Proud To Be a Tewahedo Orthodox Girl – Part 3

Good morning Deacon Hermon, 

Thank you very much for coming to my Church’s  negdet and meeting with me and the youth. I hope you all had a blessed trip and arrived safely in Canada.

Your sister in Christ,
Selam

This was the email I sent Deacon Hermon, on Monday morning following my Church’s negdet. It was just a way for me to say thank you for coming and to check if they all arrived home safely.

In my heart I had no other intentions, but our awesome God truly works in mysterious ways. This simple email allowed Deacon Hermon and I to start communicating with each other.  It gave me an opportunity to ask him questions about our faith and he was always great at explaining everything in detail and never hesitated in answering any of my questions.

Our friendship was pure and innocent. Within two months, we had become really good friends and we noticed we had so much in common. It was as if God had placed us both in the right place at the right time.  We both had a mutual feeling that we wanted to take our friendship to the next level, but we first decided to pray and fast for three days and ask God for guidance and to lead us to the next step. We wanted it to be His will not ours. We both fasted and prayed individually. We didn’t speak or communicate with each other for those three days.

A couple of years prior to meeting Deacon Hermon, I was leading a Single Women’s Bible Study Group and one of the activities I had done with the ladies was making a checklist of all the qualities we each wanted in our future husband.  My checklist was as follows:

• A strong Tewahedo Orthodox believer
• Godly man
• Born and raised in North America
• Excellent communication skills
• Hardworking and a leader
• Educated (at least a Bachelor’s degree)
• Family oriented
• Honest and Trustworthy
• Dedicated and Loyal
• Respectful and humble

I hadn’t seen my checklist in a long time, because all the guys that I had previously met through family friends, relatives and church members did not meet most of my requirements.  So I had folded and tucked it in one of my notebooks. During my three day fast, I happened to come across it and Deacon Hermon had all the qualities I wanted in my future husband.  I was able to check mark every single box on my list. It was amazing how God had given me exactly what I had prayed and patiently waited for.

After three days of praying and fasting, Deacon Hermon and I decided…

To be continued!