Monday, September 24, 2007

What Am I doing to Change The World

With all this awareness of the haves and the have nots. I have been giving so much thought to “what am I doing to change the world, to feed the planet, teach the children, house the homeless and so on and so forth. I think of two people I know and their children. I will not mention their names to protect their privacy I will refer to them a JR and CO.. The family, are acquaintances of mine dear friends of a dear friend. I do not know them well enough to be called friend however they are the type of people that in time with more contact and understanding I would be most honored to be called their friend. Anyhow the story is this (this is all second hand so if I get anything wrong please forgive me I am confidant that the core of the story is true and close enough to accurate and should be heard); Years ago the entire family Parents and three children two girls and a boy each adopted a child in an orphanage in a far away land somewhere in Africa. We all know of this sort of opportunity; send 10$’s 20$’s or so to a child once a month and they send you a picture of themselves along with a thank you note and they update you from time to time of their progress. Well as I said this went on for years. Then one day J and daughters take a trip to the orphanage to volunteer their time doing whatever is needed or asked of them. I believe this was a three week trip. They were very happy to see that all of these years their money had been well spent and in fact the people who were taking care of these displaced children were doing a great job regardless of the very limited resources they had to support them and their efforts. At some point J goes to the director of the facility and asks if what else they could do to help. I am not completely clear on how it went from here but the outcome of that conversation was that JR and Co. would build another orphanage along side the existing one. Now I know that many of us are skeptics and our minds are reeling with particle issues. Things like OK so now you have a building now what who is going to provide tools, JR and CO. Furniture, JR and CO. the list goes on and on. JR and CO. are very practical and successful people they know how to get things done. They saw a need it touched their heart and they acted. They did so without fanfare, or press releases. They did so without trying to raise capitol from their community and they did so without asking for any tax breaks. They just did it because it needed to be done they had the cash the resources and the heart to do it. This has all transpired over just the past three years as far as I know the Orphanage is complete and operational. I have heard through the grapevine the JR and CO have even gone so far as to formally adopt two or three of these children and move them to the states to raise as their own. The number is not important I suspect that by the time they are done they will adopt the whole damm village. But seriously this is not something to poke fun at and I do not mean to do so. The truth is they are the sort of people that just might their hearts are big enough.
So JR and company I publicly salute you and thank you from the bottom of my heart for doing what I am unable and for inspiring me to do what I can, because of you the world is a better place.
So I ask myself what am I doing to change the world?

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