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.

Charity or Justice or Both?

I love the intentional charitable choices Les and I make at Christmas. We give coats to a clothing closet so someone will have a warmer Christmas. We buy gifts for someone we know in need. We put together shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child. And because of my parents' Salvation Army background, I have trouble passing a kettle without dropping a little something inside. This year we added the alternative gifts for the family.

Giving to others in need reminds me of the real reason behind Christmas: Jesus came because we needed him. He gives to us and so, in his honor, we give to others.

Two articles in the latest PRISM magazine—the magazine published by Evangelicals for Social Action—reminded me, though, that giving isn't the only reason Jesus came. An arresting phrase turned up in the first article and then was the title (and subject) of the second: Charity is not justice.

Justice involves using the power you have to provide fair treatment for others, especially the most vulnerable. When Jesus announced his own mission in the synagogue, he used a passage from Isaiah that says:

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,

because he has anointed me 

to proclaim good news to the poor. 

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners 

and recovery of sight for the blind, 

to set the oppressed free, 

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

There are both acts of charity (giving sight to the blind) and of justice (freedom for the prisoners, setting the oppressed free) spoken of in those verses. When God, through Micah told the people what true religion was he said it was "to act justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God." To truly follow God, I cannot just "do charity." I must also "act justly."

I always say that I want the spirit of Christmas to be evident in my life all year long, and so I try to ensure that I continue to do acts of charity. But how committed am I to acting justly? And to doing my part to require those holding the reins of power—governments or corporations—to act justly?

That's harder, and to be honest, it doesn't usually supply the warm, fuzzy feeling that my charitable giving does. It often means slogging along for the long haul. It might mean writing e-mails or letters, making phone calls, choosing inconvenient shopping options, recruiting others to do the same. It can take years of work (think about the calls to end apartheid). I may never meet the "recipient" of my act of justice; they may never even know that anyone acted on their behalf. But it is still the will of God for me.

So I'm thinking. How will I "act justly" this year? What will I commit to? I can sign petitions through change.org or send an e-mail through bread.org when an important vote is on the table. Will I take the second step to make a phone call to a politician to make my voice heard? Will I use the power I do have—my money—and write a corporation and then choose not to buy their product or shop at their store when I hear of unjust practices, not just for a week or two until it gets inconvenient, but until they change? Will I regularly pray for justice to become the norm and listen to God's voice telling me where I need to work to implement it?

I hope I will consciously choose to support justice, to remember that charity is not justice, and that God desires both. How will you join me in the quest for justice in 2011?

Gifts That Give Hope

This year the adults in our family are giving alternative gifts for Christmas. To make it more meaningful, we are choosing a charitable gift that somehow represents the person the gift honors. It’s been fun trying to figure out what to give that says, “I understand what matters to you.”


And sometimes it's just frustrating. I chose one gift for a certain relative (no specifics since some of the family occasionally check out this blog) that seemed perfect. I couldn't figure out how to make the targeted donation I wanted on the website, so I called the charity. I explained what I wanted. The pleasant young woman who answered said she would figure out how to designate the specific project; however, in order to make such a donation, the minimum amount was almost twice what I had planned to give. Since it was a charity donation (not just some overpriced knickknack), I decided to bite the bullet and make the donation. 


Relieved I went to run some errands. When I returned home, there was a message from the charity chick, asking me to call her back. Of course, by the time I was able to do so, she wasn't there. I got another lovely representative of the charity. She read the first's notations and explained that I could only donate to the project, not a specific person. I assured her that was fine. She promised to process it and send a gift card I could give.


A few minutes later the phone rang again. It was the lovely woman, who had now talked personally to the charity chick. Apparently unless I was a monthly supporter, I could not donate to a specific project in a specific country. Of course, if I was a corporation doing a major gift (say, a minimum of $1500) they would have found some way to process it (yes, they told me this). Needless to say, that wasn't happening. I could donate to a generic pool that would go to some project similar to the one I wanted, somewhere in the world. It was possible it might even go to the project I wanted. Frustrated now, and realizing I could make that donation online in the original amount, I told her I would make a decision and take care of it online if I decided to go for it.


All that frustration and no further toward the gift. ARGHH!


Do you want to give a meaningful gift with no frustration? Back in September, I had Jennifer Knepper guest blog about the Gifts That Give Hope Alternative Gift Fair. Even though the one-day fair is over, you can order online through December 17. You can easily and simply choose one of 90 gifts in support of one of 30 organizations. Your gift will give hope for years to come. (And you won't be frustrated at all!)

A Little Child Shall Lead Them (to Compassion)

We opened our Christmas presents from Joy while we were together in Williamsburg at Thanksgiving. Both Les and Ashlee got flannel jammy pants (I already had some). Earlier this week I bought us all new slippers with my $10 coupons for a couple of stores. It's been so cold here this week, we've all changed into cozy pants and slippers as soon as possible each evening.

When I am cozy, I love curling up with a book. (It's why I don't have an e-reader yet; it doesn't seem curl-up-able.) Books make me forget the cold. They take me off to another world, transporting me to someplace fun, warm or at least interesting. I get to live someone else's life for a few hours. And I learn so much. (I'll never forget learning from one of Gilbert Morris's fiction books that West Virginia came into being during the Civil War, when the western counties of Virginia refused to secede from the Union.)

Alyssa Deraco knows what I'm talking about. A 12-year-old who loves to read, she feels books can help us forget our troubles and she wanted to share that experience with others. So she started Alyssa's Bedtime Stories, to collect kids' books, uses and new, to donate to kids living in shelters who could use something to help them forget how difficult life can be. Worried that they have no "cozy pants," she decided to bundle the books with a pair of pajamas.

She and a few friends choose the pjs and appropriate books for each child, wrap the presents, handwrite the personalized cards, and deliver the gifts so they can meet the recipients. This year their handing out 124 pairs of pjs and over 300 books. Want to know more? Read the newspaper article about Alyssa.  Donations are always appreciated, whether of books or pjs or money to buy them.

Or you could just allow Alyssa to lead you toward your own unique service. What makes you cozy? What helps you relax and forget your troubles? Maybe it's a hot cocoa and a family game night. Can you invite another family or a widow over to join you? (Don't forget to tell them to bring their slippers.) Maybe it's soothing music or a warm bath. No, don't invite someone over for a bath. But you could put together a gift basket with bath salts or bubble bath, a CD and a beverage for a single mom and give it with a voucher offering to take her kids out for a few hours so she can indulge.

The point is to share with someone in need something that nourishes you. What will it be?

Back to the Everyday Whining

Okay, Thanksgiving and the parades, football and overeating are finished for most of us. Now we're in Christmas shlepping, I mean shopping, mode. And that leads to whining when the store is out of stock on the sale item you drove there especially for. Or sarcasm when the salesperson is less than interested in helping you. Or complaining when the crowds push you around.

To combat the ho-hums that have already begun to replace the ho-ho-hos, let's take a moment to list 5 things we're grateful for. I know Thanksgiving is over, but gratitude isn't just a Thanksgiving tradition. It's a daily exercise that lifts our spirits and reminds us of all the good things God has provided us with.

Be creative and list things other than your family, your relationship with God and your house and food. Here are 5 items off the top of my heart:

1. Books, and the ability to read them
2. Laughter, because it makes life bearable
3. Scones, especially with clotted cream
4. Climate control, in houses and cars (not too hot, not too cold, just right)
5. Socks, in a glorious array of colors and patterns

Put 5 things you're grateful for today in the comments section. Or at least name them to yourself, and maybe make naming 5 things a part of every day this Advent season. It may just change your attitude about the whole season of giving.