping foot on the island's soil.
In the 2 months that I have been here, I have a new love for this place, not to mention its people. It's a love that has come true through each of these girls. I see it in their sparkling brown eyes, in their silky black hair, in their beautiful, dimpled smiles. This is their home, and somewhere along the way it has become my heart's home. So now after experiencing the very hot, humid weather, the Tagalog spoken, and the lovely JAZ girls, and especially all that God has done in their lives and in mine this summer--the questions I wondered for so many months before, the only question I have left is not if I will come back to this country, with these girls, in a place I have learned so much, it is when.