More thoughts from Pat...

In several weeks we will start the holiday season. A thursday in November nominally set aside to give thanks for whatever opens the season followed by lots of frantic shopping leading to Christmas and ending with a healthy dose of overindulgence at new years. All of this will be spiced with repeated admonition and commentary about the true meaning of the holidays and how it all seems lost in the frantic pace of our lives. (I just try to stay awake past 10 anymore. Everything changes though. I don't pass the kids, home for break, at 530 going to bed as I get up anymore. Even they are getting to  bed earlier, say 3 am)

But I digress...take today's story for what it is: I am not joining the chorus denouncing or criticizing American holiday behavior early or at all. Consider this an early gift.

All of the children here, about 40, have a sponsor in our church. Sponsors write and occasionally send gifts, and probably money also.  We send a team annually to visit and engage these kids: that's what Nick and I and the other 7 are doing here. One part of the visit is to deliver a small package of gifts from each sponsor to their child. The package contents probably cost less than 10$. Items included are socks, stickers, paper, pencils and the like. ( none of this would pass muster even as stocking stuffers in any but the poorest American homes.)  This package also includes a personalized letter to the child. We have 6 translators with us who handle the language issues and rewrite these letters in Russian. ( so far I've learned "thank you" but I've taught "awesome", "cool", "groovy", and "whaaaatsssup".  Wonder if I'll get invited back)

With that backdrop I want to share some of my observations when we handed them out this evening.

The first child received a spiderman toothbrush. It was the hit of his group. Everyone played with it  The little girl behind him also received a toothbrush, though a plain one. She pawed over it with the same affection as the first child. Imagine a 10 year old gleeful with a new toothbrush. Another child received a collection of stickers, and immediately began to distribute them among all of us( I am giraffe. Nick was special as he received two). Yet another received a sketch pad and was jiggly with delight  Each of them received a different collection as there was no packing list, just general guidelines. The one Yo-Yo was a big hit as were the various small bottles of shampoo and so on. In addition to the pure joy at simple gifts, though, there was absolutely no territorialism. The yo-yo went from hand to hand to hand without complaint by the owner. Kids looked through each others stacks unabated yet no one voiced any comment about someone else looking at and sorting through their stuff.

Amazingly though, the stuff was not the prize in the crackerjacks box. Without fail, the most valuable component was always the letter from the sponsor. There were many letters to translate and not all got done at the beginning. One child, who's letter remained untranslated when we started asked to open his English letter just so he could hold the envelope with his name on it while the translator worked.

Why? My friend Stephanie put it best when she noted that to these kids that letter means there is an adult or a family somewhere that cares about this child. That knowledge means more than all the "gold" packed in the sponsor packages. Somebody cares. Somebody somewhere knows them.

I suppose we all know that simple gifts are best and that being loved is everywhere better than being rich or famous or beautiful. As I noted, we hear these admonitions regularly this time of year. I simply want you to know that there are children in the world who's eyes light up at a new toothbrush but who's life lights up at a kind word someone took time to send. It may be true everywhere but it's pure joy to see at this elemental level.

Think about these stories the next 6 weeks and, by the way, Merry Christmas.

Pat