The United Methodist minister models his ministry on the parable of the good Samaritan — a stranger who helps a traveler in crisis and practices kindness, often without mentioning religion. Cook says he gets a lot of practice in these days of inflexible airline rules. He often pays a traveler's $150 change fee from his chaplain's budget or his own wallet.…

These are the easy fixes, Cook says. The harder ones involve the runaways, the abused women and the people who end up at the airport with nowhere else to go.

"It's literally the last stop," he says. "And then they end up in the atrium, which is right out front of our chapel. And they don't really know what to do next. They don't know where to turn."…

"Your heart goes out, and sometimes you can't do anything," he says, adding that it's tough leaving people at the end of the day, knowing their problems will still be there tomorrow. "It's not always a quick fix. It's not always a little solution."