Most of our thoughts for Mission Field work are divided into two main approaches. One approach for the adults and another approach for the children. We may want to re-evaluate our thinking by examining the area and focus of our Mission work.

One of the basics in teaching people how to speak in public is that we must examine the audience we will be speaking to. We need to adjust our speech, analogies and mannerisms to match the average age group, experience and type of people we will be speaking to. When we are teaching Sunday School the materials are set-up to match the physical age group, not the spiritual age group. Sometimes this will cause some confusion and lesson interruptions when we fail to have training for our new Christians.

These ideas may sound strange when talking about world evangelism and mission fields. We often think of those in need as adults starting around 20 years old. Adulthood in our part of the world is designated at the age of 18. In the Jewish world the age of accountability is 13. In other societies and cultures around the world the age of self-reliance or adulthood can begin as young as 5 years old.

In these areas some children do not have the luxury of having a loving family or even a clean foster home or orphanage to grow up in. Their life begins by being forced to scavenge not just for clothes or a place to sleep; they have to scavenge for food or die of starvation. Sometimes the older child will have to provide not just for themselves but for younger, or handicapped, siblings because their parents either abandoned them or had died. They learn the ways of the world controlled by Satan as a matter of self survival. So, their first and only concern is for their own needs. They do not have the time or luxury to care about others about them, who are in the same situation. Their world is a cruel and dangerous place.

I did not understand this during my first assignment outside of the USA. It took me a while to open my eyes and to see the age and burden these children carried. When I first journeyed into some of these places I was warned, like many before me, to never carry all of my money in one pocket because the area was full of pick pockets. Then they told me if I see any Boy Scouts on the street to do my best to avoid them.

Like many others before me I didn’t take these warnings to heart. After all, these were just children and I was just barely of age myself. When I first went into town I saw the Boy Scouts and when they approached I started to talk with them. These children were very friendly and talkative. They spoke in excellent English. Unfortunately, I was about to learn my lesson the hard way. I am just glad I had listened to the warning about not carrying all of my money in one place.

These Boy Scouts would not stop talking and they just kept trying to hold onto me. After I managed to get away from them I found out why they kept holding onto me. My pockets were empty. Then I started asking around about the Boy Scouts in this country. There was an Official Boy Scout Organization. But, the children who had to steal to survive had learned of the gullibility and trust the USA Military men and women had in the Boy Scouts. These children would create their own uniforms and badges to mimic the real Boy Scout uniforms. That allowed them to get close enough to the trusting Americans so they could pick their pockets.

I then took time, against warnings from others, to approach and talk to these children. It took a while but I was able to learn about them and they started to trust me. Not all of them accepted the friendship I offered. But, enough of them did so that I could walk down the street and not have to worry about having my pockets picked by the Boy Scouts.

I learned these children were not able to live the life of a child. They had the look of maturity beyond their years in their eyes and the burden of providing for themselves and their families. I could not talk to them as I would the children I knew at home. I had to talk to them as an equal respecting their position as the provider and head of their home before they would talk with me.

These memories came back after finding an Organization called World Missions Far Corners, Inc... As I explored their website they talked about one outreach called “Operation Rescue.” It was started after they took a short sight seeing tour of down town Bombay, India. The area they found is called “The Cages of Bombay.” It is where there are FIFTEEN THOUSAND girl prostitutes are kept in small square cages. These girls, who have been outcast by their families, and their children live in squalor, with 4 to 6 girls sharing one little square cage. They are trained from birth to provide sexual services and pleasure to anyone for 8 to 80 Rupees, a Rupee is worth about 3 1/2 cents.

This Missionary work is applying the same lesson I had learned as a young man. But they are doing it for Jehovah; spreading the Gospel of Jesus to the outcast and ignored people in India and Peru. I only talked about one aspect of their work. They also have a Leper Hospital, River Boat Ministries, Rice Kitchens and many other works they are faithful to. You can find out more about them by going to their Web Site at: http://www.worldmissionsfarcorners.com/. Or contact them at:

World Missions Far Corners, Inc.

Street Address:
10945 South Street
Suite 306
Cerritos, California 90703

Mailing Address:
P.O. Box 2611
Long Beach, California 90801

Toll Free: (800) 550-0035
Phone: (562) 402-4400
Fax: (562) 402-9039

When you go on a Mission Trip do you talk to the Street Smart Kids as if they are the same as the children you have in your church at home? They are still physically children. However, they are mature in the ways of the world and understand its demands far better than some of us. Why not try talking to them with the respect they have earned by surviving in a world owned by Satan and his minions? Listen to what they have to tell you. That is one of the hardest tasks we have to do; just LISTEN. You may be surprised by just how wise these children are.

Matthew 19: 14: But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.

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