Perspective

It is humbling to actually know someone who is willing to risk her life for people she doesn't even know.

That she is just 14 years old makes me even more humble.

And my family is truly blessed that such a person is a good friend, setting an example that I have not.

Last week, Andrea and her family left the States to join her father and brother in Indonesia, just days after an earthquake rocked that tsunami-ravaged area. Local news has done two stories on this family (click here for one), and it is clear that this is not their ideal way to spend the next four months. Her father and brother have been there since the end of January as part of the Mission Aviation Fellowship.

But they are also quite clear that this is something that has to be done and that they are not the type to expect "someone else" to take care of the problem. Personal safety is secondary. "These people need help."

Andrea plays soccer with my daughter. She will miss all of the last season with a team that has grown close. She admits to us that she would rather stay and play than be halfway across the world, where her father has promised to find her a soccer team to keep her on her cleats. She's already there and writes that she will be helping out with head and neck injuries, or unloading cargo. She is home-schooled, and such an education must be priceless, as it comes with a risk to her own life, and the lives of her family.

Here is where the perspective comes in.

Take a long look.