After only 18 months in Belfast, the sisters left, stating that they were
unwanted and saw no need to risk further danger to themselves. Mother
Teresa preferred to see their leaving, however, not as a failure, but as a call,
for the sisters were obviously needed somewhere else. She sent them to
Ethiopia where they were to help victims of a terrible drought that rav-
aged the country.
During the 1980s, the Missionaries of Charity experienced more bad
luck, when in March 1980 someone set a fire at a home for destitute
women run by the order in Kilburn, London. Ten residents of the shelter
and one volunteer died in the blaze. The arsonist was never found. In
1986, two sisters were drowned in Dehra Dun, India, when a wooden
bridge collapsed during a heavy rain, sending their ambulance into the
river below. Although Mother Teresa offered prayers for the dead, no
doubt both incidents weighed heavily upon her.
Even more painful for Mother Teresa was the number of professed sis-
ters choosing to leave the Missionaries of Charity. Of the original 12
women who became the order’s first nuns, two eventually left, as well as a
small number of others over the years. Their reasons for leaving were
many: some chose to serve God in another way, others wished to leave be-
cause of ill health. Some even fell in love and wished to marry and raise
families. Mother Teresa did not resent the women’s choices; in fact she
often thanked them for their time and effort in their service to the order.
Still, it clearly saddened her to lose members.
Despite these setbacks, the Missionaries of Charity continued to grow.
By 1979, there were 158 foundations established throughout the world.
There were 1,187 professed sisters, 411 novices, and 120 postulants. What
was perhaps most amazing about the continued growth of the order was
that it came at a time when religious vocations for the Church were gen-
erally on the decline. It appeared that the total commitment to a life of
poverty and the complete surrender of the self in the service of God held
tremendous appeal for women everywhere. For Mother Teresa, the con-
tinued arrival of newcomers ready to work for the poor was heartwarming.
Each week it seemed a new group left Motherhouse bound for some desti-
nation where they were needed. As Mother Teresa once remarked, “If
there are poor on the moon, we shall go there too.”^1THE FIRST VOLLEY
One of the first and fiercest attacks on Mother Teresa’s work came dur-
ing a crisis in the newly formed country of Bangladesh. Between 1947 and
1971, before gaining its independence, Bangladesh formed the eastern
110 MOTHER TERESA