God's Song

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I’m happy to introduce you to a new member of our family. His name is Jonathan. Today we met him for the first time thanks to bestselling author Ann Voskamp. She introduced us, well kind-of.


You could find Ann and her bestselling book One Thousand Gifts any time in the Amazon.com jungle. But lately you could also find her in the Amazon – not virtual, but real live jungle, as in snakes, mosquitoes, big humungous bugs and people, beautiful real live people. My friend Glynn Young writes about this mission in his post The least of these.

Ann is part of a team for Compassion International helping introduce folks to children in need of sponsorship. Today I read Ann’s blog When Compassion becomes a Gold Rush and met a boy named Jonathan. Not the Jonathan I’m going to introduce you to in a minute, but a different Jonathon.

Ann's writing and photos take us on a journey deep into the Amazon:

“We wind around a thousand mountains and canoe up a river of gold to find him.


To find the boy someone named Jonathan.”

He’s a boy. Yet he’s a man. He’s fourteen years old and he lives alone because,

“My mother, she runs out on us when I was four.”

Jonathan tells the translator His father moved away to find work in the village.

“My father, he takes my brother with him when he goes….My brother is my Father’s favorite.”

The boy lights when asked about church and what he thinks of Jesus.

“Yes, yes. I go to church and sing to Jesus. It makes all the time go faster, looking forward to going to church each Sunday.”

Jonathan finally confesses:

“Sometimes, when I am very lonely… I lay in my hammock and …. I just sing these songs to God.”

That’s the part of Ann’s writing that put me over the edge. Later when driving my daughter to work, I told her about what I had read. When I got to the part about Jonathan being lonely and singing, out there in the jungle, all alone, singing to God, I had to stop. Because the words got all clogged up in my throat and made seeing the road difficult.

I couldn’t get the kids in the jungle out of my head. I thought about how good we have it here. And when I got home I went online to the Compassion International website and met another young man named Jonathan. As soon as I saw his picture I fell in love with that face, that… smile?

We sponsored him immediately.

So, like any proud Papa I couldn’t wait to show him off. Please say a warm hello to our new friend and family member Jonathan Paul Sayay Mullo.

And one more thing; tonight before you lay down in your warm bed, look out at the stars and listen, listen real close.You might just here the sound of a child, a lonely child, singing a song to Jesus.

Please remember Jonathan in your prayers.

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And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’ Matt. 25:40

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