This is an I-Heart podcast.

Guaranteed Human.

And we return to our American stories.

And all show long, we're celebrating Christmas.

Between shopping, making wish lists and putting gifts under trees, it's easy to get distracted

with all the busyness and forget why we celebrate Christmas in the first place.

Up next is Ashley Freeman.

Ashley lives in Oxford, Mississippi, about an hour south of Memphis,

Tennessee. She's here to share with us the importance of putting our wants aside and serving others during the Christmas season.

This past summer, I went to Africa and to Belize on a mission trip.

We went out in the villages and did service work for people in need.

We did a lot of physical labor around the base camp and four churches out in remote villages.

We went out every day and worked with moms that had had babies, elderly people.

And one day we went out and just cleaned someone's house.

It took us all of 30 minutes, you know, but they were just so appreciative to see the appreciation that these people have,

how one little act of service or kindness can change someone's life. Oh man, it'll just change your heart.

It's almost like that's the way the world should be over there. So I came back to the States thinking, okay, I'm just going to try to implement

that in my everyday life. I know it feels so good to go over and do mission work in Africa or Belize, but how can we bring

that work here?

Because there is a need.

And so that just got my wheels turning.

I started thinking, okay, I'm nobody really.

...