Even so, your point about relationships being the key to moving beyond the barriers is great. I’m gonna stick that one under my hat and ponder on it awhile.

Our friend from South American, Claudio Oliver, suggested that “poor” is a relational condition more than an economic one. People who are poor have no friends, and therefore they have nobody to help when things go bad. He suggested that we intentionally befriend the poor, like your parents perhaps did (I’m reading into your story a little). When you know someone, you cannot allow them to starve or go without shelter. You help them find work. You offer yourself as a servant to them. This is indeed costly, but if we all did this with just one person it seems like poverty would be a thing of the past (certainly here in America, but perhaps even in the most impoverished countries).