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For Maria, not her real name, she would rather die than to stay one day more on earth with her agony.

Maria lost her father in a car accident when she was 3 years old. Because her mother was young and unable to support her, she was left to the care of her grandparents until she reached the age of twelve only to be ravaged and abused by her very own grandfather. Maria was raped in multiple occasions, day and night, on her tender age. Unable to bare the pains and trauma, she sought refuge to her uncle, on her mother’s side. At first, she was a little bit relieved of the fears hounding on her frail mind only to suffer the same fate she had been with her uncle too. Both her uncle and two elder cousins took turns in taking advantage of her innocence. Day and night, she screamed in pain and agony but she found no one to turn to but unwillingly endured the daily molestations and violence committed against her person and honor.

One day Maria found herself loitering in front of the Calvary Chapel, where there, she met a missionary couple from California, who are conducting their mission in the Philippines for abandoned and abused children; Maria’s pain only stopped when she was admitted in the orphanage under the care of Pastor Joe Rosmarino and his wife Billie.

Billie, was a former manager of a big department store in California, while Joe was a private employee. Bothered by their concern to help  abandoned and abused street children, the couple decided to leave a good life in America and settled in the Philippines to be as missionaries. At first, they started their missionary work from a rented house in one of the villages when two abandoned children were entrusted to them by the village authorities. From there, the number of their orphans rose to 25 and in a short period of time from 1993,  it reach to 400.Providing roof and shelter to the abused children in the society, the couples rely only from their combined meager pensions and donations from close friends in America and some local non-governmental organizations.

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For Maria, she found a second home with Joe and Billie and not an orphanage. From them, she experienced the true love and care she had long been dreaming. The anger that used to reign in her heart was replaced by the love showered upon by her missionary parents. After 10 years of staying in the orphanage, Maria was able to finish her tertiary education with flying color, having graduated as “suma cum laude” among the graduates. Now, Maria is pursuing her masters’ studies, helping Joe and Billie, to put up an elementary school that would provide basic education for the abandoned and abused children in the city. For Maria, though she was denied the love and care by her natural parents; however, miraculously, she was able to enjoy it from people whom she did not expect at all; a blessing she did not expect to happen to her life. With what she had been into, Maria is now a part of a more noble endeavor of providing shelter to children like her before. While for Joe and Billie, every soul being entrusted into them is a glory and joy of serving God. With 400 children, the orphanage keeps on growing, an indication that God’s hand is near to those who are crying in silence.