“All the other children at school looked forward to weekends, but I didn’t because I had nowhere to go. My step-father used to beat me and my brothers and sisters, and we would run from him to the cornfields and there we would sleep all night.”
The light at the end of the tunnel for Victor, were the visits from Mission Without Borders’ (MWB) coordinators to the boarding school. They would read the Bible to the children, give them gifts and show them care and affection.
“I remember when someone would see the coordinator coming we would all shout, ‘Mission Without Borders is coming.’ We jumped all over him when he came in and we knew we could talk to him, and that he was our friend.”
It was at this time too that Victor heard about Summer Camp.
“I wanted to go to camp so badly, because I saw the joy other children had when they came back. When I was 12 I got to go and I have loved being part of it ever since. At 17, I gave my life to Jesus. Looking back to when I was in boarding school, I never dreamed that my life would turn out how it has. The day when I was baptized, was the happiest day in my life. In Jesus, I got true happiness; I have found joy, peace, freedom and love.”
Today, Victor is a leader at MWB’s Summer Camp and each summer he gives back to the children in need in his region - like he once was.
“I want to serve the Lord,” he says. “I want to show children God’s love in the same way it was shown to me when I was in boarding school, and I want these children to know that there is a plan for their lives.”