Throughout our lives, we all go through tough times. During these times it can be devastation, discouraging, and sometimes hard to see God. God is always with us, so it is up to us to notice and to recognize His presence. If we don't choose to see God while going through something challenging it can seem very hopeless. I am going to share my experience of the hardest thing I have ever been through, and where I saw God throughout it.
My team and I had about a week left in Cambodia, so on one of our off days we took a 7 hour bus ride to go see Angkor Wat (one of the modern 7 wonders of the world). I wasn't feeling the best on the day we left because I had a bad ear infection and a stomach ache. I had gone to the doctor that morning for the ear infection so that was going to start improving soon. We stayed the night in Siem Reap and woke up early the next morning to go explore the temples of Angkor Wat. My stomach ache was better by the time I went to bed, so in the morning I felt up to going to the temples. As we were exploring, the stomach pain started to come back and I realized that it was getting much worse than before. It was getting to the point where I couldn't stand up straight and I knew something was very wrong. My wonderful teammate Aimee had no problem leaving Angkor Wat early with me and we rushed to find a Tuk Tuk and get to a hospital. Aimee was a gift from God because she gave me so much encouragement and helped me not worry about the medical payments or anything. Through broken English and seeing the pain on my face, the driver knew to take me to a hospital. We drove through bumpy, dirt roads to finally come to a hospital.
I had instant relief being there and I had this sense of peace that everything was going to be ok. I saw a doctor quickly, they gave me pain medicine, and drew my blood. After looking at the bloodwork, they quickly decided that I had Salmonella and hooked me up to an IV. I felt much better at this point and things were quickly looking up. They said that the treatment would take about 3 days. It was a somewhat older hospital and there was no nurse button, but instead a nurse sitting outside my room zapping bugs with a bug zapper. Once my IV would finish each day no one checked on me throughout the rest of the night. By the 3rd day, when the treatment was just about done I was in even more pain than before. This is where I was starting to get really scared.
On that third morning the pain was bad again so we got a nurse and they gave me a shot straight in my butt. I had a quick sense of relief but soon realized that it hadn't helped the pain at all, and in fact the pain was getting much worse. It felt as if something in my stomach was about to explode, but had no idea what it would be. I wasn't able to keep down any food and the treatment wasn't doing anything. The nurses came back and said they had some "Chinese medicine" to help with the pain. It sounded a bit sketchy but I was in so much pain that I let them proceed to give me this Chinese shot straight into the side of my knee. Once again, no relief and the pain was increasing. The pain was getting to the point where I couldn't breathe all the way in and it hurt so bad that I couldn't even cry. I was very uncomfortable and couldn't sit, lay, or stand so I was starting to panic.
Sara, my incredible teammate stayed with me through all of this and always made it seem like everything would be ok even though she was having a tough time herself. She was a gift from God because of the words she spoke to me and the back scratch I needed when the pain meds didn't work. The doctor seemed to be confused to why I was still in a lot of pain and gave me what looked like charcoal pills and then proceeded to tell me to go to the bathroom and force myself to vomit with my finger. I had never heard of a doctor telling someone to do that, but I was getting desperate. I was getting to the point that I wished I would just pass out. Just as I thought things were hopeless, Will walked in. Will was a guy we met a couple days prior. He worked for YWAM and had gotten his appendix removed and had to come back every day for an IV. He was a gift from God as well because he would come and hang out with Sara and I. He knew some Khmer (the Cambodian language) and was able to translate some for us. He showed up during my worst point that morning and told us about an international hospital down the road. This was just the glimmer of hope I needed and so we quickly started packing things up and he went and translated to the doctor that I was transferring.
The pain was almost unbearable at this point but we arrived at the other hospital and God gave me a sense of relief again. God had given me another gift with the Tuk Tuk driver we used that day, who carried my bag for me and gave me a hug before I went inside the hospital. I finally felt like I was in a safe place and somehow I just knew that everything was going to be ok. The nurses could see I was hurting so they quickly got me into a CT scan to figure out what was going on. While we waited for the results they gave me an IV with pain meds…but once again they didn't work…tried again and they didn't work…third injection at the new hospital and finally the pain was taken away and I could lay down again. The CT scan showed that I had gall stones stuck in a tube (which was causing all the pain) and that there were more in my gall bladder. My doctor said I had to have two procedures done: one to remove the stones and one to remove my gall bladder (both of the procedures I would be put to sleep. I was just excited to hear some answers and I was ready to go to surgery at that second…the only problem was that they couldn't do either procedure at this hospital…or anywhere in Cambodia.
My heart sank again, but they continued to explain that I could take an hour flight to Bangkok, Thailand where they could do the procedures. This sounded great except for my passport was 7 hours away at the Indian Embassy in Phnom Penh getting processed for a visa for India. Sara called our squad leaders and explained our situation. Just as I was thinking things were hopeless again, Sara hung up and said that they would figure everything out. Less than 24 hours later I was on a flight to Bangkok. The squad leaders and Jeff was able to convince the people at the embassy to give them my passport and then 2 of the squad leaders hopped on a night bus and got a flight booked for that morning. The new pain meds were starting to stop working again but this time I had the hope of making it to Bangkok. On the plane we noticed my eyes and skin and eyes starting to turn a little yellow. I was scared again but new that I was on my way to surgery.
Traveling to the new hospital was very painful but God was still with us. Everything went as smooth as it could possibly go. A wheel chair picked me up right off of the plane, sped us through every single line, baggage claim went by quickly, and we found a shuttle that sped us straight from the airport to the hospital. They were quickly able to figure everything out and I went through one procedure the first night and the surgery the next day.
Marielle, one of our squad leaders, stayed the 6 nights with me at the hospital as I recovered and slowly moved from a liquid diet to a regular diet again. On the 6th day I got my stitches out and left the hospital to go straight to the airport to fly to Africa. I was quite nervous and anxious to leave the hospital, but what kept me fighting the whole time was that I knew that I was called to finish the rest of this Race. I knew I wasn't meant to do just 6 months of it. My heart has been in Africa my whole life and I was not about to leave right before it was time to transition to Africa. The love and support that I felt ALL week from my squad helped keep me fighting for this. None of them were giving up on me so I was not about to give up on them. They prayed for me so much and left me so many encouraging words that I could not have been more excited to join them again in Africa. It was extremely hard for me to be away from my family during all of this, but God took care of me.
Another reason I never gave up on this trip was because my family and friends at home were fighting for me so much. I saw a new strength in my family that I had never seen before. As worried as my parents were, they never once asked or told me that it would be better/safer if I just came home. Their trust that God would take care of me encouraged me so much and confirmed that continuing on was the right decision.
After being through all this and seeing how God spoke to me through the people and situations helped give me a peace through the whole situation. I am starting to be thankful for this whole ordeal because God gave me a new confidence in myself and in Him. It makes me think of the verse: "I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength," and also; "God never gives us more than we can handle." This is so true because each time things seemed hopeless God spoke through the people around me to get me through it.
