FROM MOURNING TO JOY

From Mourning to Joy By Ashley and John Press

Have you ever wondered what inspires people to give to missions? Discover why one family is so passionate about sponsoring ASAP students.

“Please let her be okay! Please let her be okay!” They were the only words I could think to pray as I sat on the floor outside the operating room. Inside, my wife Ashley was undergoing an emergency C-section. It was two o’clock in the morning and my mind was racing but not yet fully awake. Moments earlier we had woken to nurses rushing into our hospital room. Ashley had gone into labor the night before, but her contractions were mild. It would likely be several hours before she would deliver our daughter, whom we had decided to name Maia. But during the middle of the night, Maia’s heart rate disappeared from the monitor. Now the doctors and nurses were racing to save her life.

“Please let her be okay! Please let her be okay!” I repeated the frantic prayer over and over until a nurse finally emerged from the operating room.

“You can go in now,” she said. As I stood up, she stopped me and added, “Before you go in, you need to know that the baby is not okay.” Her words extinguished my last flicker of hope.

DOES SPONSORING A CHILD FOR $30 A MONTH REALLY MAKE A DIFFERENCE?

Watch “When I Grow Up” to see how the loving instruction of the teachers at an ASAP school changed one young girl’s life. Sponsorship DOES make a difference!”

I walked into the operating room in a daze and watched as the nurses futilely performed CPR on our little girl until the on-call pediatrician arrived to pronounce her dead. A few days later, we left the hospital with empty arms. The following week we carried Maia’s little white casket to its final resting place, where nine months of joy and anticipation disappeared beneath shovelfuls of cold dirt.

After Maia’s death, life lost its meaning. Every “first” we had looked forward to became a cru el reminder of our loss. The holidays were especially difficult. Shortly before what would have been Maia’s first Christmas, we received a red envelope. It contained a check and a note from my parents, explaining that they were giving us the money they had planned to spend on Maia’s Christmas gift. They encouraged us to use it to help someone in need as a way of honoring Maia’s memory. And since then, each Christmas and every year at Maia’s birthday, we receive a red envelope with a special note and a check inside.

At first, we did various things with the money. We never found a cause we wanted to support consistently until two years ago when we learned about ASAP’s Vietnamese Feed and Read School in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. We loved the school’s mission to educate at-risk children and teach them about Jesus. What better way to honor Maia’s memory than to improve the life of another child?

On the sponsorship page of ASAP’s website we read about a young girl named Thao Vuong who attended the school. She was exactly the same age Maia would have been. We signed up to sponsor her and soon received her photo and a prayer card in the mail.

God has blessed us with three children since Maia’s death. Every Friday night we open the Sabbath together with a candlelight dinner and singing before reading a mission story or watch ing a mission video. At the end of our worship, we get the prayer cards for Thao Vuong and Nita, a new student we’ve begun sponsoring, and the kids say a special prayer for them. They look forward to it all week!

Sponsorship is a blessing that God has used to turn our mourn ing into joy. There are many ways to spend $30 a month, but very few of them will make the eternal difference that sponsor ship makes. Losing Maia was the darkest moment we’ve ever experienced. But we’re looking forward to the day when we meet her and Thao Vuong and Nita in heaven!

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PASAP serves people from the countries of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, and beyond! *For the safety of God's workers, in some instances names have been changed and photos do not depict the actual individuals involved in the stories.

EXECUTIVE EDITOR/ COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR John Press ASSOCIATEEDITOR/DIRECTOR Julia O’Carey COPY EDITOR Brenda Kisˇ DESIGN/LAYOUT Robert Mason BOARD OF DIRECTORS Chair: Dean Coridan, Christopher Carmen, Steve Chang, Shirley Freed, Darryl Hosford, Chan and Esther Hwang, Curtis Letniak, Denzil McNeilus, Mary Ann McNeilus, Carmelo Mercado, Amy Montevilla, Julia O’Carey, Byron and Carol Reynolds, Saeng Saengthip, Trudi Starlin PHOTO CREDITS Daniel Hosford, Anthony Isensee, Susan Liu, Joella Meyer, Jean-Ires Michel, Kalu Hser Paul, Saeng Saengthip

24 ASAP Ministries is fueled by mission-minded, faith-filled individuals whom God impresses. Be assured that 100% of your gift goes directly to the projects you specify. However, in the blessed event that the project you chose is fully funded, ASAP will use your gift for a similar project or where most needed to help spread the gospel and ease suffering where ASAP operates. Because ASAP is a § 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, your donations are tax-deductible in the USA. ASI MEMBER ASAP Ministries has been a member of ASI (Adventistlayman’s Services and Industries) since 1996 and is grateful to be an ASI grant recipient. All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the New King James Version® copyright ©1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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