We went to the village one day to call on a 16 year old girl named Olesya and her younger brother who was 6. They live with their mother and grandmother who are severe alcoholics. No father. Olesya had practically begged the missionaries to take her to live with them when they first met her a week before. The mom and grandmother are always drunk and they do not take care of these kids. There was absolutely no food in the flat. This place  was in terrible condition.  As we were leaving that day there were 3 old ladies sitting outside on a bench. They called us over and asked us to please help this girl and take her away from here.  They were afraid something bad was going to happen to her.  "Her mother lies drunk on the floor all the time and men can come in and do bad things to these kids." That was one lady’s exact quote.

 The sad thing is these kids are not alone. There are so many more situations like this and even worse. Many missionaries go to larger cities like Moscow and St Petersburg while to these smaller cities, people will seldom come.  Unfortunately situations like these are common among teenagers subjected to drug and alcohol abuse in Russia.