DerekTGreen.com

Surprise & Learning.

Today was a whole lot of fun. Started with breakfast at the hotel resuraunt. Coffee, bottled water, and some pastries.

After breakfast the team loaded up into the cars and we hit the left side of the road for Beautiful Gate. When we arrived we were told that the kids and teachers wanted to put on a little welcoming show for us. Being the photographer I got pretty excited about this. All the kids coming to once place?! Perfect! And it really was. The kids were lined up and walked into the room. I got some great shots. What a good way to start the trip. Yes...it took four days to get my camera rolling...but if we could keep this pace up I would be happy.

After the show...which was a whole lot of fun...we were given a tour of the facilities. I took some basic landscape shots and saw the operation. They have a really good thing going on at Beautiful Gate. I was very impressed. It professional and it reminded me a lot of Danita's Children. Its a smaller operation...but just as nice. The potential is great. As we were walking around we got to see a birthday party! It was a perfect little photo opp. It was a long table outside and it had 15 or so little chairs around. Sue was telling us that they try to make birthdays special for the kids. Watching these little kids stuff chunks of birthday cake in their faces was priceless.

After the birthday party we saw where the babies slept. My heart broke a little. I met a little boy that was only 3 months old. My daughter, Mary-Kate, is 4 months old. I could have held that little guy all day. I got a good picture of him and Sue. These kids were really being care for.

After seeing the whole campus, which has 8+ buildings on it, I was blown away. What a great place this was.

Next was meeting time. Matt and I met with Ray on what media goals we had for the week. Our first priority would be to get the brochure finished and we were also hoping to get a video produced and edited before leaving on Monday. We had our goals in place.

Let me back track a little. While we were on the tour the construction director, Allen (Volunteer from Australia), came up and said that we might have a chance to get some aerial shots of the Beautiful Gate campus. He asked if we would be interested. We of course said yes! Now, during our media meeting Allen comes in and says that the plane is ready to go.

Let me give you a few more details. Ray had been trying to get an aerial shot of the campus for more than two years now. TWO YEARS! He said that every time they had the right equipment the plane wasn't available. The plane and piolet is from a ministry that flies supplies to missionaries in the mountains. The reason the plane was available today was because the mountains were covered in clouds. So. A miricle happened. Matt and I were there with good camera gear, the plane was ready, and the mountians were covered in clouds...miricle. And. Had the oporutinity come up any other time during the week Matt and I probably wouldn't have been available. Miricle people. God had this thing planned out and I was super excited to be right in the middle of it.

So Allen comes in and says that the plane is ready to go. Me, Matt, and Allen jump in his truck and head for the little airstrip down the road. We met the piolet (Christian) and told him what we were trying to do. He was nice enough to unscrew the passenger window so I would be able to stick my camera out. We loaded up and off we went. I was airborn over Maseru, Lesotho. NEVER would have thought I would get to do that. NEVER. What a beautiful country. The view was stunning. And I got some great shots of the BG Campus. It was some on site training. I've never shot aerial shots...so I was a bit nervous. I didn't have a chance to look up pointers or anything. The pictures turned out great though. It was a whole lot of fun sticking my head out the side of the plane with my camera around my neck. Shoot. That was fun. It might turn out to be the highlight of the trip. The flight was only 20 minutes long, so I was really busy the whole 20 minutes.

After touching down and chatting with the piolet a little more we headed back to Beautiful Gate. Ray was really excited to get my pictures.

The team got together and we hit the road. Next up. Bana Project.

A connection had been made with a guy from Oklahoma City that had a feeding project in Lesotho. Crazy eh? So we pursued the connection and He led us out to see what they were doing. What they were doing was pretty cool. He had built a building and planted crops around it. This little operation was feeding houndreds every day. The team was able to see the operation and meet the ladies that were running it. This place was a little ways out from town and man...talk about a beautiful country. Over an hour or so kids began to show up for dinner. The team helped serve dinner.

As dinner was being served I was walking around taking pictures of the kids and their food. No forks or spoons btw. Just your fingers. Which was normal. So I was walking around when I noticed pastor Sonya sit with a older woman and begin to weep. I couldn't understand what was going on, but I knew this was something I should take pictures of. Even though I didn't know what was going on...it was touching. It wasn't until I was driving away with Sonya and Barb in my car that I was told the whole story.

I don't remember all the details, but I remember the main points. Sonya had a dream. She had been struggling with traveling without her family and leaving her support at home. In this dream God showed Sonya a lady that was praying for her. He not only showed her the lady, but gave her name. When she woke up she thought that the name was just something she had made up...well...it wasn't. This older lady sitting on the ground outside the mission building was that lady. When Sonya asked her what her name was...it was the name in her dream. Sonya broke down a little and the lady told her that she had been praying for her. She also told Sonya not to cry as she was hugging her.

Amazing? This was day one! And it set the tone. Crazy amazing would be the tone of this trip.

We headed back to the hotel where we had dinner and then a team meeting.

After the meeting Matt and I began running "Command Central". Thats was we were calling our little network of computers and cameras. I was running a 24inch wide screen on a Mac Mini and Matt was running his MacPro. We were using every outlet in the room. It was crazy. All the lamps were unplugged. We backed up our photos and videos not once...but twice...and called it a night. Tomorrow would be an early morning...and we were still fighting jet lag. Maseru is eight hours ahead from our normal Central Time Zone.

Day 4. Complete.