First Destiny… 

Then Faith. 

Cheers to my next stranger encounter. Mom and I met this beautiful woman, in the form of our server at a restaurant. I find that restaurants are the BEST locations to have divine encounters… because who doesn’t like food and good people?! We started off this meal with Destiny, laughing at our many flavors of Limoncello and sharing stories of mommy – daughter – isms.

*dramatic lighting shift + A flat minor chords*

Then this bright light came beaming toward us with a giant smile, kitsch fringe and twinning red lipstick…
lol. She came to see how we were before taking our order. Working in Italy, we easily assumed she was Italian, only to find out she was actually for New Orleans and her whistle while working could put a baby to sleep. She first asked mom her name… Benita, what a beautiful name! She then told us her name.

F A I T H. 

WHAT?! I nearly fell out of my chair! I’m sure I shocked the neighbors at the tables next to us (but what else is new?!) I stopped, composed myself, and said…
“This is Destiny. Her brother’s name is Iman… the male version of…”
Faith interrupts me to say… “That means Faith!”
I said… “MY name is Imani! 
We are FAITH SISTERS!”

She immediately starts praying for me and blessing my faith to take this step toward this move to Italy… By this point, I’m crying, Mom is laughing while trying to get a picture, and Destiny is sitting back like WOW. If I could tell you how much fire was passed through our hands. 

D I V I N E 
E N C O U N T E R

Destiny said… does this type of stuff happen to y’all often?
Our response: All the time! 

—
When it came time to finish our meal, and we got to share that we were celebrating mom’s birthday, Faith sang us the most beautiful Amazing Grace, in lieu of the traditional birthday song. She silenced the entire restaurant… and I’m sure you could imagine, our eyeballs were sweating! All I kept saying was…
This was such a special night…
One I know the 4 of us (strangers) will hold in our hearts forever.