Redefining "Normal"

Well, this is it!!!  Yesterday I quit my job, no big deal.  I leave for Africa in exactly 21 days and I am BEYOND excited.  September 29th could not come any sooner.  I am so ready to go and get wrecked in His love, in His presence.  It's not even the fact that i'm going to Africa... it's the fact that God has placed Africa on my heart since I was a little girl and it's finally coming to reality... I get to go where I know God is leading me and I know that something great will come out of it.  I'm writing this, sitting in my room just soaking and I can't help but tear up.  This new journey that I am starting... and I get to be me.  Right from the get go.  I get to be exactly who He created me to be...  Ashley, with absolutely NO strings attached.  As crazy as it sounds, I'm excited to not wear make-up, not do my hair, wear the simplist wardrobe and just find the heart of God in raw and true worship!!!  I'm excited to chase after the calling that He has placed on my life.  I am ready to lay EVERYTHING down at His feet.  As a matter of fact, I AM laying down everything at His feet.  It was not too long ago that God has taken me through a process of complete surrender.  He has helped me give up my family, my friends, my job and even my church.  As hard as this all was, it wasn't letting them "go"... it was just letting God have control.  I think He placed it in me knowing that I would minister in the nations for my life.  You wonder how it's so "easy" to leave home... but this is my redefined "normal".  You might think I sound crazy, a girl with a love for red light districts, back alleys and dumpsters, the widows and orphans, street kids, and warzones.  Some of you might think I need a new definition of the word "normal".  But the truth is... it all comes down to me being passionate.  I am SO passionate for the things of His heart.  I'm so tired of living in my own comfort zones, knowing that God is always removing me from them anyways!!  He is placing the things of His heart on mine.  I can't even explain what it feels like to know God's heart.  He shares His heart with the people He trusts... and to know what He is thinking when He's thinking it, and how he feels when His heart is breaking for the things of this world... I don't want anything else but to be the one He trusts.  To be able to go when He says go!!!  No longer is normal just sitting in my every day life, normal is about doing the things that I am passionate about, the things that He has placed on my heart.  If revolutions start with one, we are a whole lot of ones.  Choose me Lord... let me be the one you use.  You use a willing heart and I say that I am open to wherever you lead.  I am chasing after that same love that He showers all over me every day.  I want to love people like that!!!  That love that completely wrecked my life and changed who I am... I want to spread that around this world and watch God take the reign.  I am confident in who I am when I encounter His love.  And when He's by my side I'm fearless.  There is no doubt in my mind that I am not walking in the direction that He is leading.  As "scary" as it is to go to Africa... I really am not scared.  I'm ready to stand up for justice, for peace and believe for transformation.  For me, this journey so far has been about trusting in Him and knowing that He always remains faithful and this is just the beginning.
21 DAYS!!!!