A letter about this summer

It has been nearly five years since I first felt the call to serve God away from my home. I was riding in the back of a bright blue school bus on the left side of the road in the Bahamas during a weeklong mission trip in the summer of 2003. Our church youth group was on its way to a church in downtown Nassau. We were tearing down a rebar-and-concrete wall on the side of a church so they could add on a room for a school, and running a VBS for the neighborhood kids as well. It was our third day of work, and I remember about halfway through the ride there coming to a simple realization: this is what I need to do with my life.

Since that day I have traveled to lots of places, showing as best I can the love God has shown me to others. In 2005 I served in Tecate, Mexico for a week with the Christian mission group Mission Discovery, helping to build houses for mostly homeless families living in mountainside ghettos. In June and July of 2006 I worked in Reynosa and Rio Bravo, Mexico as an intern for Mission Discovery, helping to build houses for the extremely financially poor residents of Reynosa’s colonias. I returned to the same places a year later as Mission Discovery’s videographer. Besides these trips with Mission Discovery I have worked on Habitat for Humanity houses in Kentucky, Mississippi and Alabama. That simple idea in my head on that bus in 2003 became an instinctive urge, then a necessity, and now my very way of life.

This summer Mission Discovery has asked me to undertake what could be my most eclectic trip to date. As of right now, I am planning on spending the first three weeks of June putting together a documentary of Mission Discovery’s work in Reynosa, Mexico. After that I will travel to the Badlands in South Dakota to help lead a mission project on a Native American reservation for one week. Then I would return to Reynosa for a week, doing whatever was needed from me. The last two weeks of July I would travel to Guatemala and help lead a project there for two weeks.

Mission Discovery will be providing most of my meals and places for me to stay, but I will have to get myself where they need me. This means I will need approximately $2500 to cover the cost of plane tickets and traveling expenses, and about $900 to pay my bills at home while I’m away. As a college student making just enough to get by, I do not have the money to pay for this. I am writing to you because I hope you can offer your financial support. If you can help me share God’s love with those who don’t get to see it too often, I would appreciate any amount you can give. Contributions can be mailed to the following address, marked "for Ben Kleppinger's mission fund" at any time, even after I leave at the beginning of June.

Richmond First United Methodist Church
P.O. Box 27
Richmond, KY 40476

Even if you can’t help me financially right now, I hope you will keep me in your prayers, now and during my trip.

I will be taking photos everywhere I go and posting them here. You can check out Mission Discovery at missiondiscovery.org. If you would like to get in contact with me, my phone number is (859) 200-7266 and my email is ben.kleppinger@gmail.com.


Sincerely,
Ben Kleppinger

A Test Post: The Purple Rose

Here are some of the results from my most recent JOU497 assignment. These were taken in my room on my bed, at about 1 a.m. My camera was on a tripod about a foot away from my bed. I used small apertures so what little light was coming from my windows was canceled out.

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ISO 100
BULB
f/16

I popped a green-gelled flash at 1/16 power a few times from directly above. Then I lit the head of the rose with a tiny reading light from the top and then the front for about 45 seconds.

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ISO 100
BULB
f/16

I popped a green-gelled flash at 1/8 power at five different points underneath the pillowcase, then illuminated the rose with my tiny reading light.

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ISO 100
BULB
f/16

I popped a purple-gelled flash under the pillowcase, aimed at the rose, three times, each time from a slightly different angle. Then I lit up the rose and pillow case with my tiny reading light.