When Is an Orphan Not an Orphan?

When it's an orphaned sock might be one answer. I mean, seriously, unless you have a dog or cat that grabs your socks out of the laundry basket and drags them outside, your sock probably has a mate somewhere in the house. It's just that after a cursory look you give up and, voila, an orphaned sock it is.

Reading Conor Grennan's new book, Little Princes, enlightened me that this principle holds true in the world of human orphans as well. Grennan decided to spend two months volunteering at an orphanage in Nepal, mainly because it made girls in bars get all misty-eyed when he talked about it and made his planned yearlong trip around the world sound less self-indulgent.

The children—16 boys and 2 girls—of Little Princes Children's Home outside of Kathmandu innocently welcomed Grennan in and then stole his heart. Grennan returns to Little Princes after his year of travel and in 2006 founded Next Generation Nepal. What led him to begin a new nonprofit? The discovery that most of the orphans he was encountering in Nepal were not technically orphans. 

 Child traffickers preyed on remote villagers who feared the Maoist rebels in the civil war would force their children to become fighters. For a large sum, they offered to take children to Kathmandu and provide them with an education in safety. Parents sold much of their belongings to raise the money to "rescue" their children. Unfortunately, the traffickers dumped the kids in illegal orphanages (which often took money from international donors to care for the children but pocketed the money and starved the kids) or sold them into slavery.

Grennan met many children from the remote Humla region and made it his mission to reunite children with their parents. He and another volunteer established another orphanage to care for children in transition. And then Grennan began taking treks into the dangerous and remote areas to find the parents of his kids. Sharing photos and letters allowed him to see families reconnect and, where possible, reunite. Next Generation Nepal carries on his legacy, and you can help them do so.

A portion of the purchase price of Little Princes will be donated to Next Generation Nepal. But that's not the main reason to buy it. It's a great read. Grennan's story is engaging, written in a style that pulls you in, rooting for his success, or his life. If you liked Three Cups of Tea, you'll love Little Princes. Or if you like extreme adventure books, this one will get your blood pumping. Pick it up. Read a few pages. You'll be hooked.

And an orphan who isn't an orphan may get the opportunity to be in his or her family after all.

Peace Thoughts with Shane Claiborne

Earlier this month my friend Mandy and I went to hear Shane Claiborne speak in Lancaster. We planned to get there early, figuring the place would fill up. Even with my I-know-exactly-where-this-church-is arrogance that got us lost, we were there a half an hour before the event started. The auditorium was already packed. As we squeezed in the side door with those who would begin to line the walls, people in the third row shifted closer together, opening up two seats. We snagged them (really, I felt justified; my autoimmune disease would never have allowed me to stand for the whole time).

By the time Shane got up to speak, people were seated all over the floor on the platform and in three auxiliary rooms. Shane is a cofounder of The Simple Way community in Philadelphia, people who are trying to live for Jesus by living in community and loving their neighbors. Mandy had read his book Jesus for President, and I had written a review of the Simply Enough DVD he did with Tony Campolo, so we were eager to hear him in person.



Shane was gracious, and funny, and unassuming. I appreciated much of what he had to say and the gracious way he treated people during the Q&A (and the way he plopped down on the floor to sit with everyone else during the offering). It's always good to be reminded of how radical our Savior was and to remember that cozy Christianity is much more a product of an American lifestyle than it is of living out the Scriptures.

The evening was sponsored by the Lancaster Coalition for Peace and Justice and a group called Taxes for Peace (which wants you to underpay your income taxes by $10.40 and attach a letter explaining you oppose your tax dollars being used for war). So I guess I should have been ready for the heavy questions on opposition to war. I really wasn't.

After a question about pacifism and if any war was just, Shane replied, "A 'just war' is just war." He made it clear that he is opposed to all war, and said that when Jesus disarmed Peter in the garden (after cutting off the servant's ear) he disarmed us all. I have trouble agreeing with that.

I tend to be more of the "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing" camp. (By the way, the quote is variously attributed to Edmund Burke and to the English translation of Tolstoy's War and Peace.) I don't believe every war is just. In fact, I don't believe most war is just. But I am unable to believe that when innocents are suffering and being slaughtered, I am to do nothing or only work underground to save what lives I can. Is it not justice to bring to an end systemic injustice?

I usually end these posts with a social action idea. Today your action is to think, to grapple with the concept of peace, of war. Are any wars just? I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments section. Your musing just might help me, and others.

Remember the Orphans

Les laughs at me for anthropomorphizing just about everything—the poor dinner plate at the bottom of the stack that never gets used, the soft soap bottle we're trying to throw away (I called her Dee Spencer), always my laptop. Now I'm doing it with my blog.

I imagine it feeling orphaned. After all, I haven't posted since the day after Christmas. I haven't totally forgotten about it. In fact, I've spent the time reading books about social marketing and blogging. That has led in part to the paralysis of analysis. All the instructions are so overwhelming; I don't think I can do it "right," so I've done nothing.

I've felt guilty about it. I know I should be blogging. But I am tired. Life is busy. I'm distracted by problems  (and pleasures) in my own life. Tomorrow, I say, tomorrow I will blog. Tomorrow comes and goes, and no blog gets written yet again. My blog is orphaned.

When it comes to orphaned children, I often respond the same way I felt about my blog. I get busy, or I feel overwhelmed. It's not that I've forgotten that there are millions of orphans in the world. In November I went to the Mid-Atlantic Orphan Summit and heard many outstanding speakers talk about the plight of orphans here and abroad.

One of the keynote speakers was Tom Davis, CEO of Children's HopeChest, which helps 10,000 orphans in Russia, Swaziland, Ethiopia, and Uganda. I bought two books Davis wrote. Scared is the fictional story of Stuart, a photojournalist, who gets wrapped up with Adanna, an orphan in Swaziland. Davis hauntingly captures both Stuart's ambivalence and helplessness and Adanna's dreams and resignation. Scared places you in the middle of the orphan crisis and helps you think through your own response.

Davis's nonfiction Fields of the Fatherless talks of God's heart for the orphan and gives us ideas on what we can do to help. It gives us the analysis, but then shows us how to move beyond our own paralysis.

I don't need to anthropomorphize orphans. They're already humans, beloved children of God. I also don't need to feel guilty, and I don't need to be paralyzed. I simply need act, just like I took care of my orphaned blog by writing this post. You can do something too. Visit the Engage page at Children's HopeChest to find out what you can do in 5 minutes (pray!) or with $5 (feed a child 50 meals). Then do something (maybe read one of Davis's books). The orphans are waiting.