'Lion' movie highly recommended...

Last night, my family decided to watch a Netflix movie, whilst I was busy on a creative project and I ended up joining them in watching the 2016 movie called 'Lion' which is set in India and later in Australia featuring Nicole Kidman as one of the actors in the movie.

The movie is based the life story of a young boy who lives in Northern India who is then separated by his family by boarding a train that takes him, over two days, to Calcutta. In his bid to survive on the streets, he ends up in an orphanage of sorts and is adopted out to an Australian couple. The story traces his journey back to visiting his biological family in India.

I'd heard about this movie some time ago but hadn't had the time nor the inclination to watch but due to my family's choice, I'm glad I did. It was a reminder, for me, that sometimes in life we need to do things that are outside our families and interests to make this world a better place.

I definitely would highly recommend this movie to you, although there are scenes which are quite sad and tells of the abject poverty of India as well as how children were abused or unheeded with the millions of people who live on the street. The movie also reminded me of the 'Slumdogs Millionaire' movie some years ago that really made me stop and think.

Since growing up in my birth church of Mangere PIC (Pacific Islanders Presbyterian church), the founding minister there was a missionary to the Pacific Islands from the London Missionary Society called Reverend Bob Challis (his wife was my piano teacher) he encouraged our Sunday School to sponsor a child through giving monthly volunteer offerings.

I took that idea into my personal life and since finishing my studies and working full-time, I started sponsoring children who lived in third world countries, this was before I had my own family and to this day we are currently sponsoring a little boy and his community in India through World Vision for $25 per fortnight. It's only a small donation but it helps one boy across the world to make his world a better place.

In watching the movie with my beloved, it reminded him of his three years in India on missionary work and learning the Bengali language. Certain landmarks he pointed out as being places that he had visited and a reminder of the poverty that exists there with areas of pollution with so many people who live and die on the streets.

This film reminded me of how important it is to be altruisic in the need to support other communities outside our own. This is part of our Christian faith in leaving a legacy for our children to consider lending a helping hand to those in need...