Fekerite

Pronounced: Fa-keer-ta
Age: 16
Grade: 3

For me, Fekerite's story begins two years ago, when I decided to take sign language as my homeschool elective. I didn't know anyone who was deaf or even knew sign language. I was just tired of trying to learn spanish and thought sign language could be a fun alternative. So I taught myself for the last two years of high school. I really grew to love it and started learning more in my free time. Signing became something I had a passion for. But still, I had never signed with another person, besides my mother who was trying to learn with me. I just knew that there was a reason I was learning it and that God was going to use it in my life somehow at some time. Until then, I was patiently submitting to learning as much as I could.

Now, skip ahead to my trip to Ethiopia.

Upon arrival, I was telling Danielle, a member of our team, about my signing and about how I had never met a deaf person. With interest, she mentioned that there was a deaf girl in the BCI orphanage. (BCI is the organization we were working with in Ethiopia) I immediately got excited, and then Danielle said, "But I doubt she knows sign language, and even if she did, it wouldn't be American Sign Language like you know."
I then asked a BCI social worker about her, who agreed that the chances she knew American Sign Language were very slim.

With small hopes, I visited the orphanage the following day and found this "deaf girl."
She seemed to be on her own, a lonely, quiet type, keeping to herself.
I walked up to her, formed my hands into the correct shapes, and made the sign for "name."
She looked at my eyes, smiled, and made the sign for "Fekerite."

And my heart filled with joy.

So Fekerite and I sat down that day and talked and talked. She told me how she enjoyed school and church and her younger brother, Teddy, was in the orphanage as well. She told me none of her friends at the orphanage knew sign language. Not even her brother or the adults knew it. No one knew it. She told me about how she sits and watches the kids talk and play and have fun, and she can't follow any of it, so she just stares in boredom and frustration. She told me how glad she was that I had come and talked to her.

I told her she was the first deaf person I had ever signed with.
She thought that was pretty cool.
I thought God was pretty cool.

So I spent a lot of my time in Africa getting to know this girl, connecting with her, and loving on her. But that's not even the best part. That's not even the point. The point is this:

That's a picture of my new friend and I talking. But do you see the rest of the picture? See all those kids sitting around the table staring at us? Those are orphans; the kids who live with Fekerite. They're staring at us as if they've never seen anyone speak in sign language before. Well, I quickly realizes that they never had seen anyone speak in sign language before! There is no deaf culture or deaf awareness in Ethiopia. There is no education on the deaf society. Fekerite was probably the only deaf person they had ever met, just like me. So these beautiful children had no idea that the motions Fekerite had been making with her hands her whole life actually made up a language. They didn't know it was actually a way of communicating, until they saw someone else come in and do it too. And they were enthralled.
The next day I went back to the orphanage to hang out with Fekerite. Now, do you see the girl in the far left of the picture, wearing the green shirt? Her name is Beza and she is 15 years old. When I walked into the orphanage the next day, Beza walked up to me and excitedly showed me the signs Fekerite had taught her the previous night. She was learning. She wanted to learn. I was so EXCITED.

And by the end of the week, I was talking to Fekerite about teaching more of the kids, and another girl had already started learning. I am going to send a sign language book to the orphanage so they can all learn together.

God is so good, my friend. And he shows up in totally unexpected ways. If for nothing else, THAT is why I learned sign language. And if for nothing else, THAT is why God sent me to Ethiopia; to introduce this beautiful language to lovely orphans who only needed to see in order to want to reach out to their silent sister.

The point wasn't that I got to spend two weeks using my sign language skills with a lonely, deaf girl in Africa. Although that was an incredible experience. The point was that Fekerite will soon be communicating and laughing and playing with the kids she's lived with for years.

Never take your eyes off of God.
Always follow his direction,
even when you don't understand it.
Never doubt his plan.

Because he has a plan.
Boy, does he have a plan.

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose." Romans 8:28