Greater Grace:
Rescuing Russian Orphans
Continued from Page 50
public school as well as training in a trade school.
This probably sounds just normal, but at this time
the children who are orphans do not attend outside
schools. Attending a school outside of the home/
orphanage will help the children to be a real part of
their communities.
We are working with church leaders, government
officials, and concerned citizens of Russia. With the
political conflict between our governments it is easy
to write the entire populace off as “the opposition.”
But, I can assure you, they are not our enemies.
The Russian people are beautiful, sharing, compassionate, and yes patriotic just as we are. They
have a wonderful culture, a rich history, incredible
artists, writers, athletes, and musicians. They love
freedom, but can hardly relate to freedom as we do
because they have never really tasted it the way we
have. Imagine living here in America and having our
entire government as well as the current way of life
completely thrown out the door, no employment,
no method of confirming or establishing ownership
of private property, no system of law and the whole
world expecting you to prosper in your new “freedom.” I am an eyewitness to this. I went to Russia
on mission trips and interacted with the people on
many levels. City people, with their fast paced life,
dependant on public transportation, lines forming
before dawn at the bread store, the formerly beautifully landscaped streets and boulevards neglected
and dirty, all waiting for the promised benefits of
this wonderful dream called “freedom.” Country
people, dependant on agriculture, accustomed to
communal farming, heavy handed delegation of
duty, ownership of a tiny plot of land and a small
“summer home” called a Dacha where each family raised their own food, often one family member
would work at a factory that built in the center of
the community such as a bottle making factory. But
the communal farm was now abandoned; the factory
only barely functioned because the materials needed
to make the bottles no longer arrived on time, if
ever. The employees did not receive any pay because
the government no longer owned the factory. Out
of desperation the government began to sell literally
everything, after all, this “privatization” is what the
West recommended for a successful economy. Well,
the new owners weren’t Westerners and the legal
system didn’t protect the workers, and the government didn’t have experience in taxation so they had
no way to fund any welfare assistance. It wasn’t long
before the people became desperate, the fledgling
government was made up entirely of people raised
under Communism, and though many were eager
for change, they were just learning to swim, so to
speak. Often it appeared they were drowning, and
anyone who tried to help would get overpowered and
go down with them. Since that awful time, change
has come; oil has begun to fill the government’s
empty coffers. President Putting has restored a sense
of dignity to the office which Yeltsin had tainted
with carelessness and fooli ͠