Father Maloney, our Vincentian Superior General, continues to ask Vincentians to go to the missions. Last year he worked on opening a new mission in Siberia. Father Maloney shares this story about Father Robert, one of the first Vincentians to go into Siberia after the fall of the Iron Curtain. He was invited to speak at a school. The headmistress said, "Father Robert, come give a talk to our teachers. ...please tell us about God." Father replied "Where do I start?" These are his words.

I talked to them about God in a very simple kind of way, in a manner that I thought might appeal to their background. They received it very well and at the end the headmistress said: "This is fascinating. What a tragedy that we were deprived of hearing about these things." I spoke about the Trinity and then about life after death. Of course, this was almost completely unknown to them, except that they had heard propaganda against it. At the conclusion, the headmistress said, "It's going to be difficult for us to attune our minds to these new possibilities. But all of us think that you should now come and tell our students about God." Within a short time two beautiful groups of the Legion of Mary sprouted up. You should see them. Their story is so incredible that you would have to write a whole chapter about it. The saddest thing for me is not that all their parents are unbelievers, but that many of their parents, for some strange reason (I don't understand why) opposed their coming to us. It was social pressure of some kind. As a result the children got no support at home. At one of the Legion meetings someone asked them, "Isn't it very hard when you get no support, I mean to be the only one in your family coming out on Sunday morning when everyone thinks that you're crazy going to your Legion meeting in the middle of a heavy snowstorm." Three of the answers were beautiful. One girl said, "Yes, it's very difficult but we get great strength from the Mass." That was a lovely answer from a youngster of 13 1/2. The second said, "Well, we're in our Lady's Army, and we feel that she has to give us support because we're working for her." The third said, "Well, we actually get strength from one another when we come together. We give each other mutual encouragement." Father Maloney concludes by writing, "Experiences like that make me excited about our sending missionaries to Nasnij Tagil in Siberia."

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A Call for You
In the past, the Association has helped American missionaries in Taiwan or Kenya and other worldwide missions of the Vincentians. If you would like to make a donation to help the foreign missions continue their good work, you can do so by contacting the Association.

It is an opportunity for you to answer Christ's call to "make disciples of all nations." Jesus said to his disciples, "But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?" (Luke 18:8) Vincentian missionaries bring the faith to the remotest and poorest places of the earth. And you can help them.