A Third Blog?

Ok, you might think that I've got carried away here with starting new blogs, or you may think that I have too much time on my hands, but neither is true. In actual fact, this week has been very busy. I did have at some point this week (can't remember now, when it was exactly), this idea to start this third blog. So I did do just that, then and there, without wasting time to decide whether I should or shouldn't. Sometimes, that is just the best decision to make.

Anyway, enough of my rambling. I have a link to it on my sidebar titled Testimonies, or you can click on the link here. Hopefully it will inspire you.

Love Ash

New Blog - Or Rather Another One...

Hello all,

Don't worry this blog is not moving anywhere. I have, though, decided to start a second blog (which may appeal to those of you who are more interested in politics or those of you that just like looking at photos).


My new blog is called Beautiful Iraq and it is mainly a blog of photos of Iraq, although I will add links on it that will take you to other blogs where you can read about Iraq if you are interested.

I actually only started it, to experiment, for design purposes, but now I like the idea, so I will keep it and build on it. If you come across any interesting photos that I could add to it, please e-mail them to me.

Love you all,
Ash x

Happy Valentine's Day

Hello one and all,

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Whether you have received many or any Valentine cards today, or whether you have not.

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Know that You are loved and precious.

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This is for you - Happy Valentine's Day.

m

For God so loVed the world,

That He gAve
mmmmmmHis onLy
mmmmmmmmmBegottEn
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmSoN
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmThat whosoever
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmBelieves In Him
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmShall Not perish,
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmBut have Everlasting life.
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmJohn 3:16

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So whoever you are, know that you have been and are and always will be LOVED by God.

(click on the picture above if you don't believe me)

I am a complete romantic at heart. I was watching the last couple of episodes of 24 series 4 the other day, and there are those two characters in it, Tony and Michelle. I have never watched a program where two characters had as much chemistry as these two (they must be very good actors). Anyway my favourite line was when, in the middle of trying to save America from a national crisis, Tony says to Michelle "Michelle, I hate being without you."

Then an episode later, she replies "Tony, I can't live another day without you." I cannot tell you how happy I was to know they will get together. Then horror of all horrors Tony gets kidnapped by the terrorist and his life is threatened. It was really tense, and I even found myself praying "Please daddy, don't let Tony die!" Ofcourse I knew that this wasn't real life and that God was not going to go back in time and change what happens on the dvd. But it was my way of saying to God "Daddy, I really hope he doesn't die." I was so emotionally involved with the program,

I'm sure I made God laugh. I totally laughed at myself.

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I would like to take this opportunity to say:

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Daddy God - I LOVE you so much - Thank YOU for everything!

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Mum and Dad - I love you! You are the best.

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My sisters - I love you girlies.

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The Trews -I love you all so much! My life just wouldn't be the same without you.

My friends near and far - I love you!

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I've been tagged!

By the way, before I get on to the subject of today's blog. All the snow we had a couple of days ago has now melted. The weather has been so crazy here this winter, we've had snow like 3 or 4 times and each time it has only lasted a few days and then completely melts again!

Anyway - back to the subject matter of today's blog.

Well, I read Adele's post on her blog the other day and she was going on about being tagged by Shannon, and I foolishly clicked on the link to Shannon's blog and got tagged too (even though Adele had said on her blog that Shannon has tagged the whole universe - but I obviously missed that bit - duh!)

Anyway, basically it's a kind of quiz that you can post on your blog and tag others to do the same on their blog. So here goes:

Four Jobs I've had:
- Cash Office Clerk - Sainsbury's Supermarket
- Primary School Teacher - Various Schools in England
- Translator - BBC TV studios in London
- Full-Time Pastoral Assistant, also Missionary - Oasis Ministries Church

Four Movies I can watch over and over:
- Ever After
- Sweet Home Alabama
- A Walk To Remember
- Billy Elliot
- Anne Of Green Gables (not really a movie, so doesn't technically count as one of the four, but had to include it anyway)

Four Places I have lived:
- Baghdad - Iraq
- Benghazi - Libya
- London - England
- Nova Scotia - Canada

Four TV Shows I love to watch:
- Friends
- Survivor
- Star Academy (Lebanese version of Fame Academy)
- Super Nanny
- 24 (I am halfway through watching season 4 and I haven't watched the previous three yet)
- Faulty Towers
- The Apprentice (the American one - sorry, I know this is more than four)

Four Places I have been on vacation:
(this is hard because I have been to loads of places
but I'll just pick four that I have been to at least 4 times each)
- Cyprus
- Syria
- Austria
- Hungary

Four Of My Favourute Dishes:
- Pretty much most of my Mum's cooking and my Dad's barbecue Kebabs
- Rachel's Roast Dinner
- Mandy's Chilli
- Gary's Curry

Four websites I visit daily:
- My sister's blog
- Adele's blog
- Alyn & AJ's blog
- My blog of course! (to see if any one has left me any comments - please leave me a comment if you are reading this.)

Four places I would rather be right now:
- where I am right now but in the midst of a revival
- in the most holy of holies (I love that song - take me in to the holy of holies)
- in my Father's arms
- in the throne room of heaven

Four bloggers I am tagging:
- Faye
- Nik
- Kenny
- Kat
(Get ready, set, go!)

Snow Storm

I woke up this morning - and there had been a snow storm overnight.

This is the view from the window.

My snow boots that I got for Christmas!

So I put on my gorgeous snow boots that I was given for Christmas

and went out taking photos of course!

Living Water?

That's what it says on the sign!

Gorgeous Lake

Or 'The Lake Of Shining Waters' as Anne of Green Gables would say.

Winter Wonderland

Celeste & I

In the afternoon I went to visit Celeste, a lovely lady from church. I visit Celeste every Wednesday. This was taken in her front garden. Celeste is a wonderful cook and has a really big heart for other people. I had a lovely time with her today.

I love LIFE!

I went for a walk this morning in the snow down to the Boat house. As I enjoyed the gorgeous view of the lake and the trees covered in snow, I thought about the things I love. I got out my little pink book and started to write them down. I started with I love God and ended with I love LIFE!

That was a bit of a shock for me to write that 'I love Life'. It was only just over nine years ago that I hated life. It's true that in the last nine years, God has changed me a lot and I have loved many things about life. But I had not expected to write 'I love Life.' I cannot deny it though, with all my heart, I do, yes, I really do LOVE LIFE!

God is just sooooo amazing. He is awakening my heart everyday. This year, my heart is becoming more alive everyday. As a reult, I am loving life and Him even more everyday! Thank you Father for giving me Life and for pursuing and waking my heart!

Here are a few other things that I love:

I love pens that write smoothly

I love the snow

I love waterfalls, lakes and rivers

I love the sunshine

I love walking in the woods

I love mountains

I love swings

I love lilies, roses and pretty flowers

I love beauty

I love walking with a friend

I love children

I love chocolate

I love families

I love parents

I love little sisters

I love good friends

I love people who make me laugh

I love nice clothes

I love people

I love laughing

I love real wood fires

I love strawberries

I love nuts

I love hugs & kisses

I love tomatoes

I love people smiling

I love reading, writing, dancing, singing

I love adventures

I love pretty curls

I love straight hair

(etc. the list goes on...)

I LOVE LIFE!

I'm back!

Hello everyone,



Well, yesterday was a very long day! I was up at 5:30am English time (after only having 4 hours sleep). We left the house at 6 am - my sister kindly drove me to the airport before she had to go to work. I had to kill 5 and 1/2 hours at Heathrow airport before my flight at 11:30 am. The plane was half empty, so I sat on my own which was cool, as I was too tired to be making conversation with anyone. I was able to read and to have a soak which was cool.

We landed in St.Johns (New Foundland - Canada) at 1:30pm Canadian time (which would've been 5:30pm English time). We had to go through customs there and collect our luggage and then put it back on the belt to go back on the same plane. We left there at 3:30pm Canadian Time (7:30 English Time). We landed in Halifax at 4:10pm. After picking up my luggage, I waited until about 5:30pm for Brandan and Jenn to pick me up and we drove back to Yarmouth (we stopped at Chapters and Starbucks in Dartmouth on the way - that was nice). By the way 'Chapters' is a really cool Canadian bookshop that I really love - but we don't have one in Yarmouth yet! I was so tired in the car and just wanted to sleep. I went straight to bed when I got to the house. It was 10pm Canadian Time (2am English Time).

The girls were really excited to see me this morning. I am really glad to be back home. I never thought I would refer to Canada as 'home' but that is how I feel now - which is really cool I guess.

And guess what!!! Yes. The snow is back!

I really enjoyed my time in England, and I loved catching up with friends. I am still excited about 2006. This is going to be a good year! God is really awesome!

Love to you all,

You are all so precious!

Ash :)

Nine Years!

It has been nine years today since I gave my life to Jesus. He has SO completely changed my life! Wow! Nine Years! Doesn't time fly by when you're having FUN! I honestly am so much more in love with Him now than ever before! He really is just soooooooooo cool and so lovely!

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If you don't know Jesus, you're SO missing out!

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I love you Daddy! You are so awesome!

l

Surprise! Surprise!

This week has sure been full of surprises! I had been praying for a while now to be able to go home to visit my parents and surprise my dad for his 60th birthday. God totally surprised me this week when some very kind friends offerred to pay some money towards my airfare back to the UK. I knew that my sister was also willing to pay half the airfare to fly me back home.

So literally, it all happened so quickly and within a couple of days, I managed to find a flight, book it, and I left Yarmouth yesterday morning, and finally got home this afternoon. I am still so jetlagged and tired. I've had like 5 hours sleep in the last 3 days. To summarise my trip: I left Yarmouth yesterday at 7.45am Canada time and took the 4 hour shuttle drive to Halifax airport. Waited around the airport for about eight hours. Got on the flight at 8.20pm Canada time. Sat next to a Canadian Russian guy who was very nice and we talked the whole time. Landed in Heathrow airport at 7.30am this morning London time. Finally got home at 12 noon.
I didn't tell my family that I was coming home, so they had no idea. I took the underground from the airport and walked home. I turned up at my parents' front door and my dad opened the door for me. He was so surprised. My whole family family were. It was so nice to be able to surprise them like that!
My dad also surprised me, by telling me, that he got offerred a really good job in London. He has accepted the offer and will start there in April. He finishes his current job in the Middle East in March. So it will be very nice for him and for us, that he will finally come home, after working abroad for 3 years and that he will have a good job too. I love surprises like that!

I'm really glad to be home for two weeks. I haven't told people from Riverside Church that I'm back either. I plan to turn up at church on Sunday and surprise them. That will be really cool! If you are from Riverside Church and you are reading this before Sunday, I look forward to seeing you then. Please don't spoil the surprise for others though!

Love you all,
Ash x

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone!

I am so excited to be alive in 2006. This is going to be a great year. I can't wait to spend time with God this year. He is so awesome! If we give Him this year, He will do awesome things in us this year.

We are having a New Year's Day service at church tomorrow evening. I will be speaking about giving up all that we have for all that He has for us. This is a little excerpt of what I will say tomorrow:

'So, as we start 2006, I want this year to count in my life. Life is short. In England, it’s really common to have New Year resolutions. I always get asked every year what my new year resolution is. And every year, it’s something like, I’ll watch what I eat, and I won’t eat too much fatty stuff etc etc. It’s always something to do with how I look or my weight, or how often I brush my teeth. And they never work.

This year, I don’t have a New Year resolution, I have a decision. I want to draw closer to God this year. I want to make the effort to spend time with Him every day. And I want to look at the areas of my life in my spiritual walk with Him that aren’t exactly blossoming. I want to sow into those areas and sow into other people’s lives. I want to look for opportunities to bless others.

In Matthew 25 verses 14-30, in the parable of the talents, Jesus tells us about a man that calls his servants and entrusts his property to them and gives them talents of money to invest. When he returns, he rebukes the lazy servant who buried his talent, and he rewards the servants that invested their talents. I don’t want to be like the lazy servant who wasted and buried his talent.

I might not be the world’s best children’s minister, or the world’s best prophet, or the world’s best healing evangelist. But I want to sow into those areas of my life, and I want to reap a harvest one day.'

I pray that you all have a wonderful New Year, and that you all know how much HE LOVES YOU! You are all incredibly precious! Draw closer to Him this year, while you can.

Lots of love to you all,
Ash x

In loving memory...

It's Christmas Day. Happy Christmas to all who are reading this. More than anything else, this Christmas day, I am so grateful and thankful that I know Jesus. I really love you Jesus, thank you for coming to this world to die for us and give us the awesome priveledge of being able to have a relationship with the Father.

I had a lovely Christmas morning today. I was really blessed and was given many beautiful presents from dear friends and family. I loved every single present that I was given. Thank you everyone.

At 4pm, Canada time, my sister rang me from England and told me that one of my uncles died (in Iraq) a few hours earlier today. At first, I was really shocked into utter silence - I did not know what to say or think - it was all so surreal. Later, after I put the phone down, I burst into tears. I really love this uncle and I am really upset that he died today. So this, is a little tribute to my uncle.

My uncle Jabar was in his late seventies. He is my dad's brother. My dad is the youngest of 13 brothers and sisters (10 boys and 3 girls). My uncle Jabar was one of my dad's eldest brothers. He was about 18 years older than my dad and practically helped raise my dad. My dad really looks up to him and loves him dearly. I had always heard my dad talk fondly of him and wished I could meet him one day. He lived in Iraq and I didn't, so it was always a dream of mine to meet him one day.



Summer of last year (2004), it was like a dream come true, when my uncle was able to come over, from Iraq to England, to visit us for a couple of months. I really really enjoyed spending time with him. I spent time with him every day of those summer months. I took him out on day trips all over London and chatted with him for hours and played backgammon together. The photo above was taken of us in the gardens of Buckingham Palace when it was open to the public for a couple of weeks that summer.

My Uncle was one of those people that are natural born story tellers. He had travelled all over the world in his younger days and had lots of stories to tell me of those days. He was alive when Iraq was ruled by a King. My grandad used to work for the King, and was also a traveller and a merchant who would travel as far as India to buy things and bring them back to Iraq to sell. My grandad had died before I was born (and my dad had never told me anything about him). So it was very interesting to hear the stories that my uncle was able to tell me of my grandad and of the days of the King. He also told me stories about my dad, when my dad was a child. I loved listening to my uncle. He was very entertaining.

He also owned an antique shop in Baghdad and entertained many foreign visitors in his shop. He was more interested in gaining the friendship of his customers who mainly used to be foreign diplomats than he was in making lots of money. (He would often tell his customers that he wasn't bothered if they didn't buy his antiques that day, because the longer they stayed in the shop, the more value they will have with time). He would offer his customers a drink, food and friendship when they came to his shop, and many of them remained friends with him for years after they had left Iraq.

My uncle was also a very kind man. He never married and he used his wealth to bless his brothers and sisters (and their families) when they were in need. He was especially a big blessing to them during the last 30 odd years of hardship in Iraq. He got on really well with me last summer and was really encouraging to me in so many ways. He promised me that He would show me round everywhere I want to go one day when I visit Iraq. (I always looked forward to that). He told my dad, that if any of us (from my family) were to go back to Iraq one day, he would buy us a house.

He was a very gentle, kind, compassionate, intelligent, creative, funny, entertaining and friendly man with a huge heart and he loved his family and lived to bless others. I am so blessed to have had the opportunity to spend so much time with him when he came to visit us, and to have told him that I love him. I am really sad that I was not able to visit him in Iraq, and I am really really sad that I did not tell him about Jesus, although he did know that there was something different about me. Below is a photo of us taken on a boat cruise on the Thames in London August 2004. I love you Uncle Jabar.

Please pray for my dad when he hears the news. He is working offshore at the moment, and he won't be able to come home to England until Friday.

More Snow :)

Wow - I've hardly been on the computer this week. It's been a busy week writing Christmas newsletters and sending them out. I spent about $130 on just postage! Hope I get given some snow boots for Christmas as I'm not sure that I can buy any now :) . Anyway though, it was really nice writing to people. We've had more snow here too and I took better photos this time.

This is Gary and I shoveling snow from the driveway - we don't have one of those snow blower things Alyn, it took us an hour. The worst thing was, as I was shoveling, a piece of ice fell from one of the branches of the tree that I was standing under. It hit me on the head, and it was as hard as a stone. That was painful and my head was still sore two days later. The dog in the picture is Jake - also affectionately known as 'Minnay' by the girls.

This is our road! It may have pot holes - but when covered up with snow, it looks beautiful! Being out in the country, our road isn't exactly top priority for the snow to get plowed (or whatever you call it). However, I like our road looking like this - it is really pretty. The trees look like candy canes!

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There is a little bridge on our road and this is where this photo (on the left) was taken!

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This is a picture of the icicles on our roof!

This is our back garden (photo below) - you can see the lake in this picture which was taken a couple of days ago. (in actual fact today it is completely covered in snow).

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And finally below are photos of our house covered in snow and also of a fire that I got going in our front lounge. It is really beautiful to look out the window and see the gorgeous white snow and be indoors sitting infront of a warm fire. I love sitting by the fire! I love watching the fire. I also love the snow!

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Last night, Rachel and I took the girls took the girls to see a LIVE 'Hip Hop' kids dance performance in town. It was really good. There were about 15 different dances performed by different groups of kids. One group even had 2 and 3 year old girls they were so cute! There was a also a group of four boys aged from about 4 to 9. The boys were breakdancing and they were really cute too. Some kids had real talent too. I really enjoyed that.

Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!

This morning I woke up, and there was a little dusting of snow outside. It's midday now, and the snow has gradually been increasing. I love snow!

Here are some pictures of our front garden and back garden taken from inside the house looking out of the window.

Since taking these photos a couple of hours ago, the snow has doubled. There is a gorgeous lake at the bottom of our back garden, but you can't really see it very well from the last photo.

I recently took a 'Colour Quiz' where you basically just have to choose colours and it's amazing that it supposedly can tell a lot about you from the colours you choose. If you want you can click on it below and amuse yourself for a couple of minutes and see what it tells you about you. :)

Ash took the free ColorQuiz.com personality test! "Desires protection against anything which might ex..." Click here to read the rest of the results.

Branching!

Hello guys! Sorry for the delay in my update but I had been busy this week. I thought I would tell you today about an exciting Nova Scotian activity. I don't know about you, but I get really excited about Christmas (maybe because I never celebrated Christmas as a child).

Over here in Nova Scotia, during the last 3 weeks of November each year, any person is allowed to take part in an activity called 'Branching'.

This is what it's all about:


A couple of Sundays ago after church, I went with a couple from church to a place in the woods for a few hours where there were loads of fur trees. We picked loads of branches from the fur trees and made piles which we later stacked on long wooden poles to make huge bundles (one bundle weighing about a 100 pounds). Then we carried the heavy bundles back to the truck. This was an activity called 'branching'. The idea is that, you then take these bundles to a Christmas shop, and sell them. The shop will buy them off you for 25 cents a pound, so one bundle weighing 100 pounds would get you $25.



I personally only managed to get one bundle on Sunday as it was a new experience for me (I got paid $20 for it). It took me a while to figure out the difference between fur and spruce branches - they looked the same to me at first. We got 6 bundles that day and I rode in the back of the truck with the bundles. Riding in the back of the truck was quite fun as we were driving at 80 km/h. Branching was a truly FUN Nova Scotian experience for me.


This couple though, didn't sell their bundles. They took them home, and then made Chritsmas wreaths from the fur branches. Then they took the wreaths to the Christmas shop and sold those. The shop paid them $2.15 per wreath, so they made more money that way. I managed to make a visit to the Christmas shop on Saturday, and I had a go at learning how to make a wreath.



First, I had to break up the fur branches in smaller sections, and then place them on a circular piece of wire and I wound wire around the branches to hold them in place on the circular wire. I did this from both sides all along the circular wire, and ta da, I had my very first wreath. It took me 25 minutes to do and I was impressed with myself, as the people there, told me it would take an hour to do my first one! I really loved making it. I was so excited, I asked if they could show me how to decorate it and they did.



So I got to decorate my own wreath and this is what it looked like. I'm sorry that the photo quality isn't great, but never mind! The lady then put a price tag on it for $14 dollars and was going to sell it in the shop, but I cheekily asked if I could take it home instead. She very kindly allowed me to.







So in return, I decorated another one for her, which is now up for sale in the Christmas shop :)

Dumping Day!

Today is Monday and the kids are off school all over Nova Scotia!

For those of you that are not aware - Nova Scotian life seems to revolve around fishing and hunting seasons.
At the moment we're coming towards the end of 'deer' hunting season and there are so many deer around. We actually saw one run out across the road infront of us when we were driving the other day. Fortunately Rachel was able to put her foot down on the break and avoid hitting the deer. We also know this guy called Frank who shot a deer last week and has promised to give us some deer meat which will be cool.

That's one of the perks of living here.
Today, is the first day of lobster fishing season. People make loads of money here from lobster fishing, but it's one of those jobs where you have to start work at 3 or 4 am and you get home at 9pm and you go straight to bed! So glad that I don't have to do that. Well, apparantly, most lobster fishermen take their kids with them on the first day of lobster fishing season every year, which is why every year on this day, the kids get the day off school!

That's so cool! It's nice for kids to spend that day with their dads (those whose dads are lobster fishermen of course).

They call today 'dumping day' because it's the first day where they dump their lobster traps in the water. They would've been working on preparing those traps all of last week.

Below is a picture of a lobster fisherman at work...
Did you know that..

A lobster trap has what is called the kitchen where the bait is put. The bait is usually either fresh or salted herring or mackerel. The lobsters enter the traps to get the bait and go into the parlor or bedroom where they can’t escape. There is however an escape mechanism fitted to the trap which consists of a spruce lath with three 1 3/4 inch holes attached to the parlor. This is for the undersized lobsters or tinkers to escape from. Tests show that about 60% of them actually escape.

The traps are dropped from a boat and the spot is marked with a buoy so that it may be found again when it is time to haul the traps. If the weather is good the traps are hauled the next day and reset. The season usually starts the last Monday of November and runs until the end of May.

So if you want to, feel free to pray for all the lobster fishermen today to catch some lobster! We have one lobster fisherman in our church. Our friend Frank who hunts deer is also a lobster fisherman and while writing this blog, he called us to say that he has injured his back from all the bending over he did last night and this morning. So please pray for Frank, he has to go out again on the boat at 11pm tonight to haul the traps in and prepare to put them out again in the early hours of the morning. He doesn't know Jesus, but we pray that Jesus heals him today.