They call him Pastor Amon. He’s 13 years old and the “spiritual leader” at Compassion child development center UG561 in the heart of the Katwe slum in Kampala, Uganda.

Today this pint-sized preacher stepped on stage to say thank you. And I so wished you were there.

Because he wasn’t thanking a handful of bloggers who came to visit for a couple days.

He was thanking those of you who chose to sponsor children from Uganda this week. He’s thankful for the 252 people who have sponsored children at this center for years.

He’s thankful for the many thousands of you who have sponsored children at my concerts and speaking engagements over the last ten years (unbelievable generosity!).

He’s thankful for every one of the roughly 1.4 million Compassion sponsors around the world.

This video is blurry because apparently I can’t work a camera, but Pastor Amon’s gratitude is crystal clear. I’ve transcribed his words below. Please take a minute and twenty seconds to listen. (RSS readers will need to click through to watch the video in this post.)

Today you are most most welcome and you are also most welcome in the church of the Lord. We thank you for everything you have done. We thank you for all the care you have given to us.

This place was a place well-known for robbers, thieves, thugs and every sort of wrongdoers but you, you have helped us to train this young generation, to enable it to be a good place…to enable this place to be a place of people who are learned, people who go to school, people who are educated. Really, thank you.

Right now we would be pickpockets, would be thieves, would be people who break into others’ homes, but because of you we are in the church praising and worshiping God, serving Him. Really, you have done a great job. May God bless you so so much.

Representatives of Compassion, may God bless you so much. You have done much [more] than I expect I can do. Really. May God bless you.

There are still so many children in Uganda in need of a sponsor. Do you have room in your budget for one more? Thank you.

This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. ¹³Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, others will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. ¹⁴And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. ¹⁵Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift! – 2 Corinthians 8:12-15