Are you ready for part 2 of my Anybody series this week?  This week we have the privilege of hearing from my girls in Rwanda, Tara + Alison!  If you  missed yesterdays story, you will for sure want to click here and read it now.  Knowing these girls, having seen their stories unfold, and now getting to celebrate all God has done in and through them is just beautiful   It already has me praying again with more fervor, YES LORD have your way with me!  I’m so excited you get to hear from my good friend Alison.  My friend that I didn’t know was my long lost bestie until I harrassed prayed for her to come to Africa with me on a mission trip.  SINCE THEN!  wow.  God has been up to something.  My little africa Alison was set to do great things!  read more 😉

Anybody can change the world: I’m just a girl who said yes.

That’s all He needed to take this little adventure loving heart of
mine to Africa for the very first time in December 2011. That one
little word completely wrecked my world. So, since then, I’ve made
sure to say it to Him as much as possible. And somehow, life just
keeps getting better and better.

As I said, I’m an adventure lover. I’ve always had a deep desire for
it, but saw it through worldly eyes as being unrealistic and not being
levelheaded a lot of the time. I told God “no” more often than not
when He would put crazy dreams on my heart. If I’m being honest, I was
a little worried people might think I was terribly a little nuts for
being a crazy dreamer. So, I went on living my comfortable life in my
not so comfortable routine, living the 8-5 “dream” and called it good.

He put it on my heart about a year before I was going on my trip in
December that something big was about to happen. While I was praying
like crazy about what that was, my sweet besties did too, and oddly
enough, we came to the same conclusion.. that something big was
international. I lived in Australia for a summer in college, so
automatically my thoughts drifted back to the carefree summer of
traveling the coast and laying on the beach everyday. I was thinking
God had a pretty good idea and even though it’s not what I envisioned
my life would look like at the age of 26, I could totally be game for
this.

Enter Miss Wynne in here.. She was looking for someone to go with on
her second Visiting Orphans trip, and after hearing her stories over
lunch, I was sold. I decided to say yes in faith, although I was a
little scared I couldn’t raise the money in time. Our trip to Rwanda
changed my heart in so many ways, to say the least. I came back to the
states afterward desperate to do something, unsure of what that meant.
I came across Tara’s blog, and read the entire thing at work one day.no
She blogged about starting a little sewing school, called No.41 for
some of the older girls at the orphanage. I was so inspired and wanted
to help, so I emailed her.

I clearly didn’t know the extent of what God had in mind at that
point, because I thought for sure He was just nudging me to help by
like.. buy her a sewing machine or something.. but here I am writing
this little post from my Rwandan bedroom. To make a long story short,
Tara emailed me back and told me about the house she had just started
renting and that she didn’t know what I was praying about, but to
come. After thinking that she was absolutely crazy for suggesting that
I started praying about it. And instead of saying no, I said yes. And
just like that, doors started opening.

Those doors haven’t stopped opening since I came here last May. I
didn’t really have a plan when I came here.. I thought I was going to
come kiss babies and play with the kids all day. Luckily, I got
swooped into No.41, and have witnessed some incredible things since
then. Seeing God work through these girls has been such a life
changing thing, even for us. Through learning a culturally relevant
skill, we have seen the girls confidence build an incredible amount.
We’ve watched them transition into their own homes, make better lives
for their babies, start university, share big dreams and plan for the
future. When the feeding program started in February, we got to go
around the classrooms in the school and tell them these girls are the
reason you are eating a hot, free meal everyday for the year.. It was
exciting to see the kids go crazy and even more exciting to see our
girls realize just how big this thing is.

Even though it hasn’t been easy, we’ve been nervous over the
increasing number of kids and the lack of funds, He seems to work it
all out.

 My challenge for you is to be open. Be willing. Tell Him yes.. Even
more so when it scares you and doesn’t make sense to you. Saying yes
is incredibly freeing. It pushes you and builds an incredible amount
of faith in Him. Lots of times I don’t feel worthy of this life. But
in reality, the only thing He’s really asked me to do is simply say
yes.

You can contact Alison here: 

blog: http://sassandcrafts.blogspot.com/
no 41: http://www.no41.org/

no 41 facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Number4one

twitter: https://twitter.com/alisonholcomb

Instagram: @alisonholcomb