Alagu mixed mud; she made bricks; she stacked them; and she hauled them around on her head. She repeated this process all day long, on an empty stomach—and she was only five years old.

Alagu is only one of millions of children in India who are poor, hungry, abused, living on the street and scrounging for food. Fortunately for Alagu, all this changed when Pastor Samuel Manickam found the thin child crying on the street and took her to Hannah Children’s Home, which he co-founded and of which he is the director.

These experiences were captured on film in a documentary by Jon Wood, PUC technology instructor, and four PUC students—Erin Abston, Julia Alty, Zachary Dunn, and Levi Gore—in this latest of Video Student Missionary adventures. The PUC VSM team spent two weeks during Christmas vacation documenting the orphanage at a remote village in the southern tip of India. Their goal was to highlight the needs and tremendous efforts that Hannah Children’s Home does for a group of Indian children.

All of the 23 children at the orphanage have poignant, heart-wrenching stories, but the team chose one girl's story to tell: that of little Alagu. They filmed scenes in villages; they filmed a brick factory (where there are no child labor laws); and they filmed street children scrounging for food. They contrasted this with the bright, smiling faces of the children living at the orphanage––children who are given a new start with fresh clothes, hot food, an education, Christian principles, love and compassion.

The VSM team didn’t just stick to filming. On Christmas Day, they went to a nearby village to provide a Christmas program that included songs, stories acted out by the students, and a sermon by Wood. They also had the humbling experience of being the first ones ever to preach the Gospel to a neighboring Hindu village whose residents believe in the existence of 380 million gods. On New Year’s Day, the team witnessed 17 people being baptized in a pond; many of the converts also receiving new Christian names.

The team left India with a new perspective on life. “It was a trip where we got a big dose of reality—and a big burden on our hearts to do whatever we can to help those struggling for the bare necessities of life, with no hope of a better world,” said Wood.

“We learned that life and reality are not what we make them," Dunn adds, "but they are what we contribute to those in need.”

Additional details and photos of the PUC team’s story can be found at techmaclab.puc.edu/msi.