It was 44 years ago that our family was in San Francisco CA taking in a day of tourist sights before getting on an airplane and flying 18 hours across the world to The Philippines. At the time our daughter Beth was four years old and our son Matt was going to be three. In fact due to the time changes, we left the day before his birthday and arrived the day after!
This all came to mind recently when our son Matt texted us that he and his family had arrived in San Francisco and had seen the Golden Gate Bridge. It immediately took me back to a photo we have of myself, Beth and Matt smiling at the camera with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background. Here it was 44 years later probably to the day that our son was once again at the Golden Gate Bridge. What are the odds? Sometimes life just comes full circle like that, reminding us how unbelievably amazing our world is. And our Creator.
I have been writing some about our adventures with God over the past 50 years. Our two years in the Philippines impacted us more than any other two years of our lives, that is for sure. If I pause, I can take in the sights and smells as we landed that day into a tropical world of extreme heat and humidity. A third world country that would shape our views of life to this day. You cannot see children digging through your trash to eat your throw away scraps of food and not be affected. You cannot live under Marshall Law, nor hire armed guards to patrol your off base homes filled with military personal and their families without being affected. You cannot watch and live in the midst of such poverty and not realize how rich Americans are.
Sometimes I forget how rich we are here, how many freedoms we have. We live in a lovely house that is too big for two people. We have two fridges in our house. One that is old, but still works and holds the overflow food when family comes or when we buy in bulk. Seriously. We have laptops, phones, a Bose speaker, two TV's, and electricity and Wi-Fi to run them all. I could go on...................
When we first were married we were pretty "first world" poor. As an airman Joel brought home $200 a month. We spent $13 every two weeks on groceries, eating a lot of pot pies and white rice with cinnamon and milk. We never went hungry. We never had to dig through someone's garbage for food. We were and are richly blessed.
It is healthy to pause at times and just be thankful. Thankful for a house that is too big for two people. Thankful for a full fridge and one to spare. Thankful for full tummies and conveniences our parents could never have imagined. Thankful we do not live under Marshall Law.
It is always good for us to look back at our two years over in a third world country. It stops me in my tracks and brings balance back into my thinking. We have so much to be grateful for.
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