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Often it amazes them that churches in America would need them,
but our experiences have been that American groups usually go
home feeling that they have received much more than they have
given.
We enter these new conversations with something to offer—a
partner, a relationship. Invariably, we too come home feeling
that we have brought back more than we took. So often we receive
the gift of new insight as we look at familiar ideas from a new
point of view. It challenges us, refreshes us, restores us.
A trip to Kasimov with the puppet and drama theater gave me new
insights. Up at 5:00 a.m., we were on the road by 6:00 for the
three-hour drive across the oblast to the 850-year-old
city. The van was loaded with the boxes and bags containing their
portable theater, as well as a cast that ranged in age from 10
to 50. It was a long hard day for this group with four performances—setting
up, performing, taking down, setting up, performing. It was all
done with swiftness, coordination, and cheer, each performance
a slightly different combination of their current repertoire.
It was the third performance that stood our particularly. The
other three were at dietsky sads (Russian pre-schools)—an
easy audience in many ways. This third performance was at an internat
(an orphanage school). Quite a different audience, these were
8-13 year olds with the hard shell that so often comes with neglect
and lost childhood. You could see it in their faces—a hardness
to push away an ache that might otherwise crumble them.
As the crew set up the theater, they let music drift out into
the hallways. I watched as young people began popping their heads
in, trying to mask their curiosity. My first impression was that
they were going to be a tough audience. By the time the theater
was ready, though, the children were hauling chairs in and jockeying
for as close a position as their pride would allow. As the program
began, more came. They were entranced, entranced by a Christmas
story told from a very human perspective.
The play included the character of an impish boy who reminded
me a lot of the kids that were his audience. He was hard and indifferent,
but also mischievous and spiteful—spiteful to the point of
leading the Wise Men astray. At the end of the story, though,
Mary reaches out to him. Putting her arm around him, she invites
him in to the celebration of Christ's birth—celebration with
the shepherds, the Wise Men and Mary and Joseph. In that moment
of acceptance, in that invitation to be part of something, the
boy was transformed.
It was a poignant reminder for me. How often have I seen that
outsider lurking just beyond the group? How often have I been
that outsider? I have seen that transformation. I have felt that
transformation. How often do I remember to invite them in? Lord,
may I remember and then may I reach out, just as this Mary did.
Christ came for just such as these.
There was another message for me from this performance. This
drama theater group has a budget of about $50 a year. Barely enough
to scrounge together costumes and props. Funds for travelling
are yet another matter. The performance was the gift, a belated
Christmas present. Humbling for me as an American was that this
was utterly and completely enough. The children did not grumble
away wondering where their present was. They simply wanted the
theater group to come again. The simple gift had been just right,
a gift of time, love, understanding and attention. I kept thinking
of how it would have been if the drama troupe had been Americans.
There would have been an abundance of treats. Would it have added
to the message of the play? No. It brings me back to the importance
of relationship building in the Twinning Project, a theme that
I often come back to. Our Russian partners are grateful for the
material support they receive from America, but they understand,
perhaps better than we do, the importance of the long-term relationship
we are trying to offer. It is that time, love, understanding and
attention that they offer and that they seek. Don't we all? What
does it mean to belong to the Body of Christ? That is the question
that lies at the heart of the Twinning Project.
As usual, I have rambled on. Please know how grateful we are
for your letters and your prayers. It is always a bright spot
in our day when we hear from you and we are glad for your questions.
They make us think about what we are about. You are often in our
thoughts and prayers.
Peace and blessings,
Ellen & Al
The 2003 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, page
94
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