Day 5+6

Yesterday (our Saturday) we went to the beach to help the Invisible Girl people run a VBS for another orphanage they are connected with. We got there and did face painting, crafts, and fun games. The documentary team was busy filming interviews with the people of Invisible Girl so we can wrap up their video. This was apparently the first time anyone has ever done anything like this for the girls of this orphanage and they really loved it. When the day ended we went to the beach and all put our feet in the Indian Ocean! It was a fun day and we ended it by going back and enjoying a nice dinner at a local restaurant. We had a blast on the bus rides because they were about twice as long today. All of us are getting to know each other better, which is awesome. We also drove by some of the slums, which hopefully some of us will get to go back to later on in our trip.

Today, we started our day by going to church. We went to an English speaking church and it was family day. A bunch of families had prepared some sort of music for the congregation and it was amazing to see how talented everyone was. The service was 2.5 hours long with the message at the end. It was really good, and I started to realize things that God is teaching me that I couldn’t have learned back home or at school, which makes this trip even better. We then went to Varun’s parent’s house where they made us lunch. After that we went to a mall and all bought a ton of really awesome things. After that we came back and worked on some VBS preparation for the week.

This trip has been amazing and not at all what I had expected (which is a good thing). Please pray for clarity in my life as I have some decisions to make in the near future that I had thought I had already made.

Enjoy the photos, there aren’t as many, but we’ve been filming a lot more so I have less time for photography. Thanks for your support! -Ben

Day 4

Today, we were at Home of Love all day. When we got there in the morning we all worked on painting the wall. There wasn’t anything for the documentary team to do until after lunch so we helped too. The first thing we captured after that though was the girls writing letters back to their sponsors. They were including drawings and colorings as well. After that, we had lunch and then the girls were putting on a show for the Invisible Girl team. They had learned all of these different dances and songs and were so talented with them. We did a lot of work with Invisible Girl today. We helped them film a short web promo and then sat down with Brad to film his story and how he and his wife started Invisible Girl. After that we just hung out with the girls for little bit before we left. I saw Donna and Pria as usual. I’m not as tired today as I have been, but I am starting to desire different food. I like it, it’s just a little overwhelming because of the sudden change for so long. The mosquitos are terrible. I probably have over 20 bites on my legs from them. Tomorrow we are going to the beach to help run another orphanages VBS. The documentary team will be filming for Invisible Girl because this is another one of their partners. Thanks for reading, please continue to pray for us that we can continue building relationships here. Enjoy the photos. –Ben

India Day 3

Day three. Today has been very tiring, but very good. We went to Home of Love earlier, today so we could start painting. While the other part of our team was painting, the documentary team went into the village around Home of Love to capture the environment and people that live in the surrounding area. We met many interesting people, and towards then end had people coming up to us wanting their picture taken. I even crawled into a truck with a couple of them because they wanted their picture with me! I had a blast in the village and then we headed back to the Home. We got back and did some interviews and B-Roll with the team that was painting. After lunch we met up with another organization that is at Home of Love, Invisible Girl Project. They are an awesome organization! They support 4 organizations (Home of Love is one of them) by raising awareness and support for them in the US. Every girl that lives at the Home is supported by a sponsor through Invisible Girl. They had all of the sponsors write letters to the girls and today we got to capture them handing them out to the girls. They loved them! We captured a ton today and so from 4-6 we just hung out with the girls and played with them. Donna found me right away and so did Pria. They wanted pictures so we took one together so I can get it printed and give to them. After that we came back and went out to eat. Today was very eye opening in the way that these girls are looking for people to show them love. They are so eager for someone to love them that they want to get to know anyone that will show them love. Please pray that our team stays rested. We are all starting to get tired and we still have a long way to go. Thanks for all of your encouraging comments! Here are some pictures from today:

India Day 2

Whoa, I’m tired. Today was packed full of Home of Love. I was so tired last night that I fell asleep around 8! I woke up, opened my laptop to see what time it was and it was 4AM. I thought to myself, “I could get up and blog right now” but instead I forced myself to sleep until 7. We had breakfast and then headed to Home of Love to start filming. We decided that today would be a B-Roll day so that we could get footage that we would need as well as have more time to hang out with the girls so they would be more comfortable around us. During one of their breaks, Pria, the girl that calls me Ben10, came up to me and gave me a Ben10 Pen. I got to know her more as well as a few other girls, whose nicknames are Gellin and Donna. They call all of us brother or sister and love to play games. We played tag, played on the slides, and then went and played in the chapel. We didn’t leave until 6PM and then had a 1 and a half hour drive back. I fell asleep and was super tired when we returned, and even debated going to dinner. But we went to a hotel to eat and it was fantastic. Bri shared her Lassi with me, which looked like something I would never want to consume (it looks kind of like tapioca pudding, which I hate), but it was delicious.  I’m off to bed now, enjoy some of the pictures from today. -Ben