the epic garage sale.

So, this post is very late. I think this event was at least 6 weeks ago already, but since it was so epic, I wanted to still share it. I don't even know if anyone reads this much now that I'm home but I know I will love looking back on it and being reminded of God's faithfulness in the years to come. A while back, my sister Alissa had this idea to have a garage sale as a fundraiser for me. I still had debt to pay off from my last missions experience and it was hanging over my head a bit. My sister is one of those people who just gets things done, and so she and my awesome sister in law Jaclyn set to work. We asked friends if they'd like to donate anything to sell, and I was shocked by the amount of stuff that came in! really nice stuff too- seemed like everytime i went outside there was a new pile of goodness sitting in front of the garage! Garage sale day we were up bright and early to a beautiful sunny summer day! We were so excited...you may think that's lame but the Hennan family loves a good garage sale. Plus it ended up being super fun- tons of people I hadn't had the chance to see yet came by to support the cause and buy some clothes/appliances/other random things, and so I got to see so many faces. Most of my family was there too, which always makes me happy. I am always amazed at the way my family/friends/even people that hardly know me will go to such lengths to support the ministry God has called me to do. I felt so extremely loved on this beautiful Saturday. In the end when the money was counted, I couldn't believe it. It was enough to almost completely pay off my debt, giving me a clean slate to start saving for my future time with YWAM. It was the hugest relief and I just wanted to cry. God is sooooo good, and people in my life are soooooo incredibly generous and supportive. Thanks a million to every person who had any part in this fundraiser. You all make my life better.

Saturday morning...ready to go.

My neices were pretty stoked

This was towards the end of the day....

wouldn't you buy something half price from these cuties??

my neices helped me roll the change...a fun afternoon activity surprisingly

Okay, so I have been an extremely pathetic blogger. I actually didn't realize anyone really read my blog until I got back home 2 weeks ago and people keep saying things like "I feel like I know you, because I read your blog all the time." Oops. So then I started feeling pretty bad that I've been pretty lame on the whole communication side of things. My laptop died a few months ago and now that I'm home and have computer access, I don't even know where to start! Hmmm...so where did I leave off? I think I had just left London, which feels like years ago now. Since then I went to Thailand, Cambodia, back to Australia, and then finally to my favorite place on earth, Hawaii, and then home. It has been a ton of fun. I was completing my counseling school outreach in Cambodia, and it was amazing. We stopped first in Bangkok for 2 days where I got to see some old and very close friends, Andrea and Alejandro, who just happened to be at the same base we were. Sooo weird to meet up with my friends from Kona in Bangkok...talk about seeing people out of context! So that was an extra special gift from God. Then we got in vans and drove 12ish hours into Pnom Phen, Cambodia. It was a long, squishy, sweaty ride to put it nicely, but we survived. Cambodia was really amazing, but its really hard to put it into words honestly.
So instead of words, here are a few pictures of that time that I 'borrowed' from my friend Loe's blog (don't hate me Loe)...being that my laptop won't turn on, its kinda hard to get pictures off of it. But Loe's the photographer of the group, so her pictures are much better than mine anyways~ here are a few:

our team on a cambodian style taxi (AKA tuk tuk)

me with some ridiculously cute village kids. Not loving the sweat pants and headband look I'm rocking here, but this is just how I roll in the middle of a Cambodian village with the only shower being in a wide open field under a mango tree.

love this one of our street in Pnom Phen.

Looking at these pictures, I really miss this place. Such an incredible country with such a dark past. I loved the people there, they were so friendly and kind. Being that I was part of a counseling school, I definetely had my eyes and ears open for any opportunities God might bring me to minister to the people in this way. As a result, I was able to hear life stories, struggles, joys, pains, etc, from lots of Cambodian people, both Christian and Bhuddist. I got to teach on what it means to value yourself as a person uniquely created in the image of God. This was really surreal for me, as not too long ago I was the lost soul drinking in these exact kinds of teachings. But that is one of the many cool things about God...He takes us full circle and redeems our past hurts/mistakes beyond our wildest imagination. I think I fall more in love with my creator with each day that goes by. Anyways, like I said, it's very hard to put the experience into words. I don't know where to start at all. My sister Nikki says that if I would just get on this thing more often, i wouldn't have that 'I don't know where to start' feeling. hmm..interesting point. I will have to work on that. But until then, for those of you who want to know more about my outreach to Cambodia, London, etc. just call/text/facebook me, I'm in Portage for the summer. My time in Cambodia completed my Foundations in Counseling school. I returned to Perth for debrief week. It was amazing to see all my friends there in one place and be able to process about the good/bad/interesting times had on outreach. Saying goodbye always sucks though, and there were MANY tears as usual. Man, will I ever get better at getting less attached to people? I don't really honestly think so. Destined to a life of sad goodbyes. But, if they weren't sad, then I think that means you didn't really have that good of a time. So I guess I'm glad goodbyes are sad, they're sad because the times you had together were so good. Here are a couple pictures of my last week in Australia:

last night with the crew on the beach.

After Australia, I was THRILLED to return to my homeland of Hawaii, and see some of my favorite people on Earth. You'll have to wait to hear about that, because I'm afraid this update is getting waaaay too long, and my sister and her 4 small children will be knocking on the door at any minute. :)

The latest in my life is that I am back to my beauty roots and working at "FOIL" salon here in Portage la Prairie. I love working with the amazing women there,what a great crew. On my first day back last week I was still experiencing a lot of 'reverse culture shock' at being back home, combined with a horrible cold, and was basically just feeling awful in more ways than 1. Had about 3 breakdowns within 1 afternoon, after which they put a feather in my hair and bought me pizza. Not much in life cheers a girl up like a feather hair extension and pizza with your favorite girls. Am I right or am I right ladies? Like I said, I love my co workers and boss.  And meeting up with clients from the past! I will be here over the summer until I go back to the Univeristy of the Nations to finish my Bachelors in Counseling this fall. Yup so thats the scoop. 

Peace and much love <3

bye London town.

So in 1 day I say goodbye to London...this part of outreach is done. We ve already said most of our goodbyes and as usual, I got too attached to people and had a really hard time with this. They say in ywam it gets easier over time, but its been almost 3 years for me now and i have yet to see that happen! But, I think if Im sad to leave it means I had a really good time, so I guess Id rather be sad to leave than glad. Sunday night was our last night with the guys at the homeless shelter. The last couple weeks Ive spent most of my time there with a couple guys from Lithuania. They dont speak much English, but google translate is an amazing tool! We were able to have such good talks. They opened up so much about their addictions, and I was able to tell them about my God who can set them free, and share a little of my story. One of the older men promised me if I was able to get him a Bible in his language he would read it. The next day my friend Jiles had already bought 2 Lithuanian Bibles! We all signed them and Jiles will give them to the guys next week at the shelter. I am praying that the words will bring life to their souls, like they do to mine. I would say the work at the night shelter has been the most life changing experience of this trip so far. God really opened my eyes and gave me a piece of His heart for these people who are so lost. I cried a lot when we got home after saying goodbye. So overwhelmed by the brokenness in my new friends, and so sad to not have a chance to share and pray with them more.
The last 3 Saturdays we held a seminar on discipleship training here in Newham. I taught on the topic of Lordship, and was able to share a bit of my story with the class about my journey to making Jesus Lord over every area of my life... As i prepared to teach, my excitement was renewed like crazy for what God can do with my life, if I give it FULLY to Him. Some areas can be so hard to let go of-but so far I ve always missed out when Ive tried to do it on my own. So, ya, that was super fun to teach and our class was amazing! The presence of God was very heavy on the room and I was very impacted by the whole experience as we covered different topics like Gods Father heart, making Jesus Lord, repentance and forgiveness, etc. Met some really cool people and felt so priviledged to have a chance to teach and share.

Today, a friend had us over for high tea!! It was the most beautiful set up I ve ever seen, and i think now i wont need to eat for a week.
Leaving for Thailand on Monday morning, followed by a 20 or something hour bus ride to Cambodia!! SOOOO excited to get there!!! Will keep you posted on the going ons as best as I can!

London photos

sight for the 2012 Olympics

The girls!

 Here are a few quick pictures of my London outreach!! My time here has been amazing. Lots of ministry that I have loved...unfortunately no photos of that. Our ministry times have been with children and people we work with at the homeless shelter, so obviously not really appropriate photo opportunities. But here are a few of one of my days off..hope you like them. London is SO cool.

me, double decker bus, and Big Ben

the tower bridge is soooo pretty at night!

LoNdOn....

greetings from London!!
Its been almost 2 weeks now since I attempted to board the plane in Perth to come here to London, only to be told that my flight had been unexplaineably cancelled. And yes, just my flight. So, I waved my team off and went back to my dorm in Perth, and headed off to the beach with my friend Courtney. And yes, I still made it to London, just 1 day late. I guess God knows that I consider flying to be my alone time, and it is pretty much the only alone time I get in this crazy life, so that worked out! So, after 2 days travel I finally made it here!! My leaders and friend Marlin picked me up at the airport, and we made the long treck to our little home. We are living in a very, very old Kenyan church in a bureau called Newham. I love it. I share a room with only 1 person instead of 25. It is bliss. There are 7 of us on our team, all girls, and they are all really wonderful. As soon as I arrived, we began reading through the Bible, in shifts, all day and all throught the night, from Genesis to Revelation. It reminded me a lot of my SBS, reading through whole books at a time, and I loved it. We do this as a way of claiming the ground where we are living for God. Then we started prayer walking throughout Newham, meeting with pastors, going to church services in partial Swahili, Portugese, and English (who needs to leave London to experience muli culture?!), and in general trying to narrow down what areas of ministry we feel led to focus in on. This weekend we will be serving at a night shelter at our church, as well as helping out with kids programs....should be crazy! today was our day off and so me and 3 friends went into central London to see all the main attractions. I think we walked for like 9 hours or something. But we saw a lot´- Big Ben, London Bridge, the London Eye, parliament, Westminster Abbey....to name a few. I will put up some pictures soon....it was an amazing day, I LOVE exploring. So thats the latest, I will give you some more details as soon as I know them! thanks a million to all of you wonderful people who helped me to get here...I am loving it. god is at work in a HUGE way in this little bureau, and I am so blessed to be a part of it. In other news, I'm getting extremely impatient to hear news of my new neice- my sister could be having her 4th baby at any time now and I am dying here!! so excited!

27...

So...this week I celebrated my 27th birthday. 27. Officially can't get away with saying I'm in my mid twenties anymore ;) apparently we've moved on to late...so strange!!! But each year of walking with the Lord is more exciting and full of surprises than the last, so I look forward to this year with much anticipation.
My birthday itself was a little crazy, but really amazing. As many of you know, I'd been praying and believing for God to provide me with $5000 so I could go on outreach to London and Cambodia next week. The tickets were being held until 1:30 pm on December 22, which happens to be my birthday. As of my birthday morning, I was at peace with the fact that I wouldn't be going. By 11 AM, I was racing around from ATMs to the finance department and back, paying for my ticket! Because, friends, God gave me a birthday miracle. I am officially going to London on Thursday to be a part of Mega cities and all the amazing ministries they will be a part of there. I still can't believe that I'm going, but I guess I have to start packing soon, so I better get used to the idea!
So, ya that was the craziest part of my day.

In the evening I went out to the city with some friends for cake. I like being 27, each year gets better and better and I have a feeling it's going to be an especially good one!

one season over.

Okay, so we are in week 11 of the FCM. Week 11. I feel like I just got here, but next week is the final week of lecture phase here in Perth. Why is it that just as I start to settle in and open up and really start to love this base, the season is ending? Last night we had “Commissioning night”, which is where all of us students who are at the end of our lecture phase of school, get prayed over and commissioned onto the next phase-outreach. It was such a beautiful night, each school got up and talked about what the last 3 months had meant to them. I have to say I was feeling pretty sentimental. What I love about YWAM Perth, is that it’s not as big as YWAM Kona. What this means is that you actually get to know pretty much everyone on the base, to some degree or another. There are only 80 something students this semester, which makes it so much easier to get to know people in other schools. So, even though you can’t possibly get to know everyone super well, you still end up feeling like one big family. Last night each person in my counseling school was asked to choose one word which describes the previous 3 months of study. My word was restoring.  It’s really the best word I can think to sum up how God has been at work in my life. Restoring the walls that were broken down…or more like broken down, stomped on and thrown to the wind with no real faith that they’d ever be rebuilt. But the cool thing is, they were! I’ve never known this side of God so clearly- He is my healer. The more I meet people of every age, culture, and background, and the more I study the area of counseling, the more I realize that we are all more or less broken-which is why we need Jesus so desperately. Because He’s the only one who can truly heal and restore. I love that I get to pursue counseling in a way that really keeps Jesus at the center.

So, here are some photos from our commissioning night last night, hope you like them.

so nice to have Jenny here in Perth

my ywam experience is never complete without a few Koreans.