For the past couple of years, I’ve desired to serve as a missionary, but I didn’t really have an experience that showed me God’s intentional love and grace for people from every corner of the earth. But that all changed in June when I went on my first short-term mission trip to Iquitos, Peru with my local church to visit an orphanage founded by one of our elders.
The short-term team and I spent a week fostering relationships with the staff, host parents, and children through music, hearing testimonies of God’s faithfulness, and working alongside them on a multitude of service projects. My view of global missions was transformed on this trip by witnessing the success of gospel-centered missions and seeing the universal church like I never have before. My previously limited view of global missions has now grown from a simple thought of reaching people who don’t know Christ to being a real-life experience of the Lord’s work amongst all people in this world.
The Lord in the Orphanage
The young boys who call this ministry home are some of the most joyful and bright children I have encountered, regardless of the brokenness from their past. The boys at this orphanage range from three years old up to high schoolers preparing to graduate. Along with the diversity in their ages, stories of their pasts vary from being found homeless and fending for themselves at three years old to being disowned by their families and forced to live on the streets in their early teens.
The wonderful boys that I built relationships with have gone through more than I could ever imagine, and yet their excitement never faltered. Their joy is not limited by the suffering they’ve experienced. It is clearly visible through the smiles that light up the room, the enthusiasm they have on the soccer field or in the lake, and the love they share with one another and those who visit. My excitement for the trip and getting to know the boys at this orphanage paled in comparison to their gladness to host us and create lasting relationships with our team.
My excitement for the trip paled in comparison to their gladness to host us.
The source of the boys’ joy and excitement is clearly their zeal for Christ, and many were quick to tell us about their love for the Lord and how he had saved them. Before the trip, I was told that some of the children were professed Christians, but I was utterly shocked at how the collective group of boys joined together as brothers and worshiped the Lord. This happened almost daily while I was in Iquitos.
Through the family-centered model of this organization, the orphaned boys are raised in a household led by Christian parents. They share meals together, delight in family devotions, and did not hesitate to extend a hospitable invitation to our team to join them. This organization’s model for community extends to influence almost every event of the children’s lives. Everywhere I looked, the gospel of Christ shined clearly and was emphasized in all areas of the boys’ lives. They worship, go to school, play, and live together, and the Lord is visible in it all.
They Have Experienced Transformation
Hearing their stories and beginning to understand all that these boys have experienced was difficult to bear. I was saddened at their past, but I rejoiced knowing that God was doing a transforming work in them. This was evident as I witnessed young children laugh, play, and love one another after all the suffering they had endured.
God graciously brought every one of the boys into a loving family (Ephesians 1:5). He has given them mothers, fathers, counselors, teachers, cooks, and many brothers––people who had previously been taken from them or had forced them away. Regardless of their previous circumstances, the Lord’s care for his children is on full display in Iquitos, and I was a witness to it. My eyes were opened to a display of love and grace that God has for his people previously unknown to me. As these boys have experienced Christian families, their physical and spiritual lives have been changed forever. They have been adopted into an earthly family and a heavenly one, something I have often taken for granted.
God Changed My Heart
Through my experience on this short-term mission trip, God graciously showed me that I shouldn’t see those boys just as orphans. From a glance, it was not clear to me that those Peruvian boys were once homeless or abandoned. I could only see loving children as part of one big family. Through this image, the Lord changed my heart. He showed me his love for all people in this world and his desire for them to know him. These Peruvian boys are just a small few of the many more children he wants to bring into his family.
From worshiping in another language to experiencing a small part of the global church of Christ, the Lord gave me a heart for the nations in Iquitos; a heart that more deeply desires those worldwide to hear the name of Christ and his gospel. I am thankful for how our God allowed me to see his presence in another part of the world and how that experience molded me to love God’s people across the globe.
