Meet Hannah Henderson, Stateside Life Beads Director

Hannah Henderson, the stateside director of Life Beads, understood the importance of 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 after seeing Acholi women rejoicing and giving thanks to the Lord even during hardship. 

During her time at Auburn University, Hannah got involved at First Baptist Church Opelika, which is where she was introduced to Four Corners Ministries. In 2021, the summer before her senior year, she had the opportunity to be an intern at Abaana’s Hope in Uganda for the summer. She was encouraged to invest in the ministry of her choice. 

Ugandan schools were expected to open again after the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, and as an elementary education major, Hannah had her sights set on plugging into Living Stones Christian School to teach and minister to the Acholi children.

“My whole life I’d always wanted to be a teacher. I had really good teachers growing up, and I always loved school,” Hannah said.

She was inspired by her mother, who was a teacher before she became a full-time mom. From a young age, Hannah saw the value of teaching and dreamed of having a classroom of her own to teach kids. When it was time to apply for college, she knew she wanted to become an elementary school teacher.

“I knew education was important and everybody needed to be educated in some capacity, so I wanted to play a role in that,” Hannah said. “Elementary school is so foundational. Everything that you learn in the younger grades you build upon. For somebody to go to college, they have to have a good foundation.”

By the time Hannah and the five other interns were scheduled to arrive at Abaana’s Hope, the Ugandan government announced that the schools would continue to be closed for the foreseeable future. As she looked for another area of ministry to dedicate her time, she fell in love with the Life Beads ministry, where Acholi women handmake jewelry from paper.

“Every day I spent there I was with them,” Hannah said. “I was helping with production and helping with organizing the orders and jewelry, but a lot of it was me sitting with them. I couldn’t always understand what they were saying, but I sat and listened to them talk.”

The 36 women opened up to Hannah and asked her questions to get to know her better. Friendship bloomed and Hannah got to learn their stories with the help of Amony Pamela, who translated. The women also taught Hannah how to play cards.

“I just did life with them,” she said. “I did devotions with them, prayed with them, and worshiped with them. We did life together, and I hung out with their babies too. They called me their babysitter. When their babies would cry, I would walk them until they fell asleep then I’d bring them back to their mom.”   

Before arriving at Abaana’s Hope, Hannah had a little knowledge about the Life Beads ministry, but didn’t know all the details. Before her trip, she helped tag jewelry in the Opelika office and saw the tags with pictures of the artist who made the piece. 

“I remember wondering if I was going to know who these women were, or if they were just going to be faces I passed when I was at Abaana’s Hope,” Hannah said. “While I was there, I remember sitting in the bead room and thinking, ‘These women feel like my friends.’”

Hannah also learned the process of making Life Beads. All of the paper is sourced in Uganda, some of the wire comes from Kenya, and chain comes from the United States. The ladies cut the paper into skinny strips, roll it over a bicycle spoke to form a bead, string the beads on fishing wire, and dip it in glue, which adds a hard protective coating. They hang up the strings of beads to dry for a couple of days, and once they’re ready, they create different pieces. Next, the table leaders organize the finished pieces, tag the jewelry, and pack it to ship stateside.

“I really enjoyed the community aspect and watching them do life together. The things they were going through were heartbreaking, but they rejoiced in knowing that they were still the Lord’s. Even though they didn’t necessarily know what was next, they trusted the Lord was with them,” Hannah said. “I can’t imagine going through what they were going through and being able to rejoice. I learned so much about how contentment is found in the Lord and not by circumstances.”

When Hannah returned home, she had a desire to continue to be part of the ministry in some way. She completed her senior year of college and became a Life Beads partner, selling jewelry to friends and family and participating in vendor events. After graduation in 2022, Hannah got a teaching job at a small Christian school called Cornerstone in Birmingham and continued as a Life Beads partner for two more years. In 2023, she stepped back from teaching and started working full time for Life Beads as the sales and web manager. In March 2023, she married Reed Henderson, and in September 2024, she gave birth to her first daughter, Mary Nell, who’s named after Hannah’s great grandmother and Reed’s grandmother who share the same name.

At the start of 2024, Hannah became the stateside director of Life Beads. In this role, she works with Pam, the Life Beads director at Abaana’s Hope, to create orders. They decide what pieces to create, what colors to use, and how much to make each month. Hannah creates new designs, orders supplies, manages inventory, oversees Life Beads partners, manages orders, manages the website and social media content and more.

Hannah asks everyone to pray for more partners, new wholesale markets, an increase in sales, and the Life Beads women and their families. Please pray for their discipleship time, that it would be fruitful and productive. Pray that more would come to know the Lord, and that the women who are Christ followers will be leaders in the group.