Jeff Fincher smiles for a photo with boys at the City of Children in Ensenada, Mexico. Fincher, director of student missions at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tenn., first visited the orphanage in 1995.

In his journal, he asked God to “somehow, some way, please let me come back to this place someday.”

Fincher and his wife, Natasha, recently accepted an opportunity to oversee the orphanage, which houses 97 children on 53 acres in Ensenada, about 70 miles south of San Diego.

The children consume more than 3,000 tortillas each week, according to the ministry’s Web site, www.cityofchildren.com.