New Hero....Ben Tuel?

The above picture includes a sweet Capernaum friend of mine, Mika (pronounced Me-ka). Mika was in my cabin - a quick shout out to my Peddler Mill Ladies - this past week at Rockbridge.

Put Mika on hold for a hot sec while I give you a little background to this story and explain the title of this entry.

The July Assignment Team at Rockbridge had a 5 week assignment with the Capernaum week being their final week - so of course, they're tired. Chris Buda was speaking and Ben Tuel and Kirk Wilson were the Program duo for our camp trip. One of Ben's characters was called Gary the Label Guy. The girls in my cabin LOVED Gary the Label Guy!

Well, after Buda (which a good number of our kids called him Gouda, ya know - the cheese, all week) gave the sin/cross talk, we returned to our cabin for Cabin Time. As I was in the midst of explaining the seriousness of the condition of sin and the act of the cross, dear sweet Mika asked, "Does Gary the Label Guy love Jesus?"

I stopped mid-sentence and asked. "What?" Mika repeated herself and I just laughed and assured her that yes, Gary the Label Guy does, in fact, love Jesus. This spun into a whole knew Cabin Time based on why Gary the Label Guy loves Jesus. Through out the entire Cabin Time and the rest of the day Mika kept asking if I was sure if I was sure that Gary the Label Guy knew Christ. And when I asked her if she wanted to start a relationship with Christ, she said no.

So, to make a long story somewhat short. Later that night as we were getting ready for bed, Mika asked me one more time if I was sure that Gary the Label Guy loves Jesus. I assured her that he did and I asked her if she was ready to love Jesus. She said yes and we prayed right then and there for sweet Mika to start a relationship with Christ.

So here's to you Ben Tuel - A.KA. Gary the Label Guy - for paving a way for kids to know Christ.

Minor Frustrations?

So today was one of those days where there were minor setbacks all day long. There was a longer than normal line at Starbucks. There was an abnormal amount of traffic both to and from my friend Jen's house. I went to help my 87 year old Grandmother vacuum her place this afternoon and when I walked into the kitchen I find this huge mess all around the stove. Apparently she made herself soup last night and she forgot about it so it boiled over and she didn't feel like cleaning it up - which means I did. I was expecting to be over for about 10 - 15 minutes and I was over there for about an hour. I was so frustrated over these set backs that occurred all day.

Then I get an email from my friend Dalynn asking for prayer. Dalynn and Mike's three-year-old, Cole, is going through chemo and is having a lot of hard side effects because of the meds. I began to think of their journey since Cole was diagnosed with cancer. And it made me think of Meade and Mary Elizabeth and their journey over the last several months. And Leigh Ellen as she and Daniel are in Nicaragua with Maria and waiting to come home. All of my set backs today are pale in comparison to these folks.

Our circumstances may not change and we may not change, but our view on Christ needs to change. At times, I didn't think my day couldn't get much worse, but in reality I need to thank Christ for what I have and the situations that I'm in.

Hot Yoga kinda creeps me out!

Okay, so I recantly got into Hot Yoga and P90X - which are two unrelated things. When I've mentioned Hot Yoga to people I often get the "What's that?" response. It's Yoga, but with the heat on so you seat really fast. And for those of you who don't know what P90X is, it's basically 90 days of intense workouts for an hour a day.

Now, there have been some really odd/funny/interesting things that have come out of both Hot Yoga and P90X, but mostly Hot Yoga. Allow me to explain.

So, I first went to Hot Yoga with my sister-in-law, Amber, and Tracey Meeks a couple weeks ago in Baltimore. It was the first time I had ever done Yoga, much less Hot Yoga. I started to sweat before the class even started, it was that hot in there! So we get started in this 90 minute, what I thought would be streatching. It was the most intense "streatching" ever. The weirdest thing was this dude on the other side of the room making uncomfortable noises at random times through out the class. Tracey and I kept looking at each other like "that's weird!"

Well I come home and went to the Hot Yoga place down here last week....and I think the dude followed me, but this time I didn't have anybody next to me that I knew and I wanted to laugh so hard! Oh and it's way more fun to go to Hot Yoga with friends probably for that reason!

All this to say, I like Hot Yoga, but not the people in the corner who make weird noises!

A Year in Review (or more like 3 months in review)

Well...As I thought, this blog hs gotten off to a slow start. I was thinking earlier today, where has the last 3 1/2 months gone? The 2009 year has gotten off to a very quick start. So I figured, I show some pictures from the year thus far. If you know me, you know photography is a small part of my life...or really a large part. So here is just a small sample of the happenings in the life of Ashley Hamilton in 2009.


I finished 2008 and began 2009 in South Carolina at my friend Tucker's lake house with some of my friends from Saranac. I love them. Great people. Here is just a few snapshots from our time at Tuck's.

It wouldn't be a SS 8.08 gathering if I didn't give atleast one haircut.

This is my friend, Ryan, getting a haircut in Tuck's kitchen.

Tuck playing a little guitar on New Year's Day.

Kaitlyn, Kelsey, Lauren, Lizzy, and myself just after the ball dropped.

As many of you know, on my way back from South Carolina, my car decided that it was time to die. And less than a week after I get home from Tuck's I head to New Staff Training with some folks from my Region.

Here are folks from my Region, minus Alison, with one of our proffesors,

Chap Clark.

Colt, me, Justin, and Stacy wearing our Tech gear.

Small group 20: Bethany, Ellen, Rachel, Chris, Angela, Donnell, and Estaban.






Capernaum's Valentine's Dance: John, me, and Nate as DJs

A little trip to Rockbridge. And a picture with my friend Tex Piper!

In March, there was a baby dedication for my nephews, Jack and Luke. They are too cute!

Jack pre-baby dedication

Luke post-baby dedication

Well here are. Part way through April. And still car searching! Pray for that, will ya?

Who would have ever thought?

Okay, so I never thought I would start a blog. Mainly because I have every other "thing" known to man that people can find out what I'm doing or what's going on in my life. You call/text my cell and you can find me anywhere, you can email me and I'm generally a quick responder, facebook tells you what my status is, who's written on my wall, and where I've been due to the pictures I, or others, have posted. So I was hesitant to start a blog, although people encouraged me to, because it's one more thing people can stalk me on and one more thing I have to maintain. So with that being said, I don't promise to update this often.

On a different note, I have to apologize to the dear Erin Hatcher for my lack of creativity in naming this blog. I, like Erin, love hope. Hope is such a great thing. No matter who you are or what you believe, we all hope in something. And there's always hope. It's been a long week where I came back into town on Saturday and I leave in the morning for two weeks. So needless to say, I've been a bit frazzled this week and haven't had a ton of down time. Right as it looked like I could spend the rest of the evening in a chill state of mind, I sat on my bed with my itunes on shuffle, planning on getting on facebook, naturally. When all of a sudden, the song "Hope For Me Yet" by Marc Broussard came on. I love Marc Broussard. I saw him live in Athens, GA when I use to live in Georgia. And I started to think...and took the lyrics a tad out of context. Through the craziness of this week, I still have hope in the Lord for many things - to renew me, to provide for me, and to teach me - just to name a few.

As some of you may know, I got in a car accident on my way home from South Carolina. I'm fine. No one was hurt. Although, Beechmont, my awesome white '99 Oldsmobile Alero, has seen better days. We're still waiting to hear from the insurance company, however it looks like I may be car shopping. Which I'm not too excited about.

And although I'm not too excited about heading to Colorado for two weeks without having the car situation completely taken care of, I have hope that the Lord will provide.

I will update from Colorado!