Is this
By Rev. James May
Mission Work? I n the summer of 2001, I went to Russia as a short-term missionary working in orphanages to build beds for children to sleep on and tables and chairs for their meals.Those three months really changed who I am and caused me to ask,“What is mission work?”
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Rev. May baptizes an infant in West Africa.
The orphanage was run in conjunction with a drug rehab center. Many of the orphans were addicts and needed help and a home. Many had been abandoned by their mothers because their fathers disappeared—killed by the mafia, committing suicide, or simply abandoning the family.The mothers could not afford to feed their children, or bear to see their children waste away and slowly die before their eyes. Many of these mothers would take their children into a large crowd in the big city of St. Petersburg, and tell them to wait on the curb while they went into the store, and then never come back. Left to starve, these children would steal their daily bread. If they could not feed themselves that way, they would sniff industrial glue to get high and not feel the hunger pains. Other children, both boys and girls, would sell themselves to men in order to get money to eat. Many were so ashamed, they would try and kill themselves. I was not the only “missionary” helping out.There were many short-term teams sent from the United States. The majority of teams that came out to the orphanage where I was serving performed Christian skits teaching the children how to behave themselves and not sin.The teaching of the Gospel was lacking or overshadowed by instructions for
