Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Little Voices

My job on this trip is videography. When Russ and Alice extended the invitation for me to return with AIM, it was specifically to be a documenter of events. I love doing this. My passion is to see video and media used in a way that glorifies God and furthers His kingdom, but sometimes it can be difficult to know when to turn the camera off. 

The videographer in me says, "Don't put it down for one second, you might miss the perfect shot." But the editor in me says, "You're going to have to go through all of this footage two or three times, only shoot what you know you can use." I usually can find a happy balance in between.

For instance, last night (Monday night) we were able to visit the homes of some of Babu's church members. It was remarkable. One room homes, most about 8 foot wide by 12 foot long. But as small as these little homes were the owners were very proud of what God had provided for them. 

So I kept my camera on. 

Mostly I took still shots. At first in the people's homes and then of the crowd of kids that we drew walking through the little "streets." (The "streets" were only about 3 or 4 foot wide brick or cinder block paths between the buildings on either side.) "Auntie, one photo?" Auntie, one photo?" came from the little voices following me around. (Auntie, is what most of the children call me, it is a sign of respect.) And so I took their photos:

I'm actually standing about 2 feet outside the door of the home to take this photo.



Even the adults liked to have their picture taken.





Then we got to Bible School this morning (Tuesday) and although I did shoot some, I mostly turned the camera off. I wanted to interact with the kiddos more today.

So I turned my camera off.

I found a little boy about 4 or 5 who was ticklish and had the cutest smile. I put him up on my shoulders and we roamed around showing off that little smile to everyone we could find.

I sat with a group of girls who were about 11-13 years old. They spoke english very well and wanted to ask me all kinds of things. They inspected my rings; a Mickey Mouse ring and my OSU class ring. They asked me what our money looked like and passed around the dollar bill I got out of my bag. They looked at pictures of my dogs, family and friends on my phone and soaked up any attention I could give them.

Then near the end of the day I found a little girl in a beautiful little blue dress. She was probably around 7 years old and was pretty shy. I coaxed her into sitting in my lap while other bigger kiddos crowded around asking me questions and showing me their crafts. When it was time to wrap up the day and serve the meal the little girl and I slid into her group's row and sat listening to the India leader's instructions with her still in my lap.

It was time to pray and thank God for all he had done today. As a way to teach the children how to pray they end the day by having them repeat a prayer. The leader prays a short sentence and then the children repeat it. I'm not sure if it was because I didn't understand the language they were speaking, or if it was because of being on the floor in the midst of all the kids, but I could clearly hear all their little voices around me. 

It didn't seem like one sound as a crowd response often does, but it was like I could identify each voice as belonging to one specific child. I sat there listening and was amazed by the thought that God hears each and every one of those little voices individually. And just like I had made extra time to play and sit with individual children today... God was also there, giving each and everyone of them His undivided attention as they repeated those prayers.

I was moved by the knowledge that God is so big and so compassionate that He listens, really listens to each person in the world. Even those little voices all around me. He knows us intimately. One of my favorite passages from the Bible is from Zephaniah where it talks about God singing with unbridle passion and joy over His children. I am so very thankful for that reminder today.




 Vacation Bible School:




Things we've seen around India:

This dog found a shady spot in an off-duty Tuk-Tuk.


Babu took us to a nice restaurant and we ate dinner in true India Fashion: With our fingers from a banana leaf! :-)

You cannot park your giraffe in front of this fence.









After VBS the guys (Moses and Aaron and the other's their age) took us to see the 2nd largest Mall in Asia! It was a really really neat experience!!:




A Hindu Temple that can be seen from the 5th floor of the Mall.




There is a really nice "glow-bowl" alley in the top of the mall. They took us up there just to show us, but when we found out that they had NEVER been bowling before we insisted on playing a game. It was very fun and they had an absolute blast. It was the nicest bowling alley I've ever been in, and so much fun to experience it with them!

Dad giving a bowling lesson.

They were VERY GOOD. This kid (Sashi sp?) actually bowled a turkey! Three Xs in a row!!




All the guys after the game. Two of them even beat dad, and they had never bowled before in their lives! It was so much fun! (Notice that Moses, to the right of dad, is smiling. Still working on getting Aaron, far left, to smile for me.)

Monday, May 27, 2013

Meet Raji

One of my favorite parts of the mission trips I've been a part of is the people I get to meet. Every time I go somewhere I am reminded that I am not bringing Christ to these people. Clearly His word tells us that He goes before us and we are to join Him in the work that He is already doing. Here in India everywhere we go we are treated as honored guests, but I feel honored to get to serve alongside the Christ followers that we have met here.

Meet Raji (center):


Raji has been a member of the church Babu started for a very long time. (Babu boasted for her that she was the 5th member to join.) Raji has a disability and many doctors told her it would be impossible for her to have children. The church they began praying with her that God would give her a child. They prayed for an entire year, and then another, and then another until Raji had been praying with her church for three whole years that God would give her a child. 

Standing beside Raji are Moses and Aaron... her 17 year old twin boys. God not only gave Raji a child, He gave her two sons who are now following Christ and serving with her in the church she joined all those years ago. All three of them are leading in the VBS we are doing this week and it has been so cool to see the boys stepping up and taking on the leadership roles. They truly are servant leaders doing anything we (or anyone else) asks of them and doing so with smiles and an obvious joy. (Yes, I know they are not smiling in the picture, Indias don't smile when you first take their picture. I'll get them to smiling at some point this week.) 



Sunday night we went back to the church for a "meet & greet" with the nationals who are working with us for VBS. It was a great time to get to formally introduce ourselves, share a little about what we had planned and who was going to do what, and to get to pray together over the children who would be coming. Sanji (Babu's wife) speaks very very fluent english and she prayed (in english) for us at the end of the meeting. My heart broke to hear her heart for her people and her love of God's glory. I was again reminded that I am not bringing anything special to the table just because I've been in a plane for 19 hours. How dare I feel like I have any answers because I come from America. I do not, my God does. Just as He leads me, He also leads and loves His people on the other side of the world. We are truly working together this week to accomplish a common goal.



Explaining one of the activities. Home-made snow!




Babu and Russ




Grandma Sharon has already found some "littles" to love on. :-)




I sure do love these two people!! (Mom and Dad)


Monday we had our first day at VBS. Close to 80 children were able to come and we had a blast! We are teaching the children the Gospel based on a color system. Today's color is gold to remind us that God is the King and that he loves us very much. The main craft is to make and decorate crowns for everyone. We had to send dad back to our hotel to pick up the extras that had been left and he got to experience India on the back of a motorcycle. When he got back he said, "That was the scariest thing I've even done! I asked Jesus into my heart three times, converted to Islam, tried Hindu and finally came back to Christ before that ride was over." Ha! Thanks for braving the traffic to save the day!


Dad teaching the bible lesson about how God is the King or Kings.





I love this shot! :-)




Awe... I think he needs some grandkids to play with. :-) Someday...





This little guy stole my heart. <3 p="">
(Not sure why he has a plastic bag on his hand... but isn't he just adorable!)




12 Kilos of rice to feed everyone at Bible School!




Yeah... he needs a grand-kiddo! 



After VBS some of us went out for a walk. I really enjoy just seeing the sites! Everything here is so different from what I know and I really enjoy getting the chance to explore and take it all in. For instance, sometimes there is a man walking a goat right down the middle of a busy intersection:


And sometimes you see something you've never seen before. I don't even know what this is... but I'm pretty sure I'm gonna spend half of my money on it because it is SSOOO good. 20 points to anyone who can tell me. It's not a strawberry, but it is similar in size. I would guess from the stem that it grows on a tree. The man we bought it from showed us how you peel the two layered skin and eat the "meat" inside. It is a clear, sort of jelly consistency and is very sweet and juicy. The pit is dark brown and smooth.



After dinner tonight (Monday) we will be going to a home-prayer meeting with some of the church members. I'm excited to get to be inside someone's home and share in their prayer service tonight!

Sunday, May 26, 2013

Hello from Bangalore


The whole team made it to Bangalore late last night. (Actually it was very early this morning.) We got in our rooms about 4:30 on Sunday morning. We were given the option of sleeping in and recovering from the travel or heading to Pastor Babu's church at 8:15. It was neat to see that everyone decided to get up for church after just a short nap. :-)

Babu was really surprised to see us all downstairs when he arrived to picked us up and two or three of the people we met at church commented about how glad they were to see us all. They had been told that probably only one or two of us would come.

It is so cool to be reminded how big my God is. Even though I didn't understand the language being sung, I clapped my hands and joined in as best as I could with the music. I also filmed a bit here and there as I watched a culture so different from my own express their love and devotion to Christ in a way that is very foreign to me, but very special to God.

My dad and Russ both shared a quick message and it was so neat to experience the congregation breaking out into applause and cheering whenever they said big things about God. At one point in Russ's testimony he said, "but my God is a God of the impossible," (cheering,) and my dad quoted Jude saying, "to Him who is able to keep you from falling..." (cheering!)

After church we took auto-rickshaws to a local mall to visit the food court for lunch. The mall is actually very similar to something you might find in the states and I felt right at home winding up the escalators to the food court. I did the traditional traveler's "Point and Hope" when i ordered. Pick a dish, point at it and hope for the best when it is delivered. I was very happy with my choice. However, we are in India and everything is spicy, so we got some ice cream on the way out to curb the heat of the spice.

We loaded back into auto-rickshaws and headed home. Mine (with my mom and dad) made it back, but we are actually still waiting to see the rest of the team. I'm sure they'll be along shortly. ;-) Alice (the seasoned India traveler) is with them.

Next we will organize our vbs materials and meet with the team from the church who will be helping lead. Russ told us that this week's vbs will be focused on children who live in a nearby leper-colony. I'm excited to spend some time loving on those kids and filming the events this week. Today's post was a lot of details, I'll probably be picking stories for the next ones... Here are a few pics I snapped with my phone today. More and better ones will come after I've had some sleep. :-)




Children's "sunday school" type meeting after church. They sang a couple of songs with motions and then I assume they were being taught a bible lesson.




Young lady's "sunday school" grouping after the service. 




It was really cool to see several men involved in this church.





At the mall for lunch.




"Chicken Sizzler." Very good! My rice was seasoned with some cinnamon and vanilla bean. Interesting combination with the spices on the chicken, but really quite tasty.




Ice cream in a freshly made waffle cone and a little bit of strawberry drizzle. Can't go wrong there. :-)

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Return to India

After a year's hiatus from writing I've decided to revive this blog as a "trip log" for my return to India. I have been invited back by Asia International Mission to visit/film two new ministry sites this year.

I will be working/filming for two weeks in the cities of Bangalore and Kolkata (Calcutta). Although it would be nice to get to see the kids e met at the orphanage last year I am excited to meet two pastors who are following hard after Christ in these cities. (I'll introduce them in later posts after arriving.)

The team will be almost doubled in size (9 members instead of 5) so I am looking forward to being able to pay closer attention to my task of filming, while the rest of the team engages with locals. As with last year my prayer is still that my camera will see the streets of Bangalore and Kolkata as Christ sees them. That I will be sensitive to the Holy Spirit's leading to point the lens at the exact subjects that He wishes to highlight to help support the work He is already doing in these places.

I am excited that I will be spending the evenings in areas with wifi, so I will hopefully be able to post often during the trip. I will try to keep it a good mix of photos and quick stories about what we are getting to experience. And may even be able to add a bit of video here and there depending on the internet's reliability.

If you didn't get to see the video from last year check it out here: http://www.aimission.org

And today I'll leave you with my favorite picture from last year of the two cutest little boys ever, and a map of where I'll be going this year. If you'd like to see my updates, please comment below, or comment or "like" on Facebook, so I know who wants to check it out. Thanks!