Our first few days at El Shaddai Orphanage, we were informed that we would be assigned an orphan to be our “buddy.” We would spend time tutoring and playing with our buddy over the course of the month. I kept my eyes open as I interacted with the children. I wanted a buddy that I interacted well with. I decided on a young woman named Cindy. She is 16 years old and definitely anointed by God. She told me her life story, which was horrible before coming to El Shaddai 4 years ago. The Lord gives her visions often and she delights in serving Him. In fact, coming to El Shaddai was a fulfillment of a word the Lord had given her. He had told her that He was going to take her to the top of a mountain to reveal more of Himself to her. That is exactly where we are: on top of a mountain in the middle of nowhere serving God and learning more about Him. Yep, Cindy was the one.
As the sign up list came around, I noticed the face of a 5 year old girl named Akeerah. She was at the very top of the list and her face really stood out to me. I didn’t know what to do. I stuck with my first choice and signed up to be Cindy’s buddy. But I still felt confused. After some thought I decided to ask one of our sqadmates, Katie D., if she could give me confirmation. You see, Katie has the gift of prophesy. After dinner, I went to ask for her help.
After explaining the situation and not indicating who the 2 girls were, Katie asked me if one of their names began with “A.” When I confirmed this to be true, she explained that she first saw a pink triangle and then the letter “A.” Okay, so Akeerah was my girl… I felt peace. The next day was our big “buddy” assignment ceremony. Akeerah didn’t seem excited to be my buddy. She was super quiet and uncomfortable. I started to second guess my decision until I asked her a question. I asked Akeerah what her favorite subject is in school, but she thought I had asked about her favorite color. She answered “pink.” Bam! I just smiled. After pushing her on the swing for a while, I got up enough courage to ask her what her favorite shape is… yep, you guessed it… triangle. Bam again! God is so cool.
I would love to tell you that Akeerah and I developed an awesome relationship and became best friends. That is not the case. Most of the time I wondered if she even liked me. She barely spoke to me and when she did, it was barely audible. Despite the uncomfortableness, I made the decision to love her. I didn’t see any change with Akeerah by the time we left, except that I got her to open up just enough to take a few pictures with me. Despite this, God has shown me grace and I’ve been able to keep my head up. I don’t know what purpose God intended in having us be buddies, but I know that without a doubt Akeerah was meant to be mine. I loved her while I could. Now, I feel that I’m meant to simply trust the Lord and let Him do with it what He wants.
