I am Sarah Chrysolite, a mother of two beautiful children, and I have been serving as the India Country Director for World Orphans since February 2026. I was born and brought up in a pastor’s family. From the outside, it may have looked like a perfect Christian upbringing—church every Sunday, Sunday school, youth meetings, and ministry travels—but constant relocation meant I was always the “new girl.” We kept changing schools and never had the opportunity to build deep friendships.

When I finally settled in Hyderabad during 10th grade, something inside me had already shut down. I had grown tired of adjusting, tired of losing friends, and tired of starting over again and again. After completing 12th grade, I chose not to continue my studies because I had completely lost interest in moving forward. Loneliness slowly turned into depression. I felt invisible, unwanted, and purposeless. There were moments of such deep emotional pain that I attempted to end my life. Those were the darkest years of my teenage life, but every attempt failed. Today, I understand that it was God’s hand preserving me even when I could not see his purpose.

In the year 1997, everything changed. At a “Born Again” youth conference, I had a personal encounter with Jesus Christ. It was not just religion anymore; it was a relationship. For the first time, I felt seen, loved, and chosen. When I read James 1:27—to look after orphans and widows in their distress—it felt like God was speaking directly to me. In my brokenness, he gave me a mission. I surrendered my life to full-time ministry, not because I was strong, but because I had experienced his grace in my weakest moments.

In the year 2005, my father moved to Dhaka and started an orphan home with a vision to care for a thousand children. Watching his compassion toward vulnerable children stirred something deep within me. I saw children who felt abandoned just as I once felt emotionally abandoned. I realized that God was using my pain to help me understand theirs. We established homes and began serving many children. I later completed my bachelor’s degree in social work and began serving more intentionally in projects that supported children and broken families. As a project manager at Bethel Gospel Church, my heart was always for the vulnerable—not just to provide shelter, but to provide belonging.

Then, in 2019, at a roundtable conference in Delhi organized by the First Fruit organization, God shifted our perspective. We learned that every child belongs in a family, and an orphanage should be the last option for the child, not the first response. That truth shook us and challenged everything we were doing. We made a bold decision to move from residential care to home based care. By God’s grace, we reunified every child in our homes with their immediate families. We began preventing family separation. We stopped being a place that receives children and started becoming a ministry that strengthens families.

I got married at the age of 23, stepping into marriage with hope, faith, and dreams of building a godly family. But very soon, my life took an unexpected and painful turn. Instead of love and protection, I experienced physical and sexual abuse within my marriage. In just three years, I became a mother of two precious children. While I was still learning how to care for my babies, I was silently enduring trauma, confusion, and fear behind closed doors. When my daughter was two years old and my son was only one, my husband left for Canada. Eventually, he married another woman, and my marriage ended in divorce.

That season was one of the most devastating periods of my life. I felt abandoned again. I questioned God, asking why my life felt like a series of broken chapters and what his plan was in all this chaos. There were moments when I felt ashamed, rejected, and unsure of my future. I was a young single mother with two small children, carrying emotional wounds while trying to stay strong for them. But even in that valley, God did not leave me. Slowly, I began to see something profound: the pain I had walked through was shaping me. The rejection I experienced was giving me compassion.

Today, when I sit with single mothers, abandoned women, or survivors of abuse, I do not speak from theory; I speak from experience. I understand their silence, their fears, and the shame society tries to place on them. Because I have walked that road, I can look into their eyes and say, “You will survive. You are not rejected. God still has a purpose for you.” I truly believe that God allowed me to pass through brokenness not to destroy me, but to build me into a refuge for others. My scars became my credentials; my wounds became a source of healing for many women.

As the India Country Director for World Orphans, I carry both my testimony and my mission in my heart. I know what it feels like to be lonely, unseen, and broken—and I know what it feels like to be restored by God’s love. This is why I believe every child deserves not just care, but family, belonging, dignity, and hope. The humility and sacrifice of Jesus have completely transformed the way I see my life. When I look at Jesus choosing the cross for the sake of others, I see a Savior who understands pain. He was rejected, misunderstood, betrayed, and wounded. Because of that, I know I serve a God who truly understands brokenness.

The cross changed my identity from victim to overcomer, from abandoned to chosen, from broken to called. My greatest dream for the future is to see vulnerable women and children rise above their circumstances. I dream of building strong, family-based care systems across India where no child grows up feeling unwanted or institutionalized. I want to see communities empowered so that families are strengthened before they break.

I also carry a deep burden for single mothers and survivors of abuse. I dream of establishing safe spaces and structured support networks where women can find healing, counseling, and spiritual restoration. I want every woman who feels discarded to know that her story is not over. Ultimately, my dream is simple but profound: that every broken woman finds her strength again, and that my life continues to be a vessel through which God brings hope where there was once despair.