Last week at ASP a youth from the other church we were with really put ASP in perspective for me. He told us a story about how he was playing Frisbee with some kids from his site at the ASP picnic and the Frisbee went into the lake. He had to go after it so they could continue to play. His shoes got soaked while he was in the water so he had to take them off to continue to play. The kids had been on a hillside above him but after the Frisbee went into the water they wanted to change places and come down to the pavement.
The youth said to them that he couldn't go up on the hillside because he didn't have shoes on anymore. All the kids looked at him really funny and one of them asked him why he couldn't go on the hill. That's when he noticed that none of the kids were wearing shoes. When he thought about he hadn't seen them in shoes all week. After he realized this he didn't say anything else about shoes, he just went up on the hillside and continued to play Frisbee.
He told us that with every rock or root he stepped on that it reminded him of how fortunate he is to have the simplest thing such as shoes. He told us that it hurt a lot to play without his shoes but he refused to put them back on.
Some of us have a lot in life. We live in houses with walls, floors, ceilings, heat and air conditioning. He have stuff like clothes, shoes, jewelry, video games, and tv with cable. Although we have all of our "stuff", I believe that the people that we visit and help on ASP are the richest people on earth. They might not have "stuff" like we do but they are extremely thankful for what they have and they have tight loving families who will give the shirt off their backs for each other. They have traditions and stories that they will share with you.
A rich person is not someone with "stuff", a rich person has love in their heart, humility in their soul, and family in their arms.
May we all be rich!
