Russia (MNN) — Thirty Mission Network News listeners are in Russia this week, traveling with Orphan Outreach. Anchor and Executive Director of Mission Network News Greg Yoder is with them.
The team started their journey August 12 with a few "issues." Yoder says, "One of our team members drove from her home in Michigan to Chicago. "Unfortunately she stopped on her way to make copies of her passport. She left it in the copy machine and didn't realize it wasn't with her until she got all the way to Chicago."
While leaders were thinking she'd have to catch the next flight a day later, someone suggested getting the passport to a "Good Samaritan" at the local airport and have them hand-carry the passport to Chicago. "There were doubts," says Yoder, "but all of the Mission Network News Facebook friends and group members praying, and God worked it all out. She got her passport just in time to board the plane and head to Russia."
Unfortunately, those weren't the only issues facing the team. Yoder says, "For the first part of the mission trip, we were scheduled to visit children who were just getting into the child care system. It's called a crisis center, or Hospital 15."
This is the place where all new children entering the system are evaluated and a plan of action is established for each child. This can take a number of days. For most, it's pretty traumatic. "We were going to just love on the kids and be a source of comfort for them,"explains Yoder.
But God had other plans, "A chickenpox outbreak hit the crisis center. Since we have a doctor on our team, she called infectious disease specialists who told us to stay out. If we caught the disease, we could spread it to all of the orphans we'll visit the next few days. So we decided not to go."
Instead, the team prayed for the kids in a prayer walk.
One part of the planned ministry to Hospital 15 was able to continue. It's called Hannah's Hands. Paula Hayes with Orphan Outreach says, "Hannah's Hands is a program where we hire Christian women to go into Hospital 15 and work most specifically with the babies and toddlers. Those little ones need to be touched and to have eye contact. They need to be spoken to."
As they do this work, they're also able to share Christ with the caregivers.
Funding is desperately needed for this program. Go to our Web site for more information.
Right now, says Yoder, "We're right in the middle of our Orphan VBS program. God's change of plans allowed us to go to a camp where nobody had visited all summer. It also allowed us to see kids we met last year. And because they already know us and trust us, it makes it easier to share the Gospel."
You can find photos , video and blog reports at our Web site.
