Ashley says that the highlight of the leadership experience for her was being given the opportunity to do service work on the farm during the time in Quebec. Another highlight for her was learning how to pray for others, even if they seemed angry or unlovable.

Ashley says that she was stretched to grow up in her faith and to open up about her faith while participating in GLA. She adds that the experience has also made her bolder about her faith since coming back to Calgary.

However, Ashley says that one of the most powerful experiences in Quebec was learning about the “realness” of God in her life, all by losing her glasses.

“Before the trip I was struggling with actually believing if God really does exist because, being brought up in a relatively modern society and group of friends, you tend to question a lot of stuff and ask for evidence. So during one of the park ministries we did, I put my glasses in my pocket so I could wear sunglasses and after a few surveys with people I noticed that my glasses were gone from my pocket.  So I looked around for quite some time trying to find them.  Usually I would be really worried that I lost my glasses because 1) I’m quite blind without them and, I thought, 2) my mom is going to kill me! But as I was walking around looking for them, I felt an extreme amount of comfort and calmness as if I knew that it was alright to lose them. As I was walking and searching, my head was full of this one line from the song, Tear Down the Walls, which we sang a lot during worship in Montreal, and the line was “I don’t need to see it to believe it.”  That line was constantly repeating in my head and I knew it was God telling me “you don’t need to see me to believe I’m real.”  Since then, I’ve gotten new glasses and a new view on my faith. Since I have been back, I see evidence of God everywhere when I look outside and when I look at people, and I think that God is amazing because he created these things.”