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Blood Brother is the story of a group of children infected with HIV and Rocky Braat, a disenchanted young American drifting through India. He wanted to save them all, but in reality he couldn’t cure even one of them. He had to stay. It’s a hard life. He faces opposition in many forms. He lives in a concrete hut. Sometimes, he is close to despair. The truth is, he needs them as much as they need him. They teach him, daily, that love is the only thing that makes life worth living.

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A few months ago, my boss called me with sobering news: the orphanage in Haiti we were sponsoring was trafficking children. The news felt like a punch to the gut, rendering us completely powerless.

We knew we needed to do something, but we didn't know where to begin. Looking back on the horrible experience, we learned some valuable lessons in the process.

In working for a missions organization for over five years, I've found that if you're going to give your life to compassion, this kind of disappointment is inevitable. Eventually, you're going to get ripped off, disappointed, and humiliated. Choosing what to do in those moments is what forms character. It's what makes leaders and defines difference-makers. Here's what we did:

Along with five other partnering organizations, we investigated the Son of God Orphanage for fifteen months. It began with various groups making short-term trips to Carrefour. Each group would notice something different. First, it was a child who was there before and was now missing. Then, there were supplies unaccounted for. And eventually, strange burns and marks were appearing on the children's skin. One fateful weekend, our suspicions were confirmed: the children were being trafficked, and the evidence pointed back to the people running the orphanage.

The director was convicted and imprisoned for trafficking, but his wife continued the operation in his absence. We still hadn't reached the end of this twisted tale.

After several frustrated attempts to appeal to local authorities, our team members began an advocacy campaign. Through Facebook and Twitter, we appealed to major media and started an online petition to shut down the orphanage, collecting over 10,000 signatures in three days. Finally, the government heard our pleas and responded.

Early one morning, attended by aid organizations such as UNICEF, Haitian government officials showed up on the doorstep of the Son of God Orphanage. They removed and relocated the children to safe houses. Some were in late-stage starvation mode. Without the intervention, we were told, many would have died.

Fortunately, with this situation, we saw light breaking through the darkness. Many people I know who work for international aid and relief organizations say what happened was a fluke. Rarely do you see that kind of action-over the course of a week, we were able to move a developing country's government to action. A friend who has lived and worked in Kenya told me that is unheard of.

The hard part, though, was that this happened in the first place. This was an orphanage we had discovered and raised money for. We had donated time, supplies, and human resources to them, and they took advantage of it. We felt cheated and robbed. Worse, we felt like we had cheated our donors. Even though we sent a letter explaining the situation, the organizational clean-up wasn't pretty.

Still, given the choice between standing on the sidelines or jumping into the mess of a similar situation, we would choose the latter. Every single time.

This is the lesson every leader who aspires to live a more compassionate life must learn. We all hope for breakthrough, for light to shine in the darkness and for conflict to be resolved. But it doesn't always come. Not like we think or hope.

When we first came upon the Son of God Orphanage, we thought we were doing good. When we found out we were cheated, we were hurt and angry. We were tempted to pull out, to walk away-but that was the one thing we knew we couldn't do.

When circumstances seem dire, we sometimes must discipline ourselves to hold on to the idea that change is possible. What's easy is to get bitter, to roll our eyes at feeble attempts at charity. What's hard is to have hope-to enter the mess of a broken world and try to do something that matters.

So before you begin, set your expectations accordingly: You will get cheated. You will be lied to. However, considering the alternative, what choice do we have-to not enter the mess? If any of us are going to make a difference, we're going to have to get our hearts broken once in awhile.

Jeff Goins is a writer who lives in Nashville and works for Adventures in Missions. You can follow more missional stories here.

1. How To Practice Biblical Humility Within Social Media by Carlos Whittaker
2. Top Ten Temptations That Leaders Face by Perry Noble
3. What Fear Can Kill by Bianca Olthoff via Lindsey Noble's blog
4. How to Live Your Dream When You're Scared to Death by Jeff Goins via Michael Hyatt's blog
5. Are you a LEADER or a FOLLOWER? by Brad Lomenick

What else did we miss this week?