This past week has been mentally, physically and spiritually
rough for myself and my team as a whole.
When we first arrived at our home, we were given a bottle of
water and told it was ok to drink. Then, though some kind of language barrier,
we misinterpreted that as we were allowed to drink the tap water…huge mistake I
know. But, we did it. After two days, we were told my an American lady that has
lived in Albania for a little while that we should NOT drink ANY tap water
because we could get a parasite called Giardia. We were also told it would take
about 14 days to show up in our system if we even had it.
Flash forward to day 12 and Amanda violently throwing up in
our bathroom. Actually, it was coming out both ends. Day 13, Annee finds
herself in the same situation and even has to go to the hospital. Around 4:00
am of day 14, Lauren begins throwing up uncontrollably and is not feeling
better afterwards. Finally the night of day 14, Lauren Ricks and Alysa get the
gift as well. So now, we have had 5 out of 7 girls vomiting in three days.
Every night, Kaitlyn and I wait for our doom, but God has
kept us healthy so far.
And that is the physical and mental sickness most of us have
felt.
As for the spiritual sickness, I’ve heard a couple of the
girls attribute their pain to spiritual attacks. (and for good reason) Alysa
felt the worst stomach pain she felt all day when we were meeting with a couple
Muslim girls for crepes. You could assume it was just the crepes but
considering the fact that half our team members are crepe addicts and have at
least two a day, I wouldn’t be so quick to say that is was solely because of
the crepes.
Personally, I have not had the sickness yet, thank God, but
I have felt heavy for the past couple days. It just seems dark in Albania. Even
though people have light personalities and are very open with their feelings, I
have still felt uncomfortable the past couple days. Whatever is causing this
uneasiness and sickness in the girls on our team, it is not leaving. In fact,
another team is being attacked too, in their dreams.
Lindsey Thomas’s team has woken up every morning at 3:30am
due to someone having night terrors. Stephanie told me that this has happened
every night for the past week or so. They too attribute it to spiritual attacks.
Whatever the root is of this has to stop soon if we are
going to be able to perform to our best abilities. So, please pray for my team,
as well as all the other teams here in Albania. We all just need your prayers
right now, as we are experiencing attacks on our bodies, hearts and minds.
