A Heartwarming Christmas Story II - December 2000 (Jan 2, 2001)

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TiM GW Bulletin 2001/1-1

Jan. 2, 2001

From Moscow and San Francisco...

A Heartwarming Christmas Story II - December 2000

Bringing Christmas Cheer to Orphaned Children

PHOENIX, Jan. 2 - Happy New Year to all TiM readers around the world! Amid all the hatred fueling violence and wars at various global flashpoints, we decided to start the New Millennium with two uplifting stories intended to warm human hearts and encourage doubting minds.

But first, so as to put these little pieces in a proper context, and to understand why this writer no longer buys Christmas present for his family, you need to read the Item 8, "A Heartwarming “Christmas Story”, in the TiM Bulletin 2000-10-5.

Following the publication of that article, several TiM readers wrote back to us inquiring how they could also send donations to Russia for the Christmas 2000. We told them that our original contact in St. Petersburg has now married the Russian doctor she met and fell in love with on her earlier trip, and that the happy couple have moved to the U.S. We promised to try to establish new trustworthy contacts, perhaps in the Moscow area.

Eventually we did. One TiM reader from Ohio also joined this writer in making a donation to an orphanage in southwest Moscow. What follows is our Christmas 2000 heartwarming story, datelined Moscow, Russia, Dec. 20, 2000:

“Tanya (a 25 year-old American) called me from Moscow last night (Dec. 20) to report back on what she had done with my Christmas donation. She and her Russian friend from work, a 28-year old woman by the name Oxana, had been scouring Moscow through their mutual friends to find a suitable, uncorrupted orphanage to which to donate my money. Finally they did, and last week, the lady-director who runs it (Irina Vasilyevna) gave them the "shopping list" of her needs for the abandoned or orphaned kids that she and the staff take care of.

So in addition to my money, that of a TiM reader from Ohio, and some of their own, the two girls organized a donation drive of used clothes and toys among the company staff in Moscow. Plus Oxana's roommate is a famous rock star in Russia. So he and his band collected all the toys the teenyboppers throw on stage during their concerts, and bundled it together into a big bale.

As it turned out, Tanya's boss at work called a meeting the same day for 4PM yesterday afternoon, the time she and Oxana had planned to go shopping, and then take the all goods to the orphanage, which is a long way away in a southwest suburb of Moscow.

"Too bad," Tanya shrugged it off. "I am not staying. I'll just tell him tomorrow that we have been planning this for a long time. He probably won't understand the point of what we're doing, but that's too bad. For him."

And so the two of them took off, joined by Olya, an old friend of Tanya's, a lady in her 50s who has virtually become Tanya's “Russian Mom.” They spent two hours shopping - buying toys, clothes for small kids, blankets, paper towels, napkins... whatever one needs to run an orphanage for kids 3-16 years of age. Then they spent about an hour and a half driving (in Tanya's car), to the orphanage. By the time they made it there, it was about 8PM.

Most of the 35 orphanage kids are the victims of their parents’ abuses. Who are the victims of western "reforms." The rest of her story is too moving for words.

"Everybody cried when we arrived with all our gifts," Tanya said. The staff cried for joy that someone cared. The three gift-bearers cried because they felt privileged to be deliverers of joy to a place of misery. (And this writer’s eyes got moist, too, just now, while writing this).

"Everybody cried", that is, except for the children. Their eyes lit up when they the “gifts from America.” They were overjoyed. Happy. Exhilarated. They gave Dyed Moroz’s "three elves" an impromptu concert and an art show. The kids sang songs and made drawing for them to take back as "thank you" souvenirs (see the images posted at our web site).

Tanya, Oxana and Olya stayed playing and singing with them till after 10PM. It was past midnight by the time they made it back to their homes in central Moscow.

"You know the best part about this orphanage," Tanya said enthusiastically afterward. "The kids change all the time. This is like a foster home for these orphans. Until they are placed with families who adopt them. Which means we can go back there and do the same thing all over again in two-three months for new kids."

Indeed. The worst thing about the Christmas gifts is that they arrive only once a year. Misery for the “NWO miserables,” on the other hand, is at the children’s doorstep all year.”

TiM Ed.: Upon Tanya’s arrival in the U.S. for the American Christmas holidays, she brought with her the thank you-letters by the director and the (unsigned) artwork by the children from that southwest Moscow orphanage. That’s how we are now able to share them with you, too.

So that's our little heartwarming Christmas 2000 story for you - to kick off the New Millennium.

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 28 - Our second Christmas 2000 heartwarming story came to us right after Christmas from the Bay Area. And it involves a CEO of a Fortune 500 company whom we shall identify only as “David.”

What is the image that forms in your head when you hear the term a “business tycoon?”

Well, perhaps some “business tycoons” are like that. But not our Bay Area David. Here’s what he wrote to this writer on Dec. 28, upon having read my “Heartwarming Christmas Story” from three years ago:

“Bob, got your Christmas message regarding the orphanage. It touched me so much that I had the kids take a donation to a local orphanage on Christmas Eve. It sure makes the world seem small when you realize how fortunate we are, and how many people do not have the things that made our lives easier.

“David, this was the nicest message I got this Christmas season. God bless you for doing it! Enclosed below is a Christmas 2000 update to my original "Uplifting Christmas Story".” (the Item 1 of this TiM Bulletin).

“Bob, your story was better because it made me do something besides money donations. Thanks for the kick in the pants.”