Henna:
The art of henna painting on the body is a practice that has existed for centuries in India, Africa, and the Middle East. Carine Fabius, in her article Mehndi: The Art of Henna Body Painting, talks about how even as far back as 1200 B.C., henna was used by the ancient Egyptians to dye their nails and hair, as well as dying animal skins and textiles. Since the henna plant contains cooling properties, even women living in the hot Indian deserts would paint their skin to cool down their body temperatures. Henna is "traditionally practiced for wedding ceremonies, during important rites of passage, and in times of joyous celebration. A paste made from the crushed leaves of the henna plant is applied to the skin, and when removed several hours later, leaves beautiful markings on the skin that fade naturally over 1 to 3 weeks."
Despite henna's ancient history, it is still practiced today. Various pockets of people groups around the world still hire henna artists to decorate their skin for celebrations or special occasions...or even just for the fun of it...
The thing about henna is that it has no meaning....it's mainly for decoration, so the designs are solely decorative and are not painted for any purpose other than to be beautiful designs on a woman's skin...
until now....
The last project I got to work on involved henna. But instead of just learning henna for henna's sake, I had the privilege of learning henna designs that actually tell Bible stories...M's working in South East Asian countries developed a bible storying set using henna designs, turning bible characters, events, places, etc. into symbols that could be placed in intricate designs...so, when the designs are painted on a woman's hand who is not a believer, she's actually signing up to have painted on her hand a redemptive story that has the potential of changing her life...a story that could be an open door to lead her to a saving knowledge of Christ...
The past few weeks, I've got to spend lots of time practicing henna, and even designing some bible stories not yet created in the Bible story set....
and, two Sundays ago, I got to join another m in a henna party, where she invited national ladies who were not believers to come and let me practice henna on their hands...and with each story, a Bible story was told....which means with each story, His love...in a way...was being written on their arms ....and hopefully the Spirit will work in mighty ways...since His word does not return void.
It was an awesome experience...to get to use a unique form of art to plant His truth in the lives of women who desperately need His peace...
...stacie graciously let me practice on her feet while she was logging thousands of photos...
...the stories I did on her feet: this one tells the story about the sinful woman who anointed Jesus' feet with expensive perfume, and her tears, and then wiped them with her hair...
this is the story of creation...
..this is one I got to design...it's the story of Abraham and Isaac, when God tested Abraham's faith...
...this is another one I got to design...it's the story of the Passover...when God led the nation of Israel out of Egypt...
...this is the creation story, but it's easier to see as a drawing than on a foot ha :)...(and i didn't design this one...it was already created)
These next two paintings are henna paintings...in the long process of learning where to get henna powder, how to make the paste, etc., 2 nationals helped us tremendously, tutoring us on how to make it, and then encouraging us as we attempted to draw the henna...(one of which said, after he saw my very first attempt at it, "you must practice on EVERY hand you see"...haha...in other words... "you have a LONG way to go..." haha...but, it's been fun to learn)...
anyway. to thank them, I painted them each a painting...I used henna designs, but put color to them...and, well. paint. instead of henna...
this first painting is the story of John 4...with the woman at the well...we got to show these paintings to the ladies at the henna party also, and it led to some awesome conversations....so that was super cool.
(explanation: the heart with the cross in it at the bottom right corner represents Jesus, and the flower above the heart represents the woman. in the middle, there is a circle with other circles surrounding it...that represents the well...with 2 jars on either side. the jar turned upside down represents the jar the woman was drawing water from. the 6 hearts inside that jar represent the 6 men in her life...her 5 husbands, and the man she was with at that time who was not her husband. the other jar that's white represents Jesus, and the water he offers. The sun above the white jar represents the Light of Christ that exposes our sin...the rays arch over and hit the woman's jar...because Jesus exposed her sin, and freed her after it was brought to the light...the blue swirls throughout represent water...the water He gives which is a spring leading up to eternal life...and finally the little stars at the top represent all the people who believed in Jesus because of the woman's testimony.)
(this painting is the story of Abraham and Isaac when God tested Abraham's faith...it starts in the left corner with the 2 stars...one for Abe, and the other for Isaac...the hills with the path leading up to a star represent the path they took leading up to the altar...scripture says they carried fire, wood and a knife with them up to the place of sacrifice...so the fire is there, and the wood and knife are underneath....sort of...next to the fire is the angel who came and stopped Abe from killing his son, and after the angel, there is rams horns caught in a thicket...because God provided a substitute....and then renewed His promise with Abraham)
anyway. sorry this post was SO long. just had lots to share. :) but, if you read this far...thanks so much for caring!!!!
The art of henna painting on the body is a practice that has existed for centuries in India, Africa, and the Middle East. Carine Fabius, in her article Mehndi: The Art of Henna Body Painting, talks about how even as far back as 1200 B.C., henna was used by the ancient Egyptians to dye their nails and hair, as well as dying animal skins and textiles. Since the henna plant contains cooling properties, even women living in the hot Indian deserts would paint their skin to cool down their body temperatures. Henna is "traditionally practiced for wedding ceremonies, during important rites of passage, and in times of joyous celebration. A paste made from the crushed leaves of the henna plant is applied to the skin, and when removed several hours later, leaves beautiful markings on the skin that fade naturally over 1 to 3 weeks."
Despite henna's ancient history, it is still practiced today. Various pockets of people groups around the world still hire henna artists to decorate their skin for celebrations or special occasions...or even just for the fun of it...
The thing about henna is that it has no meaning....it's mainly for decoration, so the designs are solely decorative and are not painted for any purpose other than to be beautiful designs on a woman's skin...
until now....
The last project I got to work on involved henna. But instead of just learning henna for henna's sake, I had the privilege of learning henna designs that actually tell Bible stories...M's working in South East Asian countries developed a bible storying set using henna designs, turning bible characters, events, places, etc. into symbols that could be placed in intricate designs...so, when the designs are painted on a woman's hand who is not a believer, she's actually signing up to have painted on her hand a redemptive story that has the potential of changing her life...a story that could be an open door to lead her to a saving knowledge of Christ...
The past few weeks, I've got to spend lots of time practicing henna, and even designing some bible stories not yet created in the Bible story set....
and, two Sundays ago, I got to join another m in a henna party, where she invited national ladies who were not believers to come and let me practice henna on their hands...and with each story, a Bible story was told....which means with each story, His love...in a way...was being written on their arms ....and hopefully the Spirit will work in mighty ways...since His word does not return void.
It was an awesome experience...to get to use a unique form of art to plant His truth in the lives of women who desperately need His peace...
...stacie graciously let me practice on her feet while she was logging thousands of photos...
...the stories I did on her feet: this one tells the story about the sinful woman who anointed Jesus' feet with expensive perfume, and her tears, and then wiped them with her hair...
this is the story of creation...
..this is one I got to design...it's the story of Abraham and Isaac, when God tested Abraham's faith...
...this is another one I got to design...it's the story of the Passover...when God led the nation of Israel out of Egypt...
...this is the creation story, but it's easier to see as a drawing than on a foot ha :)...(and i didn't design this one...it was already created)These next two paintings are henna paintings...in the long process of learning where to get henna powder, how to make the paste, etc., 2 nationals helped us tremendously, tutoring us on how to make it, and then encouraging us as we attempted to draw the henna...(one of which said, after he saw my very first attempt at it, "you must practice on EVERY hand you see"...haha...in other words... "you have a LONG way to go..." haha...but, it's been fun to learn)...
anyway. to thank them, I painted them each a painting...I used henna designs, but put color to them...and, well. paint. instead of henna...
this first painting is the story of John 4...with the woman at the well...we got to show these paintings to the ladies at the henna party also, and it led to some awesome conversations....so that was super cool.
(explanation: the heart with the cross in it at the bottom right corner represents Jesus, and the flower above the heart represents the woman. in the middle, there is a circle with other circles surrounding it...that represents the well...with 2 jars on either side. the jar turned upside down represents the jar the woman was drawing water from. the 6 hearts inside that jar represent the 6 men in her life...her 5 husbands, and the man she was with at that time who was not her husband. the other jar that's white represents Jesus, and the water he offers. The sun above the white jar represents the Light of Christ that exposes our sin...the rays arch over and hit the woman's jar...because Jesus exposed her sin, and freed her after it was brought to the light...the blue swirls throughout represent water...the water He gives which is a spring leading up to eternal life...and finally the little stars at the top represent all the people who believed in Jesus because of the woman's testimony.)
(this painting is the story of Abraham and Isaac when God tested Abraham's faith...it starts in the left corner with the 2 stars...one for Abe, and the other for Isaac...the hills with the path leading up to a star represent the path they took leading up to the altar...scripture says they carried fire, wood and a knife with them up to the place of sacrifice...so the fire is there, and the wood and knife are underneath....sort of...next to the fire is the angel who came and stopped Abe from killing his son, and after the angel, there is rams horns caught in a thicket...because God provided a substitute....and then renewed His promise with Abraham)anyway. sorry this post was SO long. just had lots to share. :) but, if you read this far...thanks so much for caring!!!!
