Our son came to dinner last evening, and told us a little of what he did, and what he saw in Lebanon. On the border of Lebanon & Syria, people have traveled in much danger, to come to the camps where refugees from Syria live, one step above homeless. They call them tents, but these are not tents you buy, these are made up of cardboard, plastic sheeting, and if they were lucky, and their homes had not been completely destroyed, they might have rugs, and some clothes and bedding. Many come with the clothes on their backs, and yes there are the children, and more children, everywhere the children. I thought about all the children, most of the refugees are women and children, just a few men. The women don't really know how to prevent from having babies, so they have babies almost every year. By the time they are forty, they are worn out and look as though they could be in their sixties. They are hard working these women, my son said he had been inside some of the tents, most are very clean, considering the conditions they live in, couldn't be easy. There is one small wood burning stove in the middle of the tent, used both for cooking and heating. They must bring in their own water, in buckets, or what ever they have to carry it in. They have pallets on the floor for sleeping on, and lots of blankets, this is the cold season in Lebanon, there is still snow in the mountains. In the day the women pile the pallets up on each other, fold all the blankets and pile them up too, and the tent becomes a living area, at night all the pallets are placed on the floor, and it becomes one big bedroom. Our son showed us photo's of the food packages they deliver to the refugees, they are made up of Rice, Beans, lentils, cooking oil, caned vegetables, can chicken and surprisingly ham, they put in there too shampoo, bar soap, detergent for washing clothes and toilet paper. This food must last a tent two weeks, the tents have as many as 16 to 20 people, or as little as 12, the parents of many of the children are dead, killed in the civil war. The tents can be by tribe, or by family, also some times it's just people from the same town. Now let me tell you about the bathrooms, the corp. of engineers come in with equipment and digs big holes, covers the top with concrete, and leaves a hole on top, and that my ladies is your toilet. You have to squat over the hole to do your business, if you have trouble squatting, your in trouble !!!! There is also no privacy, a sheet of corrugated steel covers you from view on one side, but it doesn't surround the hole in the ground, left open at one end. So I guess you have to be quick, do you business, and get out fast. So don't complain about your bathroom being to small, or you don't like the color of your toilet, because at least you have a seat to sit on, and door that closes. Many of these Syrian refugees had beautiful homes, good jobs at one time, before the Syrian army came in and bombed their houses, destroyed all they owned, and in all the families many of their loved ones were killed. My son said the children are clean, the girls hair combed, and even have bows and pretty little things in their hair. Many of them are Muslims, but are now coming to bible class, at the make shift churches. The Muslims do little for their own people, all of the food packages are done by the Christian churches in Lebanon and organizations from the states, 70 % of Lebanon are Christians and the rest are Muslims and a few other religions. My son was asked to speak to the children, he had a interpreter, so he told them the story of Noah and the Ark from the Bible, their Koran also tells of Noah, but my son said he told them, when the waters started to receded, and Noah found land, that God sent a Rainbow as a promise not to ever destroy the land by flood again. The children had never heard that part of the story, and had said they had seen rainbows before, than the children sang to my son, guess what they say, "Jesus Loves me" but in their own language, he said they were very sweet. He came home with hope for those people, especially those reaching out to find out more about Christianity. The people are friendly, kind and love Americans, they asked questions about America all the time they were there. In the city of Beirut, Lebanon, they have malls just like here at home, they have McDonald's, Burger King, Pizza Hut, Starbucks, also a Disney Store, and nice restaurants. They have a lot of cars in the city of Beirut, the traffic is terrible. I saw one photo of a motorcycle, it looked like it had a magic carpet on top of the seat, all this fringe hanging off of it, looked pretty, but funny too. One of the big attractions, brings hundreds of American to Beirut every year are the Roman ruins. All through the city you will see many ruins that once were homes and other buildings the Romans built hundreds of years ago. My son said that a thousand refugees come over the Syrian board every day, but they are still in danger from the Syrian army, the week before our son got to Lebanon, a Syrian Army helicopter come over the mountains and started shooting up some buildings, what for ??? who know's because they could ??? So no matter where you live, or what kind of home you live in, give thanks to the LORD, you don't live in Syria. Well friends I need to start my day, our daughter is coming down today, I am going to take her out to lunch and maybe do a little shopping. Our granddaughter, her daughter Brooke, is receiving a special award tonight at college, so we are going to go together. Have a good day everyone, Sully, in Beautiful California !!!