There are moments in ministry that you never forget.
Maria was just seven years old when she was rescued.
What she had endured is almost impossible to comprehend. She had been sexually abused on the altar of a pagan god. And the abuse didn’t come from just one person. Her parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters, neighbors—nearly every person she knew had participated in or allowed the abuse.
The people who were supposed to protect her had become the source of her deepest wounds.
When Maria was rescued, she was brought before a judge. She was angry, confused, frightened, and completely out of control. She didn’t know how to process what had happened to her, and her behavior reflected the chaos and trauma she had lived through.
The judge made a decision that would change the course of her life.
He sent Maria to James Project.
When Maria arrived, she was angry and wild. She didn’t trust people. She didn’t understand safety. She didn’t know what it meant to be loved without conditions or fear.
But something began to happen.
Our staff loved her. They cared for her. They gave her a safe place to be a little girl again. And most importantly, they introduced her to Jesus.
Within her first month at James Project, Maria came to know Jesus and accepted Him as her Savior.
And she changed.
Not simply her behavior.
Her heart changed.
The little girl who had arrived angry and completely out of control began to experience something she had never known before—the transforming love of Jesus.
Eventually, Maria had to return to court for another hearing.
Her parents were on one side of the courtroom. Her grandparents were on the other. They were fighting to get her back.
Imagine that courtroom.
The people who had abused her were there, arguing over her future.
But Maria was different.
While the adults fought and the courtroom filled with chaos, Maria sat beside our social worker, calmly coloring.
The judge noticed.
He stopped everything and asked for silence.
Then he asked Maria to come speak with him.
He wanted to know why she was acting so differently.
Maria stood up.
Right there in front of the judge—and in front of the people who had abused her—this little seven-year-old girl gave an answer that none of us will ever forget:
“Because I met Jesus, and I’m not the same person as I used to be. And I don’t want to be that person anymore.”
Then she sat down and went right back to coloring.
No speech.
No performance.
No attempt to impress anyone.
Just the simple testimony of a little girl whose life had been transformed by Jesus.
Maria didn’t need to convince the courtroom that something had changed.
They could see it.
The judge could see it.
Her abusers could see it.
And we could see it.
Maria had been rescued from an unimaginable situation, but rescue was only the beginning. Jesus was restoring what had been broken. He was giving her a new identity, a new hope, and a future she could never have imagined.
This is what we see again and again at James Project.
We see children arrive carrying unimaginable pain. We see anger, fear, confusion, and behaviors that are difficult to understand until you understand what these children have endured.
But then we see Jesus.
We see Him meet them in their brokenness.
We see Him bring peace where there was chaos, hope where there was despair, and love where there had been abuse and rejection.
We don’t believe Jesus simply changes behavior.
We believe He transforms lives.
Maria’s story is a beautiful reminder that the Gospel is not just something we tell children.
It is something they can experience.
A little girl who once had every reason to believe that the world was unsafe learned that she had a Father in Heaven who loved her.
A child who had been taught that she had no value discovered her identity in Christ.
A little girl who had been surrounded by darkness stood in a courtroom and testified to the goodness of God.
And she wasn’t the same person anymore.
That is why we do what we do.
We rescue. We restore. We disciple. We love. We create a safe place for children to heal.
And above all, we introduce them to Jesus.
Because we have seen what happens when a wounded child encounters the transforming love of Christ.
They are not the same.
And they don’t have to go back to being who they used to be.
Names and identifying details may be changed or omitted to protect the privacy and safety of the children we serve.
