When you first sign up for the World Race, you know that over the course of this 11 month adventure, you will be sick at some point. It’s inevitable. With the community living, the new and oddly prepared foods, climate changes, and overwhelming amounts of bacteria something is bound to happen.
For the first three months, I’m pretty sure that I had an iron immune system and an iron stomach. I would eat any street food and drink from questionable water sources and nothing could touch me. When getting tested for parasites in El Salvador, I’m the only one from the people who got tested who came out totally clean. I was feeling good. And then I got to Romania….
I’m not the biggest fan of farms to begin with. We have been living this month in basically an amazing hotel smack dab in the middle of a cow farm. There are a lot of animals, and if you know me, you know that I’m not exactly what you would call an “animal lover.” But even though I’m not in my element, the farm here is beautiful and the weather has been fabulous. Our ministry this month in Oradea, Romania has been working on constructing a type of Habitat like house. I’ve sanded, spackled, and laid some pretty intense amounts of insulation despite being sick for a week and a half.
Me and Kelly King in our Insulation Space Suits
Me and some of the girls after a long day of laying insulation
Cows on the cow farm…..(photo courtesy of Hosanna Sheeley)
When I got to Romania, the flu got me. It tore down my immune system and kicked it around a few times. For a week, I was sick with body aches and fever and headaches. Also, I had decided to do a screen fast that week away from Internet, movies, etc. in order to be centered and fully pressed into the Lord. Being sick is maybe the most miserable time to do a screen fast if I’m completely honest. The only option I had for entertainment was reading, and I was in no shape to do much of that. Most of my time during the day was spent in thought and prayer and goodness did the Lord speak to me!
I was able to seriously work through some junk that I’ve been carrying around for years and come to some pretty big emotional revelations about myself and my relationships in general. And then I got a stomach infection on top of having the flu. Zero fun continues. I would be totally fine if I never threw up again. But I was no longer doing a screen fast.
The Lord revealed to me over my time of being sick and really over my time here in Romania, that it’s always a choice. We have as much of the Lord as we want, which is a scary concept. Think about it, right now, in this very moment you have as much of God in your life as you want. And I’m done settling. I want more, so much more. And I’m tired of just simply asking for more in prayer, it’s time to make the choice and choose more than what I’m doing right now. It is so easy to get distracted by the internet, our computer screens, our cell phones-and when we have those things, it’s a much easier choice to than sitting in intensive quiet listening prayer, or reading scripture, or even journaling what God is saying and teaching. It’s time to choose more than the easy and make the choice that brings so much more. The harder choice almost always comes with the greatest reward. And the reward of getting filled with more and more of the Lord and fully enjoying Him and His glory is greater than everything else that we distract ourselves with.
I would never trade being sick for that week and a half. It changed my whole life.
Much love,
sisk
