A GIRL’S WORLD! a visit to a place that saves and changes lives


by Karen McCarley, WME Foreign Missions Manager


“Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatso- ever state I am, there- with to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”


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–Philippians 4:11-13


during a recent trip to bangladesh, i visited a girls’ home in gopalganj that has existed for many years. When we arrived, we were immediately welcomed by beautiful, smiling, angelic faces. you could literally feel the warmth of their reception. of course, it being a girls’ home, the colors pink and purple were plentiful, as were flowers. the girls put the flowers on our heads, in our ears and around our feet. it was something that cost them nothing, but it was a grand gesture of their love, and we embraced it with everything in us.


i wish everyone could experience what it’s like to go to a children’s home where the children either have no living parents or their parents simply cannot afford to care for or support them. it is both sad and joyful. you hear the stories of these children, one after another, and look into their innocent faces. you try to imagine what they’ve gone through. yet we real- ly have no chance of ever understanding what it has been like for them.


one of these lovely girls we got to know was lata. this 16-year-old’s mother had died of cancer the year before. her father then remarried and decided he no longer wanted her. she was brought to our home a broken soul. as we heard lata’s story, we could see the hurt and pain behind her smile. it was heartbreaking to know that up until a year ago, this beautiful girl had a family, but in an instant her world was turned upside down. lata was so grateful to have a place to call home, a place where she was safe and cared for, instead of being abandoned to the street. and that would


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