Dear Pastor,

As a fellow man of God, I am coming to you for some help as we know the whole world is in a recession. People are not only losing their jobs, but also their houses and taking their own lives.

Things got hard for my wife and I so we took our nine and 10-year-old sons to live with their grandmother deep in the country. That is my wife's mother. While we were there my wife asked if we could stay two more weeks just to make sure that our sons get adjusted to the place, which they did in two weeks.

Three days before we left to come back to the States, a young woman and her two sons who are just the same ages as our boys moved into the other part of the long board house. My mother-in-law is on one side and this woman has the other side.

barefooted

The woman is from another part of the countryside. On the second day after they moved in, I noticed that the lady sent her boys to school barefooted. On the third day when we were leaving, my sons asked if they could go to school barefooted too. My wife and I told them no. This took place in September 2008.

In January of this year I decided to go there to see how they were doing. I noticed that when they were coming from school they were barefooted like the neighbour's boys. Before I could ask them where their shoes were, my mother-in-law begged me not to say anything to them.

Well, when it was time for bed my nine-year-old took off all his clothes and get in the bed totally naked. His brother went half naked. He only had on an old uniform shirt which had no buttons on it. In the morning, both of my sons and the lady's sons walk about the yard totally naked until it was time for them to go to school. I had a talk with my mother-in-law and she said that they are boys, just leave them alone. They are happy she said, which is true and they are doing well in school. This is country my wife said and her mother said the same thing. It is still hard for us to have them now. If it wasn't, I would have taken them back. She said her mother would die if we take our sons from her. My mother-in-law is the only one we have as relative.

What do you think I should do? Should I leave them to run about the countryside naked all day for the rest of their lives or bring them back home although it would make things much harder for us?

G.S., New York, USA

Dear G.S.,

Your wife and yourself are not able to support your sons very well at the moment. That's why you took them to live with their grandmother.

She is happy to have them and the boys are doing well. They love the country life. Their friends are going to school barefooted and they don't want to be different, so they are attending school barefooted too. Grandma is not against that.

anything wrong

You were shocked to see the way they dressed to go to bed. That's not what they were used to while they were with you. But, again, grandma does not see anything wrong with that.

She knows that they will change when they grow older. What she is interested in is that they are well fed and in good health and doing well in school.

So, my dear brother, you try and concentrate on getting back on your feet by getting a job and paying your bills, and leave the 'naked-skin' boys alone. When they feel cold, they will 'draw on' some clothes.

Pastor