“Someone broke into our room,” my roommates and I said to each other when we returned from church. Our window was broken.

Just up the road from where we lived was a small orphanage. Some of the 10-12-year-old boys who lived there would often come to our center to hang out with us. While some had no parents, most came from families who lived far away. Their parents sent them to live at the orphanage so they could be closer to a school in town. I often enjoyed their company and loved it when they tried to teach me different words in their language.

But these young boys started making bad choices in who they had as friends. One day, while my roommates and I were in church, three of them broke a window and stole items from the room we lived in.

That afternoon, my roommates and I went to the orphanage to ask the boys about it; they confessed that they had stolen from us. They did not dare to visit us after that.

But this experience gave me a special burden for those boys from the orphanage. They needed someone to show them love and a better way of life. I wanted them to know that we still cared about them and that they did not need to be all alone in this world.

I prayed. As I learned to rely more fully on God’s wisdom and strength rather than trying to come up with solutions on my own, a program for the boys developed.

One day, I invited them to the center and my roommates and I made sugar cookies with them. The boys got to decorate them as they wanted. We also told them a Bible story and played some games with them before ending the day with a meal.

Through my year serving as a student missionary, I learned that mission work is about trusting God, caring for people—regardless of who they are or what they have done—and praying for them. God is the only one who can change their hearts. He brings us in contact with people so that we can show them His love and forgiveness in a practical way. This reflects Christ’s sympathy and care for people, and then leaves the results in God’s hands.

God used this experience to teach me about surrender and not trying to do things in my own strength.

This experience reminded me of Matthew 19:14: “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” Jesus wants all children to come to Him. I continue to pray for these children at the orphanage that they may know that, even though they do not have an earthly father, they still have a heavenly Father who loves and cares for them.

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