Thankful: November 12

I am thankful for John Wright and his family: his wife Julie and his daughters Becca and Emma. He is a Canadian missionary to Kyrgyzstan who I think is probably the closest thing to a "true" Christian I've ever met. His heart must be exactly like Jesus' heart because he has given his life to help the less fortunate in Kyrgyzstan. He spends several months a year in the country and then comes back home and raises funds to help them and to return in a few more months. And while he's home, he's not just hanging out at the pizza parlor, he's finding ways to continue helping those still there.

This is John last year at Christmas -- taking a pie in the face for the kids after raising money for Christmas.

I could go on for days and days about all the good things he does, but just hop over to his blog and read some of them. I'm going to be honest here: I have his blog bookmarked, but I don't read it as regularly as he posts. Some days I'm just not emotionally ABLE to read the things he writes. Does that make sense? It's hard to know about needs and ignore them, isn't it? It's hard to read about children eating and living in dumps. It's hard to read about five year old homeless children. It's hard to read about the elderly who have no running water or heat. It's hard to read and see photos of babies in a "hospital" where there are no mattresses or beds. It's all just hard. That's the reason I am thankful that there is a John Wright who is not afraid to face these things head on.

This is John's blog header -- a photo of a little one at the dump. HOW OLD IS THIS CHILD??? Living at a dump? My heart breaks.

For those of you who have adopted from Kyrgyzstan, the recent entry on John's blog tells of children in an orphanage who have made some stellar crafts and that Sugarplum Fairies is now selling on Ebay in order to raise funds to send back to this orphanage. All the details are in this post. If you are interested in seeing any of the items for sale in this event, click here. The Ebay auction has about four days left. I have bid on a couple of items that I'd like to have for Ellie -- OUTBID me and let's see if we can help those kiddos out some more. Check out these photos of the items these children have made. The workmanship is just beautiful. Scroll down for a photo of some of the children.

AND... I'm also thankful to all of you that I know have given or contact me to say you are giving to help fund Christmas for the kids in Kyrgyzstan: Amanda, Dee'Anna, Betsy and Ella, Lynette, Stephanie, Mike and Maggie, and Becky. I suspect there are others and I hope I'm not forgetting anyone. THANK YOU for every kid that will have a Christmas because of you!! We are still working toward our goal of sponsoring 100 kids. There have been 544 kids sponsored so far. Praise God!!