A Gift of Acceptance

My name is Jonathan, and I grew up in a ghetto called Villa Maria in Santo Domingo, a hazardous area filled with drug dealers and gangs.

I did not grow up with a father. I was raised by a single mother, and I saw my father once a month. I used to wait for him by the road, and he would stop and give me money. The meeting didn’t take long, no more than five minutes. I would meet him in his car on a particular street, and he would give me some money, and then I made my way back to Villa Maria. That was my relationship with him. Five minutes a month.

But when I was 14, my dad’s brother took me to meet my half-sisters. I didn’t even know I had sisters! I was so excited. That excitement didn’t last long though. I found out that my father had never told them about me. They didn’t even know I existed.

My father was so angry when he found out that I had met my sisters. He came to my house and called me out to his car. And he began to yell at me. Everyone could hear the words he said.

"You did not have my permission to meet my family! You have to understand that you are a mistake!"

Listening to those words spoken by my father — it is one of the most terrible things I had ever experienced. I began to cry so hard that I couldn’t even talk. I ran from the car, and we didn’t speak again for nine months.

My father’s words stayed in my ears. You are a mistake.

Around that same time, my mother found out about the Compassion program from some of her friends at the church. I started going there when I was 7 years old. Suddenly I got food, uniforms and shoes.

Jamie, my sponsor, poured out Jesus' love into my heart through her letters. One of her letters said:

"Good afternoon Jonathan! I wanted to send you a little note to let you know that I was thinking about you."

My father never thinks about me, but my sponsor took time to let me know that she was thinking about me. Another impactful letter was this one:

"Hello, Jonathan. Happy 15th birthday!! I hope you had a very enjoyable birthday."

My father never called me for a birthday, but Jamie remembered my birthday every year.

One day, Jamie wrote a letter, maybe the most impactful letter in my whole life, eight months after my father told me I was a mistake. And this is what the letter says:

"Greetings Jonathan from Michigan. We received our first dust of snow today on Thanksgiving. Today is a great day to reflect on all the things that I'm thankful for, and you are one of those that I'm greatly thankful for."

God sent Jamie to be a sister when my sisters were kept from me.

Jamie reminded me that I was not a mistake when my father said that I was. Jesus’ love through Jamie changed my life forever.

Currently, Jonathan is serving with Compassion as a full-time field Experience Specialist working with sponsors, artists, speakers, churches and students who are interested in the ministry of Compassion in the Dominican Republic to connect and help the children living in extreme poverty.