International Guardian Angels Outreach is a ministry that is dedicated to finding ways of helping as many orphans as it possibly can. This is the organization that brought Misha to America. It was started by George and Alexandra Goode.
The following story of Alexandra's life is mostly quoted and taken from a book written by her granddaughter, Caroline Hornok.
Alexandra and her twin brother Valoydsa were born in Russia on September 13, 1929. Three years later their mother Katherine died of tuberculosis. They had a brother, Igor who was ten years older. Their father George Maderash was a wealthy man who provided his family with the luxury of living on a large estate and in a beautiful mansion. He was connected to King Alexander and was an officer in the calvary unit and eventually advanced to being a general.Alexandra was schooled by governesses for the early portion of her life. At the age of nine she attended a Russian boarding school for girls supported by the Yugoslav government in Belacverka. Her brother Valoydsa attended a Russian military academy; Egor had previously graduated from one. In 1940 when returning to school, her father took her to the train station in Sarajevo to kiss her goodbye; this was the last time Alexandra saw her father. It was the eve of WWII. Alexandra's father and brothers were killed leaving her orphaned and alone.
Alexandra and ten other girls were sent to a Russian orphanage in Belgrade sometime between May 1941 and early 1942. Life was bleak and uncertain. Germany sought to suppress increasing Yugoslav resistance and launched several surges into Yugoslavia. The orphanage where Alexandra dwelled was seiged and the smaller children were sent to a death camp, the older ones, who were strong enough to work, went to Germany. April of 1944, at the age of fourteen, Alexandra and many others were carted on a train to the heart of Germany.
Many died during the 600 torturous miles of riding in cattle cars. Sporatically, the Germans would throw in a few rotten potatoes and watch the people scramble for them. They arrived in Dachau, a concentration camp with a long and evil history. After spending four months at Dachau digging graves, Alexandra was chosen to go to a labor camp in northern Germany on the Island of Rugen.
The labor at Rugen consisted of unloading coal in the ship docks, making bricks for the adobe houses for the German Army families, laying an airstrip, and gathering potatoes and cabbages from the fields. The rations were minimal--a cup of thin soup with peas, potatoes, and weevils, and maybe a piece of bread. The adverage temperature during the winter on Rugen stood around 32 degrees--quite cold when one is wearing rags. Also, on Rugen they carried out the imfamous medical experiments. Alexandra was given a series of injections, some resulting in boils all over her body, severe stomach pains, terrrible colds, sore throats, and vomiting. Her tonsils were ripped out of her mouth without any kind of anesthesia; several inmates, after having their tonsils removed, bled to death.
One night Alexandra, barely fifteen, wept quietly on her metal triple-bunk. She was questioning everything she knew or had been taught, using her young brain to ponder even the deepest metaphysical and epistemological questions: Who is God? What is man? Who am I? Why am I here? What is real? What seemed most real were the guns of the Germans and their harrowing medical injections. The pain was real. Sin was real. Was God real and did He care? Her mind was troubled and afraid. She wept to God saying, "If You are real and if You love me, take my life." He took her life--every inch and cell. Alexandra asked for physical death, and instead she was given spiritual life. Her soul pierced the veil separating herself from God. She felt unmitigated hope and joy, and her hate-filled heart was satiated with love.
Alexandra started telling all the girls of her hope, encouraging them--they thought she was mad. Her mind turned toward thoughts of escape. She had spent thirteen months in these German prisons. One night, with a round and brillant moon, she and nine other girls crawled out of their hellish infirmary. As they passed the gate, a German soldier stood with a beastly German shepherd. Unbelievably, the guard turned his face from the escapees, and the dog remained mute.
They rushed to the train station--trains were the only method of leaving this island. They hid on a train car during the black night. They had no idea where the train was going, but it was going away from Rugen, which is what mattered. After approximately twelve hours, the train stopped. One of the girls, swept by curiosity, swung open the wide door to count the cars. Hundreds of German soldiers were spilling out to the other cars, and one motioned anxiously for the girl to follow. Alexandra was struck with terror--there was no escape from these Germans. The German soldier's face pleaded with them to leave the train and flee swiftly. By some strange logic, all the girls ran along with the soldiers into the wooded area. Very shortly after, the train exploded. The Germans were scuttling their abandoned train.
Alexandra and the girls were sprinting into a battle zone. The Royal Air Force was dropping bombs overhead, and many were injured or killed. Alexandra herself received a wound to her back from the shrapnel, but none of the ten were killed. These ten frail orphans spent the night hiding and fleeing, trusting no uniform. When morning rose, the British soldiers flushed out the forest toward the town of Lubeck. Alexandra and her fellow escapees walked out of the woods with their arms raised in surrender to the Brits. The British separated the former prisoners from the hundreds of German Soldiers. Lubeck had fallen, and the day was May 3, 1945.
Alexandra was declared stateless and placed in an Allied-run DP camp. Friends she met in this camp had immigrated to United States and had asked their Russian Orthodox Church in New Jersey to sponsor their immigration. At nineteen she boarded a ship that lead her to Ellis Island on September 19, 1948 and she eventually became a United States citizen. She graduated from the University of Tennessee Medical Technician School. After graduation she worked at a doctor's office and met George Goode, a handsome, young Navy officer, in January 1951. They were married that November.
George and Alexandra now live in Keller, Texas. She has three children and nineteen grandchildren, who fondly call her Babushka--the Russian name for "grandmother." She and George founded IGAO in 1999, mainly facilitating the adoption by Christian families of children from orphanages in Penza, Russia. Their first adoption was two of their own grandchildren. Another part of their ministry is to bring handicapped children to the United States and having prosthesis or surgery conducted on special needs Russian orphans. Over two hundred children have been adopted through their agency so far.
You can find out more about their organization by visiting http://www.igao.org/.
Like Corrie Ten Boom or Joseph in the Bible, Alexandra can say, "But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive."Genesis 50:20.
Alexandra, I'm sorry for all that you have suffered in your life! Yet, I'm thankful that God used your pain to prompt a sacrifice and love for the orphans of Russia and the world.
Thank you for bringing Misha into our lives.
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