VBS

Today we closed up VBS with one more session of crazy English and Tegulu songs, a silly skit about David and Goliath, and some more coloring. The kids LOVE singing “My Salvation” (sung the tune of “Twist and Shout”)…especially the surfing hand motions.

We then served all the kids lunch. Harvest India makes sure that every aspect of VBS is very special, including the food. The cost for a 3 day VBS is only $5 per person.

Rally

After a short afternoon break, our team loaded into some auto-rickshaws and headed back to the orphanage. Now that was an experience!
To close VBS, Harvest India conducted a rally in a nearby village. All the kids put on crowns with bible verses and the band loaded into a van with a portable sound system on the roof. All 700 kids followed the van down the street to the village, singing praise songs and dancing and gathering attention. Once we got to the end of the village, Saresh shared the gospel with the town and told stories of what Jesus has done in the lives of the orphans to make them so happy. It was a blast to see a live band and a throng of kids stopping traffic for Jesus! It was really hard to say goodbye to the kids we befriended, especially those of us who decided to sponsor a child. The great thing about Harvest India is that 100% of sponsorship money goes to the child…no administration costs!

Medical Camp

After VBS we had the opportunity to visit a Harvest India medical camp and pass out malaria medication to the children. The doctor and Harvest India nursing school graduates then diagnose and treat the poor and neglected. What an amazing time and incredible ministry. These nurses are the real champions. They set up the camps and medicine and stay for hours serving the people.

We are so sad to leave in the morning, but are very excited to share the story of this amazing place to our friends in the States.

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We had another great VBS session today. The kids love teaching us Tegulu (the State language) vocabulary in exchange for their English counterparts.  This is a great way to connect with the older classes (ages 12-14) who want to practice their English. They LOVE singing and hand motions! The whole team, especially the women (Kara, Danielle, Heather, Mary), are doing a great job engaging with all the kids!

Indian Wedding

Today we had the incredible privilege of attending an Indian wedding party for a friend of Saresh. The girls wore saris and the the guys wore our custom tailored Indian suits! We were a fine bunch, I must say. For 10-20 days before the wedding, both the bride and groom’s families host huge parties for hundreds of people! We attended the bride’s party on the day before the wedding. We enjoyed an amazing lunch, overwhelming hospitality, and a time of prayer for the bride.

Redlight

In the evening we visited Harvest India’s prostitute ministry in the nearby red-light district. The center provides food, medicine, and a chance to break away from the trade.  The women shared an intimate time of prayer and encouragement.

A bit shorter on the post…sorry…we’ve all been a little sick and have been spending our time in the bathroom.

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Hey all! Danielle here giving the post today Today was the first day of VBS at the orphanage home. Other children from the area were invited as well and we estimate that we had anywhere between 500-700 kids! It was so amazing to see their faces light up when we got there and just how excited they were to be able to have a break from school to sing, dance and just be kids. They sang these VBS songs that their teachers taught them as we got there. They were trying to get us to sing along, but all we could get out of it was la, la, la, VBS, something, something, something, Harvest India Home. Let’s just say the Hindi language isn’t something you just pick up! To start off Ryan and Niall led a few fun songs for the kids with hand motions which they thought were hilarious. I’m sure in their heads they are constantly saying, silly Americans! We also ad-libbed a skit about Joseph and prayed over the chilren. Each kid also got an activity book so we helped pass out crayons and pencils. One thing that really struck some of our team members was that these children didn’t even have enough crayons to go around-they had to have each grade use the crayon then pass it on to the other grades. In the US our kids have boxes and boxes of crayons and we constantly throw out the ones that are broken-these kids were so grateful just to have 1/2 a crayon! Just another one of those humbling moments to add to our list! After the first session Suresh showed us where the children have lunch and explained to us that VBS is like a mini vacation for these children. They work very hard to make a gourmet meal for all 500-700 children and to spoil them since some of these kids never get a break in life. Just another one of the amazing things that this ministry does-they do everything to the highest standard and make sure that no ministry is left untouched.

Unfortunately sickness has struck our team and Ryan, Niall and I have caught some sort of bug. Ryan and Niall were the worst, though, with fevers, chills and a long afternoon spent in the restroom and bed. We’ll spare you the details Please pray that we recover quickly and the rest of the team stays healthy. We don’t want to miss one ounce of what’s happening here!

Ryan and Niall slept through the afternoon while the rest went back for the second section of VBS. Without our two musicans we had to wing-it for the second half. We played a few songs, helped the chilren do some more pages in their books and then prayed over them again. Before we left we had a “hug station” where the children could come give us a hug if they wanted to before we went back. Imagine 500+ children running like a herd of buffalo towards us and us bracing ourselves to not be knocked over! Although it was so sweet to have all the little children just clinging to our legs, for me the most powerful part was connecting with the older high school age girls. They just patiently waited to give you a hug and you just saw the deep desire in their eyes to be unconditionally loved. They were some of the best hugs I have ever received.

After 30 minutes or so we headed over to one of the other old person’s homes that was started only a year ago. There were only 15 people living in this home-and by home I mean a three room cement block with a tiny kitchen no doors, no windows, and small cots for them to sleep on. To us it seemed unreal that people live like this but they explained that this home was like a luxury to them. If it were not for Harvest India these people would still be living in the BUS STATION-can you imagine 100 year old people living on the streets? It’s insane.

Tonight we had a much needed time off. Kara, Heather and I went with Christine, Suresh’s wife into town to shop! It was so crazy to see so many people all over the place and as Ryan has posted before, the driving is, well, unexplainable. We decided that tomorrow, instead of doing the second session of VBS us girls are going to revisit the Ashraya home and just pamper those girls. We bought some Henna and nail polish and are so excited to serve these women and help them to continue on their journey of restoration. We all spent a bit of time going over tomorrow’s VBS plans, but just really enjoyed spending some down time together as a team. We have already done so much here and it’s only Tuesday!

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