Growing up, I always heard that if you were good at math/science that you weren’t good at creative things like writing or art. The first time I heard it was in junior high, but it always stuck with me. It had something to do with of you mainly used the left or right side of your brain. For years, I convinced myself that since I enjoyed math and science that I wasn’t a good writer and I could just forget trying to do art.
Fast forward to today, I’m in India and its their Republic Day. All of the children from the home we are serving at have the day off. To celebrate, we have lunch with another children’s home and play many games of soccer (or football as it’s called here). Later, some of the girls decide to get henna done on their arms.
Henna is a time consuming task that basically includes cake decorating a person’s hands. While we are getting this done one by one, some of the girls from the home were just playing with it on their hands. I asked if I could try it out and started to doodle on her hand with what I’ll call the piping bag. She liked what I did so much that I ended up doing the back side of her hand. Then, my teammate Jenna asks if anyone wants to do hers while we wait. She said she didn’t care how good it was. So, I decided to try and do a giraffe on her arm. This whole time I’m just kind of in shock because it’s turning out really well.
Through this process, I just felt God showing me a tangible example of the false things society tells us. And we buy into them. Who says I can’t be creative and logical, eloquent yet practical? God doesn’t. In these past two weeks, God has been having me walk into those creative things like drawing and playing guitar that I’ve thought I’m no good at. It’s like discovering a side of myself that I thought didn’t exist has started to bloom. I can’t wait to see the things God will show me about who I was meant to be. And to think it all started with becoming a henna artist.
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UPDATE: Everything is going well here. My team is really starting to come together, and that’s so exciting for me. The kids here are so sweet and really value the chance they’ve been given to be supported and given an education. Also, my next deadline is coming up and I still need about $2000. If you would like to sow into this, please click the bar near the top of my page. I appreciate everyone who has supported me so far in finances and prayer. Love you all!
My team and squad leader Amanda on Republic Day
Henna I did on Tedar & Jenna