Lili was only four years old when her life had already been shaped by things no child should ever have to experience.
She and her three siblings—an older sister, an older brother, and a younger brother—were living with their mother, who was battling alcoholism. Instead of being cared for and protected, the children were often left without food. They were taken to street corners and the bus terminal, where they begged for food and money just to survive.
Home wasn’t a place of safety.
The children learned to stay away whenever they could because they knew what might happen when they returned. They lived with fear, hunger, and abuse. Their little bodies carried the evidence of years of neglect, and their hearts carried wounds that couldn’t be seen.
Then, one day, the abuse happened in public.
Their mother was beating them on the street in front of where they lived. Someone saw what was happening and called the police. The police arrived and rescued the children.
But rescue was only the beginning.
By the time they were found, the children were so severely malnourished that they needed months of specialized care at a malnutrition hospital. Their bodies needed time, nutrition, and medical attention just to begin becoming strong again.
Eventually, the children were able to leave the hospital and come to James Project.
For them, arriving at James Project meant entering an entirely new world.
They were afraid.
They didn’t know what would happen next. They had learned that adults could hurt them, that home wasn’t necessarily safe, and that their basic needs might not be met. Even though they were being welcomed into a place where people wanted to love and care for them, trust doesn’t come easily when you’ve spent your early years learning to survive.
Their bodies still carried the scars of their past.
One of the effects of years of abuse and neglect was that they struggled with hair growth. Their physical scars were visible reminders of what they had endured. But there were also emotional scars—wounds that couldn’t be seen but could surface in unexpected ways.
Sometimes, something would trigger those old memories.
They might want to fight.
They might want to run.
They might become frightened or overwhelmed.
Healing doesn’t erase the past overnight.
But something beautiful began happening at James Project.
The children began to experience something they hadn’t known before: consistent love.
They began learning about Jesus and His love for them. They began hearing that they were valuable, precious, and worthy of love—not because of anything they had done, but because God had created them and loved them.
Slowly, their lives began to change.
Their bodies grew stronger. Their smiles came more easily. Their hearts began to learn that they could trust. And little by little, the children began to understand that their story was not going to be defined by what had happened to them.
They came to know the Lord.
And eventually, they were baptized, making a public declaration of their faith in Jesus.
That doesn’t mean every struggle disappeared.
The old scars still show up sometimes.
There are moments when something from the past triggers fear. There are times when their first instinct is still to fight or run. Trauma can leave deep patterns, and healing is often a process rather than a single moment.
But we’re seeing something different now.
The triggers happen less often. When they do happen, they are able to calm down more quickly. They are learning that they are safe. They are learning that they don’t have to live in survival mode forever.
And through it all, God is at work.
We get the privilege of watching Him heal wounds that once seemed impossible to overcome. We get to see children who once knew hunger discover what it means to be cared for. Children who once lived in fear discover that they can be loved. Children who once wondered where their next meal would come from discover a family that wants to walk beside them.
Juanita’s story is still being written.
Her past is part of her story, but it does not have to be the ending.
Healing takes time. Sometimes the scars remain. Sometimes the past reaches forward and reminds us of what happened.
But God is bigger than the scars.
He is bigger than the fear.
He is bigger than the trauma.
And He is faithful to keep working, one day at a time.
At James Project, we’re grateful that we get to witness that healing again and again.
We get to watch God take broken places and bring hope.
We get to watch children discover that they are loved.
And we get to watch a little girl named Juanita grow—not only stronger and healthier, but deeper in her understanding of the God who never stopped pursuing her.
Her story is a story of rescue.
It is a story of restoration.
And most of all, it is a story of hope.
