U-turn toward Jesus

That was the funniest comment a 5-year-old girl said to me, and it marked a pivotal breakthrough in our relationship. Day in and day out, I pray that it will be the first of many funny moments in our budding friendship.

I’m a 23-year-old college senior, and this summer I’m serving the Lord at the Texas Baptist Children’s Home in Round Rock.  In order to talk to these young girls about Christ’s love, I need to first develop meaningful relationships with them. And let me tell you, living under the same roof as them sure is one way of getting to know them on another level, if you know what I mean.

Sadly enough, all these children are here for one reason or another and often that reason that serves as a boundary preventing them from opening up to many people. Whether their parents can’t take care of them, or they came from a bad home, or their parents simply don’t want them anymore, many of these children have low self-esteem, and it shows. They act out at times just to be yelled at. It reminds them of the homes many of them came from, and that comforts them.

Their sad situations serve as a platform for a bad future and a continuous cycle of a Godless life—unless somebody intervenes, and they take a U-turn toward Jesus. That’s what my partner and I want to see happen. We want these children to grow up to experience Christ’s gift of salvation he so generously offers.  Our God wants to see the world accept him—especially children. And we are serving as his instruments to help direct these lost children to him.

Samantha Trevizo, a student at the University of Texas-El Paso, is serving with Go Now Missions at Texas Baptist Children’s Home in Round Rock, part of Children at Heart Ministries.