Former Russian Orphan Comes ‘Full Circle’ to Help Others

By Jenny Pope
Buckner News Service

(DALLAS, Texas) — Dima Leinweber knows the importance of a new pair of shoes. As a former resident of Orphanage No. 2 in St. Petersburg, Russia, he remembers the feeling he had when an American volunteer gave him a new pair of shoes during Vacation Bible School one summer.

“I was excited,” the 16-year-old said. “Because when we got new shoes [at the orphanage], they weren’t usually new. They were just old shoes.”

Now, more than four years later, Dima steadily loads pallets of shoes for international shipment alongside his friends at the Buckner Center for Humanitarian Aid in Dallas. Though his work is part of required service hours through his membership with the Young Men’s Service League, he feels a special connection to the organization that once made an impact on his life.

“I’m here to stack boxes to help out the little kids who don’t have shoes,” he said. “It’s kind of fun, because they used to do it for me and now I get to do it for them. It’s more than just giving them shoes, something that fits them. It shows that somebody cares about them and loves them, you know? Simple stuff.”

Dima was adopted by Tabetha and Fred Leinweber of Richardson, Texas after staying with them for two weeks during Buckner’s Angels from Abroad program in 2005, an orphan host program which brings Russian orphans to the United States to raise awareness about adopting older children.

“We thought we wanted to adopt an infant,” Tabetha said, “but after we started the adoption paperwork, God really started speaking to us.” They decided to adopt then 12-year-old Dima only a few months after he stayed in their home.

Tabetha said volunteering with her son at Shoes for Orphan Souls was a “full-circle” experience. “My son was a benefactor of shoes coming from Buckner, and it’s coming back around now, full circle, that he can help out and send shoes, possibly to Russia, and help others.”

Oftentimes, children living in orphanages own very few personal possessions and shoes can be the only item that’s singularly theirs, Tabetha said.

“Dima would tell me, ‘Mom, everything I owned I would sleep with under my pillow,’ A pair of shoes to these kids meant so much.”

If you’d like to learn more about volunteering at the Buckner Center for Humanitarian Aid, or if you’d like to donate a new pair of shoes, please visit www.ShoesforOrphanSouls.org or call 1-866-774-SHOE.