Welcome to the Storytellers Live podcast where everyday people share real and personal stories.

Some are profound and challenging, while others are more common and relatable shared with honesty and

humor.

But all of these stories reveal what God can do in our lives when we trust Him with the details.

Thanks for joining us. Hi everyone, this is your host Kelly from the Storytellers Live team.

On each episode, you'll hear a different woman share her story of God's transforming love.

These stories are recorded in a live setting at weekly local gatherings, where we're aiming

to build community through sharing, connecting, and encouraging one another.

Most importantly, these stories reveal the faithfulness of God and how he can take what's

ordinary and broken and exchange it for extraordinary and redeemed.

Today's storyteller Ashley is actually a member of the Birmingham 280 storytellers team.

So we have been looking forward to Ashley getting to share her own story.

And through fighting Crohn's disease, she has found that being vulnerable not only strengthened

her body, but it also strengthened her heart and her relationship with God.

We don't typically view a chronic disease or any trial or challenge that we face,

especially on a daily basis as a source of anything good.

But I think Ashley's story gives us a fresh perspective on our challenges and how they can actually enrich our lives and be a source of joy and peace

and intimacy with the Lord.

Here's Ashley.

Storytellers, I mean, it's just, it's been a blessing not just to me, but I mean, I think

to our whole community and every lady's story that I've heard has just been so touching,

even if I thought at the beginning that wasn't going to be relatable.

...