Can you imagine?
Hey Hey! Every time Jenya travels to Russia, I go with her in my heart and mind, as would any spouse, I'm sure. By phone, email and Skype I vicariously visit with family in Moscow and travel to the regions where we come face to face with the young people we serve. Once in a while I get to go in person, but mostly I just have to use my imagination.
When you imagine orphans, where do you imagine them? What do you imagine them doing? What kind of people do you imagine them to be?
I hope you'll forgive me this trick question. Wikipedia provides all the answers we need.
In the 'purely imagined' category, we have Little Orphan Annie, Cinderella, David Copperfield, Dorothy (of Kansas), Harry Potter, Heathcliff (of Wuthering Heights, I'm not so sure about the cat), Heidi, James Bond, James (of the Giant Peach), Jane Eyre, Mowgli (The Jungle Book), Oliver Twist, Pip (Great Expectations), Pollyanna, Punky Brewster, Snow White, Tom Jones, Tom Sawyer and Tarzan. Why, even in just in the superhero subcategory we have Batman (and Robin), Superman, and Spiderman. The market's cornered! Oh, and on this auspicious week let's not forget young Master Frodo.
Among the elite who themselves, without parents, informed our own collective imaginations, we find great authors like Keats, Poe, Tolkien and (to make a long story short) Russia's own Tolstoy.
Louis Armstrong, J. S. Bach, Ray Charles, Ella Fitzgerald, James Hetfield, Faith Hill, BIlly Holiday, John Lennon, and Tina Turner are in the list of imaginative musicians without folks.
Hollywood couldn't be imagined without Ingrid Bergman, Carol Burnett, Samuel Goldwyn, Ice-T, Frances McDormand, Marilyn Monroe and Barbara Stanwyck.
Scott Hamilton, Jim Thorpe and Babe Ruth are among the most famous athletes, and they could only imagine a dad to play catch with.
Scientists such as George Washington Carver and Johannes Kepler changed the world and helped us imagine and understand the physical universe.
Arthur Anderson, L. L. Bean, Steve Jobs, Tom Monaghan, Vidal Sassoon and Dave Thomas of Wendy's imagined new businesses.
Alexander Hamilton, Herbert Hoover and Andrew Jackson here in America, Ivan IV (though oh so terrible) of Russia, Benito Juarez of Mexico and Nelson Mandela of South Africa imagined the futures of their nations (and Eleanor Roosevelt was the woman behind the man :)
Why, James West was the first Chief Scout Executive of the Boy Scouts of America, and he, too, was raised in an orphanage.
(Speaking of Scouts... In the brilliant film, Moonrise Kingdom, Suzy (an avid reader) says to Sam, (an orphan and a scout) "I always wished I was an orphan. Most of my favorite characters are. I think your lives are more special." Sam pauses and responds simply, "I love you but you don't know what you're talking about.")
Moses was placed in a basket as an infant only to lead the Exodus out of Egypt and receive the 10 commandments. And let's not forget good ol' Saint Nicholas was an orphan with a well developed passion for gift giving.
It's quite a list to work with! Why not give a different kind of gift this Christmas, by imagining what these precious young Russian Orphans might one day be, rather than what they're not, and then in the new year, resolve to see what we might do to help them get there? That's what Jenya and George, with the help of Cindy and now Rebecca and Shawn and Pastor John along with our wonderful board and of course all the Russian staff do every year, and it's a gift that keeps on giving as we continually see these kids grow into all manner of wonderful people.
And those are MY favorite characters and stories. Those wonderful tales of these kids who Jenya first met years ago as small children with only sad stories and a place in an institution to call their own. When through the hard work and dedication of these wonderful people they turn into fine young people with a real place in this world, hope in their eyes, and maybe even Christ in their hearts, well, then I imagine their stories are off to a good start and only just beginning.
Thanks,
Kerry J Haps