Hi Ng, "...in the way of..." is simply used here to introduce the specific type of assistance the person is offering. It is often used in similar ways, to limit the preceding statement to a particular thing or type of thing. Here are two more random examples from two popular dictionary websites: - His parents offered him little in the way of emotional support. - Latvia is a country without much in the way of natural resources. I hope this makes it clearer. Always remember that it limits the scope of the preceding statement or focuses it on certain things. So the person in your example isn't really offering "whatever" the other needs. In my examples, his parents may not "offer him little" in other ways (think financial, educational) and Latvia may have many things, just not natural resources. JM