Ashley, a native Hoosier from Indianapolis, Indiana, may have moved to Malawi in May of 2017, but her journey started long before that.
After obtaining a degree in Athletic Training from Franklin College, in Franklin, Indiana in 2005 she made her first big life move when she accepted a graduate assistant position in the athletic training department at Troy University in Troy, AL. Little did she know at the time, the choice to continue her education in the field of sports medicine would start her down the path to become a full-time nurse practitioner in Malawi, Africa over a decade later.
Her mentor and boss at Troy University connected her with a job in Montgomery, AL with a newly established football program at Faulkner University upon completing the Master’s program at Troy. It was during her time at Faulkner that she began attending Landmark Church in Montgomery and was invited by a friend on her first short term mission trip since leaving high school youth group. She joined a handful of short term trips through Landmark Church and the experiences of her first two trips, one to Ukraine and one to Tanzania, that the Lord started re-directing her career path to nursing. She joined her first short term trip to Malawi in 2010 just before starting nursing school, then returned in 2012 as a newly minted registered nurse on the first surgery team to visit Blessings Hospital.
In 2014 she was invited to join the board of directors of Chikondi Health Foundation, who’s purpose and mission was to support and develop Blessings Hospital in Malawi. In 2015 she joined another surgery team, and the idea of moving to Malawi that she had been kicking around since her first trip there in 2010 was becoming too loud to ignore.
Burdened with significant student loan debt, Ashley had thought for years that long-term and full time work in Malawi was beyond reach. She had dreamed of living in Malawi in the house on the hill on campus and working at Blessings Hospital but feared it would never be possible with the financial debt she carried. Then Dr. Jeff Bennie suggested she look into MedSend, a ministry who’s purpose is to support medical missionaries in their student loan burden so they can answer the call to serve in the field.
In 2016 at an annual board meeting, the call to Malawi became too loud to set aside and the Spirit moved Ashley to speak the words of readiness to board president Wes Gunn. Once that first step was taken, the car started rolling down hill and everything fell in to place.
In June of 2016 Ashley learned she had been accepted for MedSend support, she began formal fundraising, attended some training sessions, and suddenly it was 4:00AM at the security entrance of the Indianapolis International Airport where she was tearfully saying goodbye to her parents on her way to Malawi.
Ashley’s heart has been tied to rural mobile clinic ministry from the very beginning and this ministry continues to be a passion for her. At present this role for her is primarily as a liaison for surgical team coordination. The clinical officers of Blessings Hospital operate the mobile clinics each week and identify surgical candidates. Ashley is then able to visit the sites and screen patients and begin the process of coordinating any pre-operative steps that need to be taken and then coordinates follow-up with the patients through our mobile clinic ministries after their surgeries are complete.
Through her time in Malawi the Lord has developed new passions within Ashley for nursing education and chronic illness management. He has also made it abundantly clear that one of the biggest ailments affecting humanity is a sense of feeling forgotten or not heard. Her encounters with healthcare both Stateside and in Malawi have given her a first hand look at the critical role healthcare providers have in extending the love of Christ to patients by seeing them as individuals and allowing their voices to be heard. It is her desire to strive for this reflection of the love of Christ for patients in whatever setting and whatever continent she finds herself practicing.