Monday, March 25th, marked the worst day of my time on the Race so far.
After an amazing team time of snacks share and tell the night before, my stomach rebelled. I was going to the bathroom every couple of minutes and dehydrated to the point that I couldn’t take a sip of water without throwing up. I was miserable. Nicole suggested that I go to the doctor because it would be even worse to be sick and travelling. In the afternoon we went with Sonia and I did feel a lot better afterwards. Armed with Florestor and Powerade I was on the mend. The pharmacy only had 5 out the 10 Florestor pills the doctor prescribed, but I thought it’d be OK without the rest of the pills…
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday passed with me eating regularly and feeling normal again. However, Thursday night was celebration at the daycare and at YWAM and the accumulation of all the food caught up with me. I was sick again and this time even worse starting Friday morning. I still needed to pack and everything because we were leaving YWAM to meet up with the rest of the squad at the hotel in the afternoon, but my stomach was not happy and I was throwing up every couple of minutes. Thank God, for my teammates and their kindness in helping me pack while I was laid out and too weak to move.
I didn’t really have too much to spend saying goodbye to any of the students or staff members because I was stuck lying down and not being able to move without feeling nauseous, but in the end I was able to give everyone a hug and even tear up a bit as Sonia and Carla prayed for me.
After making it to the hotel and throwing up as soon as the taxi stopped, I took a hot shower and went straight to bed after taking a Florestor pill that Cherissa was nice enough to get for me at the pharmacy. I was hoping that resting Friday night would help and that I would feel better on Saturday to spend time with the squad and my team. As I was lying in bed on Friday, I could hear a bit of the praise and worship from squad time and the song Our God was sang…
Our God is greater
Our God is stronger
God you are higher than any other
Our God is healer
Awesome in power
Our God
Our God
Also, part of Trading My Sorrows…
Though the sorrow may last for the night
Joy comes with the morning
These verses just kept playing in my head and I was telling myself that “Yes, God is healer and joy will come in the morning.”
I wasn’t really feeling any better on Saturday and I started to wonder what lessons God was teaching me.
After staying all day at the hotel and thinking about it I realized that unless I was physically unable to, I would most likely have gone out and played all day with the rest of the squad and team and not have spent time resting like God has been trying to teach me to do all month.
I was learning to let go of what I wanted to do and letting God take control of my life. I made a promise to God that I would let His will be done in my life and that even if my sickness turned out to be more than just some food poisoning and it was my time to go home, I would be OK with that. Of course it was nothing that dramatic and I am feeling just fine now, but it was a point of vulnerability that I was finally able to reach only because my physical body was weak and there was nothing to be done, except to trust in God and His healing power.
I am super grateful that God has healed me and I am feeling almost 100% now just in time for the next 48 hours of travel from Bolivia to Romania, but I will never forget the importance of rest.
“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” – Matthew 11:28
