Living It Out

Ashley Molina is one of my volunteers at Northview.  Currently, she is serving in Nicaragua at a school for the deaf.  Below is an article I featured on Ashley during last month's Volunteer Newsletter.

God, Sign Language, people, children, service – those are just a few of the things that Ashley Molina, an eighteen year old high school graduate, is passionate about. Currently, Ashley is serving for the next three months at a Christian School for the Deaf in Nicaragua – learning Nicaraguan Sign Language, while serving as a dorm chaperon, planning games and meals, and working as a teachers aid at the school, but her story doesn’t begin there. It has been a journey as she has learned to live out her faith and follow the calling that God has placed on her heart.

Ashley’s journey to where she is now begins almost a year ago when she chose to spend Spring Break of her Junior year serving with a team from North Beach in Nicaragua.  It was her first experience with missions, but one that has changed her life forever. While there, Ashley, and fifteen of her peers from North Beach served in a multitude of ways during Holy Week. From handing out rice and beans at a food distribution site to running a sports camp for students at a local school; the teens built relationships with the people in Managua and Los Pricilles.

Upon returning from Nicaragua, Ashley was contacted by K.Paul Maurer, Missions Pastor at Northview, about serving at Brookside Community Church. Ashley said that, “God calls us to serve more than ten days a year – you don’t need to send money, time is more important.” With this in mind, Ashley took the opportunity to begin serving here in Indianapolis with the Summer Program at Brookside Community Church. Over the past eight months, Ashley has built relationships with the children at Brookside while helping with homework, joining them on field trips to the local swimming pool, and eating meals alongside them – all while teaching them about a God who knows and loves them!

Brookside has not been Ashley’s only involvement in Northview’s Ministries over the last several months. In addition to attending North Beach on Sunday evenings, Ashley has served in The Sea with the three and four year olds each Sunday morning at 9 a.m. and with an elementary age child through the GraceWorks Ministry on Sundays at 10:45 a.m.

Over the last several months Ashley has found many ways that God has used her gift of sign language and her love for people to serve others. She has been willing to follow God’s leading in her life and He is using her to accomplish His plan.

Ashley will be spending the next three months in Managua, Nicaragua with missionaries Matt and Eva Barlow. Please join Studio 6.7 in praying for Ashley and her time in Nicaragua. She will be returning early this summer.