Peuen lives in the Akha Village in the north of Thailand. She is the only member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints in her village and the nearest ward house is 3 hours away in Chiang Mai. She often was a resource, to us, in her village to get projects going and get her community involved; many volunteers called her an angel. Peuen has diabetes and because of it, her health is not always the best but she stays so positive. I would often hear her say things like:
I know I am poor, but I know Heavenly Father will watch out for me.
I rather help others than myself.
Because Peuen did so much for us, we wanted to be able to do something for her and she let us help her plant her field of corn. The day we planted the corn it was incredibly hot; it was probably the most extreme heat I have ever experienced. I still had fun planting but the heat was just an added challenge. At one point my face had turned red from the heat and everyone thought I was sunburned; I wasn't.
While we were planting the corn a cloud covered the sun and Peuen said, "Oh! Heavenly Father knew we were hot, so he gave us shade." I was touched by this comment. How easy it is to look over these small blessings and here a woman, who has very little (in a material perspective), took time to recognize and sweetly acknowledge and thank Heavenly Father.
If you would like to read about my Thailand humanitarian experience, I just posted about it on my travel blog, Postcards From Amy. The blog itself has a few other posts about Thailand as well.
