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Gratitude sounds simple until stories from the field reset your compass. We open the pantry, feel the mattress under our back, turn a clean tap, and then remember widows in Haiti boiling roots to calm a hollow ache. The contrast isn’t meant to shame; it’s meant to wake us up. When abundance becomes invisible, we forget how to see it—and how to share it.

I walk through the everyday mercies that carry us: food security, a roof that keeps out the rain, sanitation that quietly prevents disease, and shoes that protect every step. Along the way, I share moments from medical missions in Haiti and Central America—dirt floors, charcoal fires, open rivers used for drinking and washing—that reframe complaints about convenience. We talk about health in plain terms, from foot fungus to clean water, and why infrastructure may be one of the most compassionate forms of care. Then we turn to the gifts stitched into our bodies: eyes that take in sunrise, ears that catch laughter, a voice that can praise.

The story widens to formation and faith. I reflect on being raised by Christian parents, learning Scripture, finding mentors, and discovering a lifelong hunger for biographies of believers and missionaries. That heritage could have been otherwise; many are born where the gospel is absent or opposed. Which brings us to the heart of the conversation: the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus. If life held loss from start to finish and still ended with redemption, it would not be wasted. Possessions, achievements, even family cannot answer the final question; grace does. Gratitude becomes more than a mood—it becomes an anchor strong enough for joy and sorrow.

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