“Jitli is so annoying! He’s always begging for food, and even if we give him something to eat. . . he never leaves!”

Frustrated that he was always having to share his meager amount of food and, more importantly, never getting a break from this pesky fellow, one of our student missionaries was asking for advice. “What should I do?”

A patient admitted for long-term care at our jungle clinic brought her entire family, including several children. Jitli, the eldest, was perhaps six or seven years old at the time. He was always dirty, had a runny nose, and was dressed only in a filthy oversized shirt. Jitli was the epitome of the exasperating child—not exactly one with whom a person would enjoy sitting down to eat a meal.

But Jitli would find a comfortable place to hang out on the steps to the “high-rise apartment,” a tongue-in-cheek name for a ramshackle hut that sits over a dirt-floor classroom. Here, he parked himself daily, watching everything that the missionary did.

“He is probably in need of more than just food. Maybe look at this another way. Perhaps he is your mission field. Pray for God to give you love for this little fellow,” encouraged a senior missionary.

Upon the arrival of each successive male student missionary, Jitli latched on with a similar craving. And over time, although Jitli didn’t change, he started to appear better fed and a little cleaner. Though he still tended to require a lot of time and attention, the attitudes towards him changed. People ceased to complain about Jitli.

After his mother gave birth to another child, one who consequently died from tuberculosis, the family left Kemantian. Disappeared.

Then, after some time, the family was found living in a lowland village. Once our staff located Jitli, we tried to keep track of him with occasional visits. Though a little shy, Jitli was happy people remembered him.

Sometime later, his family moved near a village with a mission school, and Jitli was enrolled.

Jitli still struggles to be clean, but mostly, he struggles to have enough to eat. He does not get much attention or care from his father. None of the children do. But in school, Jitli receives what he is desperate for—affection and attention—along with a much-needed nutritious, filling meal. I trust he will meet Jesus there.

Jitli is the mission field. He represents thousands upon thousands attracted to the gospel because people with the good news love them. And as one chooses to love the challenging, dirty and hungry, the lover is changed.

Recently, a student missionary visited and sought out Jitli among important people with whom he wanted to reconnect. Jitli—the object of genuine love and fond affection.

May our prayers be, “Lord, please give me a heart like Thine, a heart of love for those who act unlovely, who may be smelly, unruly, rude and seem incorrigible. Help me see past the exterior to the heart that You see. Change my heart, O God.”

• Twitter