Meet Leeana.

That first day when I saw Leeana in the crush of kids crowding our porch, I thought she was a boy. Along with the baggy secondhand clothes, her deep voice, close-cropped hair and rough exterior made her appear anything but feminine. When I discovered she was in my group and asked Melissa to remind me what the name of that boy was, I’ll never forget her response: “That’s actually a girl, her name is Leeana, and you’re not the first person to make that mistake.”

I don’t know her story of where she came from or how she got to the Pravda orphanage, but I’m sure it must be a crazy one. All week long I watched as Leeana sauntered around the orphanage, mostly on her own. When I did see her with other kids, she was often verbally bossing or physically pushing them around. Most times I think we wrote her off as “that crazy girl,” and she never did much to change our opinions.

Then came picnic day! Each of the camp’s 6 teams headed down to the river with bags of juice and soda, cookies and chips, for some bonding and fun. In the midst of the feeding frenzy, some slight confusion left Leeana out of our party. Angrily she stalked off to the river on her own, the lone outsider among the celebrants.

Towards the end of the picnic, I finally learned what had happened. Most of the kids had returned to the river and most of the food was gone, but I rushed around to gather what leftovers I could. I brought my scavenged 2 cups of juice and box of chip-like things to a quiet spot on the edge of the river and called for Leeana to come join me for a private picnic, not knowing if she would continue to sulk or accept my invitation.

What happened next caught me completely by surprise. Leeana came and sat, but not for long. On her way out of the water and up the bank, she’d spotted a boy from our group who looked like he was having a bad day. Before I knew it, my tough little tomboy had her cup of juice in hand and was off at a brisk pace to offer her drink; he turned her down. So she returned for our picnic–and took off a second time to offer him our last box of chips. Again, he refused (the little punk), so she offered them to other kids and teachers instead. I sat in amazement at this simple act. Coming from someone else, maybe it wasn’t such a big deal. But from Leeana, that simple act was so out of character and spoke volumes. We sat, enjoying the rest of our picnic in the summer sun, and I shot up a quick prayer of thanks and asked God to continue softening these kids’ hearts towards each other and him.