Ashley Bombande

1. Okay, so could you start off by telling us a bit about yourself?

Hello, Hello Hello beautiful people, I am Ashley. Ashley Bombande!

I’m twenty years old and so ready to take over this world.just a little bit of background originally my dad is from Ghana and my mum from Zimbabwe so I am a saucy mix. Currently blessed with an opportunity to do a degree apprenticeship and that is in the UK in the Hampshire region.

2. Could you tell us about your blog and what inspired you to start one?

As you can tell I am a very bubble person, so prior to my blog and what really inspired me to start was being alone. I got raped at 13 years and as you can imagine this really affected me internally and as result my external so I found myself alone. Blogging started with my just writing in my moral, in monologues and poems. Later, I then got onto blogpost, then wordpress.

GLORY TO GOD, I now have my own my official website which I’m super excited about! *eeek*.

This was my way of expressing my feelings and when I gave my life to Christ I realised that I had to accept, forgive and love myself. This was the birthing of Self Love. Loving yourself from the inside and radiating out.

3. Now that you’ve found this purpose, what are you aiming to accomplish with your blog?

The aim is to testify of Gods goodness. Also to help other women who have been raped/ abused to understand that they can move on and that their hearts can healed. Also, just internally everyone needs to love themselves. With the pressure of society, for our generation, KNOWING WHO YOU ARE is imperative to survive.

4. With this aim in mind, what then inspires your content?

God is the centre of inspiration. He is always talking. By this I mean inspiration can come from a movie, life, friends, over hearing a conversation and then the Holy Spirit reveals the rest.

Regarding Self Love itself, it’s a journey which you choose to take. The idea is you start at the beginning of the year, identify what you want to improve, and give yourself a challenge every month and try and tackle that issue.

For example, I struggled seeing the good in people after what happened. I challenged myself to give three people compliments a day which helped change my perspective. Little challenges to tackle big problems.

5. I remember watching your Instagram story a few months back and seeing you on ITV sharing your testimony. Tell us more about that.

God blessed me. I remember The Holy Spirit telling me that I wasn’t going to attend university. This meant that the traditional route wasn’t for me. A company, when I was finishing my A Levels approached me and offered me a degree apprenticeship. I work 4 days a week and attend one day of study. They pay for the degree which is just so amazing.

I was invited to talk about the opportunity on BBC News. During that time, students were talking about their results, however what actually happened was they started asking me personal questions about if I was nervous or scared and I started just telling them about how God is intentional and never makes mistakes.

This then spiralled a conversation about my blog and I then testified about how God can change your life and that the past is not an indication of where you’re going. This was amazing, this really gave me exposure… you know when your steps are truly ordered? That’s how I felt.

6. What has been the greatest encouragement in your blogging experience?

Every day is a different day, honestly it’s the real life emails I receive every single day! That the word has ministered or people just sharing and being a vessel for the Lord. The most encouraging thing is when other bloggers/vloggers also encourage and collaborate, it’s honestly the best feeling in the world.

7. What’s your advice/word of encouragement for other Christian bloggers out there?

The most important thing before starting anything is:

Is this what God is leading you to do? In all things, ask and present your ideas before The Lord. Indeed He won’t tell you everything and the whole plan but things will begin to piece together.

Regarding content, a lot of people say that there are so many blogggers/vloggers but the body of ?Christ is so big and there’s so much work to be done. There’s nothing like your interaction with something because it will always be seen differently. That’s how The Master created us! AND YES IT’S SO DAMN BEAUTIFUL! Being creative as a christian is so easy. Let The Spirit minister through you, daily experiences are so helpful because they are relatable and that’s the key!

8. Should we be expecting anything from you in the near future?

YES YES YES!

I know that the God that I serve always does exceeding and abundantly so yes!

I’m currently working on writing my first ebook and I know that it will be out before the end of this year.

I also plan to do a courtship/ relationship/marriage segment with my mr boo with a male perspective and I sure am excited for all of these!