IN TOUCH WITH ONE'S SPIRITUALITY

"ROOM TO READ"

In one episode of the Oprah Winfrey Show the topic was about getting in touch with our own spirituality-that is the longing for something more in life. One guest then was John Wood. He worked for Microsoft before and was used to life of comfort and abundance. To escape from the rigors of work, he decided to take a vacation in Nepal one day. There he met one government official working for the Nepalese Department of Education.

John was very interested of the plight of the young Nepalese students that he asked the official to show him one of the local grade schools in the place. The school was delapidated and the library had only eight books that to him were not for the young students at all. He promised to help the school and send books; however, to his dismay, the official told him that every foreigner who had visited them promised the same but did not fulfill them. This saddened John.

When he went back home, John resigned from Microsoft and with his connections started soliciting for both financial help and books to be sent to Nepal. The rest is history. His foundation today-Room to Read-has helped a lot of schools from developing countries. He was able to establish several libraries and continued donating books to them. He admitted that today definitely he is earning less, but the satisfaction he has is more than what he had before when he was earning so much from Microsoft.