While most people were at home with their families over Christmas break, a group from North Greenville University spent their vacation a little differently. A group of 15 volunteers, eight of whom represented NGU, set out on Dec. 9 for South India – specifically those areas hit hardest by the devastating tsunami.
NGU student – John Vick was among the group from North Greenville University that traveled to India. While they were there, the group spent time with children from several orphanages across the nation.“This was not just an ordinary missions trip,” said Linwood Hagin, chair of the mass communications department who helped organize the trip. “It was a media missions trip.” The group’s focus over the two weeks was to gather footage to document the one-year anniversary of the December 2004 tsunami.
“One of our main goals was to interview the survivors of the tsunami,” said NGU student team member Anna Madison.
Bill Bray, a communications director for Hopegivers International, a Christian relief organization in India, headed up the group. The NGU team was comprised of four students (Anna Madison, First Baptist Church, Taylors; Kala Burdette, Washington Avenue Baptist Church, Greenville; Jennifer Rothenburg, Bethesda Baptist Church, Spartanburg; John Vick, First Baptist Church, Taylors), three alumni (Jarod Fox, Kelly McCorkle, Kelechi Benet), and Hagin. The group documented hours of footage from Mumbai, New Delhi, and several surrounding towns and villages, as well as gather interviews with survivors, relief workers and government officials. Along the way, the team visited several of Hopegivers’ ministries, including orphanages and a leper colony.
“The whole trip was an amazing experience. All of it sticks out in my mind,” said Madison. “This was my first time to a poverty-stricken country. There was definite culture shock. One of the things you notice is the people just sleeping out on the streets. The police wouldn’t even take any notice, it was just normal to them.”
“The people have no joy, hope. It made me realize how much I appreciated being an American citizen,” said Rothenburg. “They were terrified of the ocean, and that another tsunami would come. They wouldn’t sleep in their houses, even after they were cleaned up. They would sleep in the church; they said that the church building itself was what saved them.”
Vick related an amazing story of a little girl living in one of the orphanages. “It was particularly touching since she was mentally handicapped. They didn’t know how old she was; she might’ve been 10 or 12,” Vick said. “Several days after the tsunami, she was found beneath a tree, surviving off of food that monkeys had been bringing to her.”
Vick has been on mission trips before, including a trip to Peru. “It was actually very similar to being in Peru,” he said. “One of the biggest differences was the culture, actually, because the language barrier wasn’t as much of an issue. More people in India were able to speak English.” Several of the group’s guides from Hopegivers also served as translators.
NGU offers many missions opportunities each year through partnerships with different organizations. Though this is just the fourth media missions trip that Hagin has organized thus far, he has indicated that more opportunities are in the works. Hagin also mentioned that there is even the possibility of a two-year anniversary trip back to India to continue to document the relief efforts.
“I hope that it’s something more students will get involved with,” said Hagin. The video the students collected is currently being edited, with production due to be completed later this spring.