And social problems keep escalating. Cohen, professor of Russian studies and history at New York University, notes that male life-expectancy has plunged to less than 60 years, largely because of alcohol abuse. Every child at Orphanage No. 9 has a tragic story, said Wilkins, the mission director from the Texas. We hear stories of kids whose parents died of cancer without receiving any treatment. There are many stories of children being neglected or abused because of the severe alcoholism.
Every child has a story like that.
It's important that mission teams remember that they are very proud people who live in a culture that is very different from ours. You have to come in and establish credibility, and that's what we did. They now have a United Methodist Church in Tomsk. It was started because people in Tomsk wanted a United Methodist Church. The church started here because we came in and worked with the kids and established some trust.