When my family began homeschooling in 1985, there were only a handful of homeschooling families in our state of Mississippi. Homeschooling ended up being very positive for our family. It brought us closer together and closer to the Lord.

We used several different  homeschooling curricula over the years, and there were a couple of years in which my mother created her own. Therefore, when we joined the Advanced Training Institute (ATI) in 1991, it seemed at first like just another program.

I was 17, and I quickly learned about all of the exciting opportunities ATI offered for older students. It seemed that only the most spiritual people were accepted, so I did not think I had much of a chance to get into the most interesting of them. However, I did feel a calling to work with children and was able to do several Children’s Institutes in the early years.

I was a bit surprised and very excited when I got an invitation to come to the Moscow Training Center (MTC) in Russia for much of the 1994 – 1995 school year. My mother was a bit apprehensive about sending me away for such a long time, but I was 20 and it was time for me to do something with my life.

Before I left, I knew that I would be teaching English in the public schools, but I dropped several subtle and not-so-subtle hints that it was my dream to work with the orphans. During the first several months, I took any opportunity I could to work with the children there — either the children of the American families living there, or the few Russian orphans that were there before the orphan ministry officially started.

In February, the head of the Russian ministry (M—) called me into his apartment to give me some incredible news. I had been chosen to work with one of the new orphan families with a new group of Russian orphans that would be arriving the next week. I was ecstatic!

Three days later, I asked for more details about how the arrangements would work. I was told that the invitation had been withdrawn and I would continue teaching English. Having my hopes dashed was worse than if I had never had them in the first place.

It took me months to piece together more about what had happened. Supposedly, one of the families was very concerned with my interest in the children on campus, and the leadership told me that they had similar concerns. They said that I acted “too effeminate.” Admittedly, I was pretty geeky, but many of us were, comparatively speaking. I had followed all the rules and done everything they asked of me, willingly and without reservation, and was still unable to convince the leadership that I was not a pervert.

I returned home at the end of the school year, longing to go back. While in Russia, I felt a great sense of accomplishment. I felt the work that I had done there in eight months was worth more in the eyes of God than all of my other accomplishments since then.

The next September, I got my wish. I fully expected to go back to teaching English, and that would have been fine with me. However, a new family was in charge of the orphan program. This family knew me a little better and drafted me to work as a new orphan leader. There were more orphans than the families alone could handle at the time, so groups of the children were given to pairs of student leaders.

At first, I was shocked. I explained what had happened the year before and told them that I could not imagine that M— would approve of these arrangements. For some reason, he let it slide.

I shared the care of four Russian boys with another ATI student (he was in his 20s) for almost two months. Because I had studied Russian a bit the year before and my co-worker spoke moderate Russian, we spoke only Russian with the boys. My language skills grew by leaps and bounds. After two months, I was chosen to work with a new family. They became the leaders of the boys, and I worked with them, interpreting non-essentials, tutoring a little, and generally baby-sitting.

Then the leadership of the orphanage program changed again. This time, the leader was a relative of the family that had originally made the false accusations against me. They were open to my work, but I never gained their full trust. When I had some issues with the family I worked with, I was not given a chance to clear up what turned out to be a simple misunderstanding. It was assumed that I was immature and unwise, correction was given, and life went on.

The next year, my Russian was good enough to be an interpreter, but it took some time to convince the new leaders of this. I was given a family to assist, and for several months things went well. But it was not to last. In my fourth year, things would take a strange and disconcerting turn for the worse.

[Continued here in Part 2]