Little Jonas has only been in school for about a week! He is “about” ten years old. He is the sweet little boy that we found in the mountains, working alongside the adults… He actually “worked for food!”

Jonas’s mother and father had died, and there were no living relatives in his area. So, since his father died, some of the people in the village (especially one big mean lady) took him as a slave to work in their gardens… They would feed him “maybe once a day,” but beat him often and made fun of him…

Until we came to that village and brought him home with us. We legally brought him out of being a slave child “restavek,” and probably saved his life.

Jonas had been beaten more times than you could imagine.

It was hard for him to adjust to school… Take, for example, something simple, like holding a pencil or a crayon. He had never done that! He had only held a large hoe in his hands… never a piece of chalk or a crayon or a pencil!! He had never had a shower… In fact, he got scared at our Children’s Home, because he said, “water was falling from the top, inside the bathroom!” But the saddest thing was that he “had never had a hug!” No one had ever played a game with him, or hugged him, or had ever given him love…

But now, Jonas is like all the other little boys… He plays soccer and “tries to play” basketball. All the children love him… And all of us “love Jonas.”

Imagine, this year will be his “first Christmas!!” Wow! Isn’t God good?! “He lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill and setters him among princes..” I Sam. 2:8

Jonas will go far in his life… We all love his sweet smile! Sherry