“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men!”

What comes to your mind when you think of shepherds watching by night in the fields of Bethlehem? How about myriad angels singing a private concert for a lowly group of children keeping the night watch over their master’s sheep?

These children and their songs will forever haunt my imagination as I ponder such wonders. The week prior to my hearing and recording these songs, these very children of Kush were indeed watching through the night on the eve when all of our children watch. But they weren’t looking for a jolly old white man in a red suit bearing candy, Game Boys and iPods.

They were watching for the Messiah, the Prince of Peace, the King of Kings!

And they were offering the only gift they have to bring.

They are the faces of “the little drummer boy” and his friends who offer their song of adoration to the King who comes to set them free. Their songs resound throughout the region of the Moro Hills of the Nuba Mountains on Christmas Eve as they wander all night through the villages, calling their people to prepare the way for the coming of the King! Their invitations compel the lost and the wayward to find their way home and to make ready for His return.

I asked Nabil Timos, the leader of this song, if he knew who the author was. He simply smiled and answered, “It’s just a song I heard.” His reply, and the look on his face, seemed to imply there was no earthly person to credit.

It is my deep desire to be there with them soon on a Christmas Eve

to share that great Advent anticipation with a child’s faith -

to watch with them -

to document their offering of worship for others to see -

to listen for angels singing “tidings of great joy which shall be to all peoples of the earth!”