I don't, I must confess, have a lot of time for most missionaries. I regard the majority of them (and I've met quite a few on my travels) as narrow-minded bigots who imagine that they know what's best for everybody else.
Here, however, is a missionary I'm prepared to cut some slack for: Gary Roberts, a missionary and pilot working in Chad.
It was Mr. Roberts who found an orphaned 9 month-old baby elephant at the scene of an elephant massacre carried out by poachers.
Mr Roberts told the BBC World Service he flew to the area where the elephant massacre had occurred to see if reports of a sole surviving baby elephant were true. Upon finding the massacre zone he witnessed “just piles of bones […] and large pools of blood on the ground that you could still see from so many animals”.
"We were able to confirm about 100 animals had indeed been massacred at that site," he said. “[When we found Max] he was tied up to a tree where he had been for the last three-to-four days. He was getting weak, but also very angry because he had just been tied up to a tree”.
Mr. Roberts managed to get the 350lb baby elephant into his 4-seater light-aircraft and fly it the 75 miles to his mission's compound.
"It was a tight fit. He was quite interested in playing with my controls at some point and would put his trunk forwards and feel my hands and face,” Mr Roberts said.
I wish this story had a happier ending.
Tragically, Max died from the ordeal a week later, despite being under the 24-hour care of Mr Roberts and his wife.
“We pulled out all the stops, we did everything possible, "he said. "Taking care of a starved elephant is very similar to taking care of a starved human baby."
Damn, damn, damn. But I take my hat off to Mr. and Mrs. Roberts for their efforts. Here's video of the flight: