My name is Ashley Lee and I am originally from Greenville, SC. I grew up as the youngest of eight children. Needless to say, my parents had their hands full! In fact, my mother had eight children in eight years - certainly any woman who can achieve such a feat deserves a medal of honor.

     Growing up, I spent a lot of time with my siblings and my parents. We had a really fun house - a big basement with a juke box and a pool table, a swimming pool in the back yard with a high diving board, and a really neat field next to our house where we would all go play touch football. Our house was a great place to be. I enjoyed watching my mother try to organize the family meals -cooking for ten every night is no small task! I also enjoyed going on walks through the woods with my dad, and sometimes he would even take me fishing. Great memories.

     From the age of 6, I knew I wanted to be a ballerina. I was fortunate enough to spend my sophomore year in high school at a professional ballet school, and then continued my ballet into my college years. My sophomore year, I joined a professional ballet company. Much to my disappointment, the life of a professional ballerina was not what I had hoped it would be. It was great to dance with such talented people, but the lifestyle was not one to be desired.

     After graduating from Clemson University, I returned to Greenville, got a job in sales, and discovered that I really enjoyed talking to people and helping them solve problems in their businesses. I worked for Xerox, Pfizer and a few other highly-reputable companies. I really learned a lot during those years.

     After a period of time that involved some pretty bad relationships, I became interested in Christianity. I began attending a ladies Bible study and studying the Bible daily - and I mean studying. Interestingly enough, the Bible study lesson that finally put me over the edge was the lesson about the Ten Commandments. Looking back now, I realize what a profound impact those commandments had on me. The Holy Spirit used God's law to help me realize that I was a sinner in need of God's forgiveness, for I had broken His law several times over in my life. The book of Romans states that the law makes us conscious of sin (Rom. 3:20), so as a result of that consciousness, I knew I needed to make peace with God.

     I became a Christian in December, 1991, and immediately began studying the Bible even more, as well as researching various methods of evangelism. I wanted to shout the Gospel from the rooftops, but I knew I needed to learn some biblical principles first.

     In 1993, I met a guy who would later become my husband, Larry Lee. I met him while visiting my parents at Litchfield Beach in Pawley's Island, SC. Larry was staying with some friends at the same condominium complex as we were, and we started talking down by the pool one day. I had to try hard to keep from laughing during our first conversation because Larry's hair was sticking straight up as a result of all the chlorine and salt water in his hair! It was really funny. It turned out that Larry knew my father from his days at Furman University(my parents are known as two of the biggest Furman fans ever!).

     It also turned out that Larry and I had been attending the same church in Taylors, SC, and didn't even know it. I had been teaching a singles Sunday school class, and I asked Larry if he could bring all his friends to the class. And he did! The class grew and grew, and it really was a lot of fun.

     What started out as friendship eventually grew into something more, and we began to date after about three months. Then a year after that, we got married. Before I knew it, I was the mother of four girls - yes four. That's a lot of emotions under one roof - am I right ladies? We have four wonderful daughters and I thank God for them every day.

     Over a period of about 10 years, I struggled and struggled with trying to find effective ways of witnessing to people, but so many of the modern methods seemed canned and unbiblical. I was also amazed at how few people in church seemed to care about sharing their faith. People would tell me that they were too busy, or that they didn't have the gift of evangelism, or some other excuse.

     This quote from J. Oswald Smith summarizes my frustration during those years:

     "Oh my friends, we are loaded down with countless church activities, while the real work of the church, that of evangelizing the world and winning the lost, is almost entirely neglected."

     Then, in December of 2001, I found it. I found what I had been looking for - an effective, biblical approach to sharing the gospel. Oddly enough, I found the teaching when my husband Larry got saved while listening to a tape entitled, "Hell's Best Kept Secret."

     After listening to that teaching, Larry realized for the first time that he was lost and in need of God's forgiveness. Both he and I thought he had been a Christian since 1991, but as it turns out, he had "prayed the prayer" back then under false pretenses. He came as a result of a well-intentioned plea to come to Christ, but to come to him because Jesus "could drive his life better than he could." In other words, Larry "prayed the prayer" with the goal of life enhancement, rather than sincerely seeking forgiveness from God for his sins.

     So not only did my husband get saved, but I found the key to effective biblical evangelism - the proper use of God's law.

     Ray Comfort was the one who brought this to our attention in his teaching, but this was not an original teaching of Ray's. Prior to the turn of the 20th century, most of the world's greatest preachers taught about the proper use of God's law in evangelism, men such as Charles Spurgeon, John Wesley, Martin Luther, Charles Finney, George Whitefield, and others. But it didn't start with them either. The proper use of God's law was first taught in the Bible itself. (To hear more about this, click here.)

     Since December, 2001, life has truly been an adventure. In August of 2001, Larry left his job in "Corporate America," and he and I together founded Down to Earth Ministries, Inc., an organization committed to training Christians to share the Gospel and defend the Christian faith biblically and effectively.

     Along with being a very busy mother of four daughters, I am constantly engaged in the ministry - witnessing, writing books, teaching evangelism, studying apologetics, and devouring the Bible.

     My favorite thing to do is to go to university campuses and contend for the faith out there. Perhaps my favorite place to go was Georgia Tech in Atlanta, GA, where I encountered atheists, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, and New Agers. The amazing thing about all of the students I met, no matter what their cultural or spiritual background, they all had a God-given conscience. They all knew intuitively that there had to be a standard of right and wrong "out there," and it was from that foundation that I would contend for Christianity.

     I spend a great amount of time training other women how to share the Gospel and contend for the faith. I also mentor and disciple several ladies who have gotten serious about reaching the lost and training others to do the same.

     I am so thankful to God for everything in my life, even the tough times. My happiness and joy are not tied to the daily circumstances of life, but rather to the wonderful fact that my name is written in the Book of Life, that I have made peace with God, that I have been redeemed and saved.