*To protect her privacy, I can’t put my buddy’s real name on here, so I’ll refer to her as M.
Our first night in El Shaddai, we found out we would be getting a buddy for the month. They were going to pair us with one of the kids living in the children’s home, and they set aside time every weekday for buddy time. During this time we help with homework and once that’s done get to play and hang out. I had only been playing with the pre-k and under so when it came time to sign up for buddies I didn’t know whom to pick. I had prayed for God to match us up because I wanted to get out of this month what He wanted for me. As I was scrolling through names and pictures, I came across a 4th grader named M. As soon as I saw it I just knew I was supposed to pick her even though I didn’t know her. When I met her, she had the most beautiful smile on her face. She radiates joy. In our first couple days together I saw a lot of myself in her. She gets frustrated if she doesn’t know an answer to a homework problem right away. She laughs a lot. She loves food and reading books. Everyday she teaches me to be more patient.
M also had a hard time focusing when it wasn’t just the two of us. If it’s raining and we are all in the same room, she is running around seeing what everyone else is doing and not wanting to focus on her homework or the activity we are doing. This began to really frustrate me. I started to feel hurt that she didn’t want to spend time with me. I would go after her and bring her back some days but other days I would get so frustrated that I would just tell her bye and let her do whatever she wanted to. We were in church this past Sunday, and it hit me all of sudden that this is what God is trying to teach me through M. He wants to spend time with me and teach me things, but often I get distracted and need to see what else is going on before I sit down with just God. He, however, doesn’t give up on me and constantly pursues me. And I realized that it hurts His feelings when I chose to do something else over spending time with Him. I need to spend as much time as I can with Him to be refilled. If I keep pouring out without being refilled, I won’t have anything to give to the precious children at El Shaddai or anywhere that we are. That’s the whole reason I’m here in the first place. So thank you Jesus for pairing me with M and using her to get through to me.
I am excited to announce that I have met the third financial deadline one month early!! I am humbled by all of your support. Thank you so much for supporting my journey!
