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    I found myself engrossed in a thought pattern today that is becoming increasingly prevalent during my daily hustle through life: How long will it take people to get sick of all this crap? When will we, as a people, do something decent for another human being as a show of goodwill and common decency, in total absolution from thoughts and feelings of whether we will or will not receive an adequate reward for our troubles? Or will we all get sick of hearing about the poor people in Haiti and other stricken countries and give them and their story the “boot” from our televisions and our news stations in order to substitute in more political banter and self-ingratiating squabbling? Is it going to be soon?

    This week has been a tough one for me, as you may now imagine considering my interminable banter up until this point in this post. If you read my posts titled Help For a Friend  and One Perfect Day , then you perhaps understand that Jen and I have a bit of a soft-heart for those less fortunate than ourselves. Maybe my current work as a children’s crisis therapist and the frustrations that are seemingly inherent in this position are fueling my breakdown…breakthrough tonight. Maybe the fact that the celebrity fundraising drive for Haiti was on television tonight and I doubt that even all of our supposed “role model” celebrities and professional athletes have engaged themselves to send a dime to the relief efforts.

    So anyway, I was in a training meeting today learning to pre-evaluate people for committment into mental hospitals, and the only thing that kept running through my brain was the question of whether or not I am currently being of any service to anyone other than myself and further, if not, why not? Does a lack of current expendable income have to detour my ability to help others less fortunate than I? Am I not capable of love? Of prayer? Of writing a compelling enough argument that people will respond and do something to improve upon the current hopelessness and degredation of this world in which we live? Do you ever consider these things? Alas, I do have a format. The same format that gets politicians the vote of today’s youth (Barrack Obama ). If we, as a people, will embrace a man who speaks in lofty terms about ”change” and “belief”, and seriously expect him to better our home and our world, then will we take that same intitiative and do something ourselves? The same amount of energy that it took for the young people of America and the world to stand up and stand for something that they could believe in equivalent to the energy that it would take to donate, to pray, and to care for and about someone around us. The following list includes several places that touched us in our travels along with several ways to do something for those in Haiti, those affected by Hurricane Katrina, and those in Cambodia affected by the Khmer Rouge:

1.     SON Valley ICF/MR - The Mission of Son Valley is to build and operate a quality Christian Community for adults with Mental Retardation, ministering to their physical, spiritual, mental, vocational, and recreational needs. This was Craig’s workplace for a little over 1 year. There are some amazing people there in need of just a little assistance.
2.     Tuol Sleng Prison Museum - The reign of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia destroyed everything that Cambodians knew of their lives prior to the takeover. Millions of Cambodians were killed or seriously maimed by their own countrymen only 20-30 years ago. This museum is a monument to the desctruction that humans can cause upon their own people and a good way to help to ensure that this does not occur again ion Cambodia. The museum is housed in a former school (prior to the Khmer Rouge) and torturous prison (during the Khmer Rouge rule). As the government of Cambodia is still coming back from the destruction of the past 30 years and is heavily supported by humanitarian organizations, the museum needs money to keep the place functioning.
3.      Rainbow Children’s Home - This is the orphanage in which we are volunteering during our time in Pokhara. There are 26 children here at present. Some have parents who were killed in recent uprisings. Some lost their parents to illness. Some have parents who were mentally ill and uncable of taking care of them. Some have parents that were useless and sold them into slavery. Basically, they need help. The kids are AMAZING!
4.      Seeing Hands Massage - This program has been setup in Cambodia by the Associationof Blind in Cambodia. It is now spreading to several other countries in the region. During our stay in Siem Reap, Cambodia, we each received a wonderful massage by a blind masseuse. Not only was the massage great, but we were also able to help support someone who would otherwise have probably been on the streets begging. This is an amazing program!
5.     American Red Cross - Provides immediate needs for food, water, temporary shelter, medical services and emotional support to those in crisis throughout our world.
6.    ClintonBushHaitiFund - Two past US presidents finally doing what they were elected for in the first place: helping people. 
7.    Baptist Haiti Mission - One of the places where you could invest your money and be sure to make a lasting difference in both the physical and spiritual lives of those in Haiti.
8.    The Salvation Army - Help for people in emergency situations worldwide. 

    So, I will make the plea again as I have several times on this blog: Please do something to help someone TODAY. We have some amazing friends that helped us throughout our travels and made special things happen for people we met along our way. I just pray that these people and the readers of this blog will step up and make a change today by beginning a continuous movement to effect change in our world, one helping hand or donation at a time.