He is faithful.

WOW. How He is faithful!

I know my last blog was written on answered prayers, and as I thought about this blog I wanted to highlight another idea… but before I do that I just want to briefly touch on some of the prayers I have seen God radically move in just recently to share with you how powerful He is and how intentional He is in our personal lives. This blog may be a little lengthy, but I promise it is well worth reading to the end. God is faithful.

• Happy Trails Registry- A few weeks ago I decided one night to intentionally pray for the gear I would need for the world race, and the very next day… ANSWER… I got a message saying I had an item to pick up from the store! I showed up to Happy Trails and three bags later, almost every piece of gear was purchased off my registry!

• Kolache Bake Sale- The night before the big day of the kolache bake I had many volunteers have to unfortunately drop out. After calculating the fruit/dough ratio again it was a concern that we wouldn’t have enough fruit to fill the 57 dozen preorders. I prayed that night that God would provide enough fruit and enough hands to bake the kolaches… ANSWER… the next day we had enough fruit to fill 123 DOZEN kolaches and more than enough help! AND they all sold!

• Backpack- This past week the last item left on my Happy Trails registry was an Osprey Ariel 65L backpacking backpack. After posting on social media about this need and praying that God would provide, less than 24 hours later… ANSWER… the backpack was paid in full! (This pack will carry practically all of my “life” for 11 months on the race.)

• Mail call- Recently I was overwhelmed with the task of fundraising, thinking about all the things I need to pay for in preparation for the race, in abundance to my world race cost. One night after work I came home from dinner in town with my little brother (he’s my favorite pizza date) to which I opened a letter I got in the mail… ANSWER… my mom had just prayed at dinner that God would continue to provide for my journey… inside was a $500 donation towards my world race goal from a friend of a friend I had never met.

Now I know that all of those answered prayers were tied to fundraising for the world race, so I would like to shift you over to a few recent answered prayers outside of God’s financial provision. He is faithful!

• Honduras- If you follow me on social media you may know that I traveled to Honduras for a week in the beginning of May to visit Hope Children’s Home (where I stayed during part of my time on the mission field in summer of 2021). Leading up to the trip I prayed for my requested days off from work to be approved, to find affordable/cheap airfare, to find a friend to adventure with me, and to work enough overtime hours to not pay anything “out of pocket”. God far exceeded my asks and abundantly provided in every single one of these requests. I was so thankful for a break and spending a week in Honduras was a huge blessing for me! I was reminded again of how much I love what I love! 

• Psalms- Since the end of December I had been reading through the book of Psalms in the Bible. My prayer was that God would help me to stay committed to spending time with Him. Every day I would read, meditate, and pray through one chapter. On May 27th I finished all 150 chapters of Psalms without missing a day! During those many nights I would read, I adopted the phrase “All Praise” as a reminder to praise God in both the high and low moments. 

• YA Thursday- Recently the pastor of the young adult ministry at my church preached on the topic of the Holy Spirit. I would love to tell you all about the sermon and that night but to keep things short I most definitely saw and experienced God move. Lately I have been praying very specific prayers and my requests seemed kind of selfish that night but I really believe because of my specificity I got to witness God so powerfully and fully.

• Work friend- To tell you the truth the last six months of work have been very hard. I have felt much like an outcast, praying over and over that God would make a coworker a friend. And He did. Recently, God gave me a friend who encouraged me at work, gave me tons of laughs even on the hard days, challenged my thoughts, and let me be me. I am so thankful. Writing this is definitely hard though. This friend of mine is now moving on to a new adventure. It doesn’t make sense to me why He would provide someone for only such a short time, but I am so grateful for an answered prayer, and am confident in His plan. 

I could tell you many more stories of prayers God has answered recently. He has provided OVER $14,500 for this journey itself!! I am currently 75% funded! There are sooooo many answered prayers just in those numbers alone! Not only have I seen answered prayers in my own life, I have also seen God moving in my friends lives and it is seriously the coolest thing. So to leave you with a final idea of this “not talk about prayer blog”… in these last couple of months I have learned to trust God in every moment, even when it doesn’t make any sense. Trusting in Him has helped me to better experience His faithfulness. 

Thanks for supporting me on this journey! In the meantime if you would like to join me in prayer, I would appreciate prayer over these things:

• Prioritizing my time- I am a little behind on writing many thank you cards, (finally getting to my blog), and figuring out other preparation tasks for the world race. Please pray that God helps me to use my time wisely and stay motivated in each of these things. 
• WR Necessities- I am currently trying to figure out what vaccinations and medications I will need for the areas I am traveling to as well as how to get the prescription medications I need to take with me. Pray that I can figure these details out in a timely manner and that God would provide a way for insurance to allow me to get my medications without paying for a year’s supply of everything out of pocket. 
• Rest- Recently I have not been sleeping well, mostly on the nights before I work at the hospital. Pray that my mind would chill out a bit and that I would get the rest I need to keep my body healthy and to be efficient at work.
• Fundraising- The only fundraiser I have planned for summer is a bake sale on June 10th. Pray that God continues to provide financially as I still have about $4,700 left to go and that I would have the time and energy to pour into this process at my best.

Praise God for all He has done, is doing, and will do.

With gratitude, commitment, and love,

Ashley Dusek