Don't Stand By

This morning at worship we had visitors.
One guy was from America but he had lived in Rostov as a missionary so he knows the area and knows Russian. He was at the base when it was first bought... he was impressed with all the work that had been done.
He shared a message reading from Obadiah. The main point of the message was that if you see something that needs to be done and just choose to stand by and do nothing... it is sin.

It was a challenge for me... how many times do we choose to look the other way?
how many times do I tell myself that it is someone else's job?

This is also an area I see lacking in Russian culture.
Last week I was involved with a situation when we were out ministering to Babushka's... a guy came by to see what we were doing and when he found out we were Christians... he became very angry and started pushing us.
I was angry... I was confused... I felt lost I didn't know how to react partly because of me being in a culture so different from my own.
BUT one of the things I noticed was that the Russians around us just stood there... they didn't even try to help. As I asked about it I learned that it comes from the years under communism where you just looked the other way or you got in trouble as well...
in no way do I want to point fingers and say this is wrong fix it... I just want to share it... i want work in this area in my life and hope that maybe I can encourage others around me whether they are Russians or not to do the same... over time with God's help we can see a change in Russians... they will be helping eachother out.... standing up for one another!!

Don't Stand by.... Do something about it!!