On Second Thought

The other day my youngest son Joshua and I took a trip to Home Depot. We were working on one of our Geocaching projects and needed some supplies. Before we made it in the door, Joshua spotted this huge hot tub on display. He said, "That's cool dad! Hey we should get that for our backyard." I casually replied, "Sure. Let me know how you plan on getting together the money. It cost close to $5,000." He got this look of disbelief on his face and said, "$5,000? For that? Do you know how many starving children and orphans you could feed with that?" I had never looked at it that way before. My 8 year old had just changed my whole view of the world. I started looking at things like the new Hummers people are driving around and all I could think of was the faces of the children I have seen in other less fortunate places in the world. Joshua had caused me to see things not in dollars, but in human suffering. Suddenly those luxury items or things I thought I had to have, just didn’t look that cool anymore. I read that the minimum cost to feed, house, and care for an orphan in Ukraine is $120 a month.

"Based on personal experience of caring for and raising a child in Ukraine, $150 a month is sufficient to cover all but dire emergency needs such as a serious accident or catastrophic medical condition, in most locations in Ukraine. This is roughly in line with the $120 per month per child cited by EveryChild..." -Terry Hallman Ukraine: Death Camps, for Children

That means that for the cost of that hot tub, 41 children could be adequately cared for this month in Ukraine. It costs a lot less in other parts of the world. Just my thoughts, inspired by a little boy with a big heart.



We came across this brother and sister in the Gobi Desert in Mongolia. They were miles away from the tent where they lived with their family. They were looking after the family's goats and sheep. They were very friendly and thankful for the candy we shared with them. These are two of the faces that come to mind when I think I "have to have" something.