This strange looking box with two barrels on top is a shower - actually two showers at a rehab center in Russia. Here in summer and winter men who have been set free from addictions by Jesus take their daily shower. Some times the water is warm and sometimes it is not as it is solar heated and only becomes warm when the sun is out and the weather is warm.

These men consider themselves blessed because they have this shower facility and clean water—even if they have to haul it and fill the barrels each day. They realize that many others in our world don’t have a clean supply of water and often can’t even find water to drink let alone water to wash in.

I got up this morning and took a long, hot shower indoors with clean water and plenty of it.  I didn’t need to think about water for my morning coffee - just turn a tap and fill the kettle. I was able to select what to wear from a sizable closet full of nice clothes. And travel here in a warm car.

Some of the men who are members of my team overseas have no choice when they go to get dressed. They only have one or, at the most, two of everything and are thankful for what they have. A car is totally out of the question. The rehab centre uses this old truck when they need transportation. (The cars belong to those of us from the ‘outside world’ coming to spend the day there.)

Yet we forget to give thanks for all that we have. We simply take it for granted because, in most cases, it has always been there. Often we are wanting more, better, bigger - and yet we are among the most blessed believers in the whole world. Time to adopt an “attitude of gratitude.”