Anyone not living under a rock knows that heroin is destroying many people and their families. News media are filled with the tragic stories of death, destruction, prison terms and overall evil. Where can we start as Christians and citizens to make a positive contribution to help stem this horrible tide?
When I first traveled to Russia in 1992 the drug problems were ten times worse than they are here in America today. Over 50% of the adult males were addicted. Day and night we had to step over the passed out bodies of Men lying on the streets and lawns. Tens of thousands of men and women were sent to prison labor camps in Siberia where many died.
Many parents were addicts and were unable to care for their children. They were incapacitated or dead so Russia had millions of orphans.
I had opened up an in-patient program for addicts in 1989 so some people begged me to build a residential treatment program in Moscow. It would be, so they said, similar to that Teen Challenge has in America. Others wanted us to build an orphanage to take all those poor kids in.
What is the best strategy for responding to such an overwhelming onslaught of serious problems? In the USA we are moving slowly toward the same situation that had come upon the USSR with its persecutions, atheism, and official attacks on Christianity. Even though things are bad here we are a long way from the depths of sickness and trauma that faces Russia.
What did God tell us to do? Tomorrow I will explain our approach there and how it can work here as well. See our approach here.
No comments:
Post a Comment