I’m amazed that God can use even us children as His instruments. Sometimes we don’t even have to say much. Our actions usually reveal far more than our words.

One day, Karin and I went into Kotale village to round up some children to play soccer with us. We usually get a yard game going with the kids after school. On this particular day, we saw a new girl standing with her mother and little brother beside the path, watching people go by. After we had gathered our friends, Karin decided to go back and invite the new girl. She was happy to join us. Her name was Shina.

Shina was from Port Moresby. Her family had come to Kotale for a relative’s funeral, but they ended up staying indefinitely. She was lonely and bored. People weren’t friendly to her because she was only half Gogodala and her mother was the second wife of her Gogodala father.

We invited Shina to come to Sabbath School. Her family members are not church goers, but she thoroughly enjoyed our Sabbath School program and church service. She continued to come week after week. One Sabbath after she had been attending a while, she told us that when she got home from church, she felt so happy she started jumping up and down. Her mother asked, “Shina, why are you so happy?”

She exclaimed, “It’s something in my heart!”

Shina says her family argues a lot. But now when a quarrel breaks out, she starts singing songs she learned at church, and she says it restores peace to her house. When she first came to the village, she complained about how hard life was. But now she says, “God is so good! He brought me here so I could meet you, and now I am changed!”

• Twitter