For a single day, Joseph pulls together all the kids from each of his ministries and together they have a small VBS. It takes place in the “church” building of this small Hindu village. (So, you’ll see some of these kids again in photographs to come.)
This is little Edwin, Joseph’s son, and one of the cutest kids I’ve ever met. He fell in love with Mat and always wanted to sit with him.
We were welcomed in this manner a couple of times during the trip. The tradition of decorative designs on the floor is called Rangoli. You’ll see rangoli practiced during festivals, auspicious observances, celebrations of marriages and other similar milestones and gatherings.
This is the paster of the church in the village. I don’t have the correct spelling for his name…need to get that from Cliff.
See. Edwin loved Mat.
Some of the older girls wore traditional dress and performed a wonderful dance and song for us.
Joseph spoke with the kids for a little while his daughter, Feba, watched. I love her smile.
We participated in the VBS by putting on a skit. To be honest, Mat did most of it. He told the story of Esther as Joseph translated. During his tale, the kids acted out the characters with props.
And then VBS felt a little bit like YoungLife with kids racing to blow up a balloon and the pop it. The first kid to do so won.
And these are the pictures I really love: when the kids just keep jumping in front of the lens. They loved being able to see themselves in the preview on the view finder. It would have gone on for hours but Joseph had planned out the day, so we kept moving forward.
Again, Mat and Edwin. Edwin was his shadow.
It really got funny, and sort of strange, when the older kids with cellphones would take our picture. That happened several times on this trip.
The kids were taken back to their villages by car, bike, and rickshaw. They made whatever mode of transportation count…as you can see here. I’m not sure how many exactly they fit in this rickshaw in the end…but it was a lot.
Big man, little man, little bike. India.
