Henni, you were doing so well there for a while. I have no problem with you and your wife helping those that need help....I try to do the same and have tried to instill that concept in my children. It's the 'other' stuff that causes the problems. Why can't we just be good human beings because centuries of human experience have taught us that 'loving thy neighbor' beats the heck out of 'killing thy neighbor' and that in helping others, we may well see that help returned one day ("pass it forward"). I just feel that we can do this without necessarily being 'touched' by Him, our imaginary friend.

The pictures are touching, to be sure, but I can't help but reflect on how these people came to be in that situation in the first place. Isn't it ironic that the man who wrote Amazing Grace was a slave ship captain? Or that these people live in a country that has probably the most natural wealth on the planet. Golly gee, wonder what happened there. Of course, you can come over here and visit some of our 'Native American' reservations and I can show you some pretty good parallels. Of course we let a handful of them 'appear' to own a couple of casinos, so I guess that makes everthing alright and all is forgiven. At least they got to keep their own religion (which tends to favor Nature over the Holy Trinity or the only blond, blue-eyed, Nordic type born in the Middle East .

My (unsolicited) advice; keep up the good humanitarian work but think of it as a stopgap. What's really needed is EDUCATION - you know, "teach a man to fish.......etc.". Look, I DO believe your heart is in the right place. I just think when you feed somebody it should be because they are hungry, not because you want to 'save their souls'. JMO, of course.

chas