Ok, so here is an update of my first World Race month. I actually made it through month one! Team Deep Wells and God’s Magnolias we did it! This is picture is from the last day of children’s ministry.
Man, it seems like I’ve been here for a longer time than a month. So much has happened in that time. We traveled A LOT this month. First, we were in the city of Machava overnight. This is the place where the whole squad was before we all split to go to our designated ministries, and where we met up right before we leave for South Africa (First debrief!). After Machava, we went to Maputo and here is where the journey began.
Maputo, the first city my team traveled to, was a blur to me. I broke out in hives (see pic below) due to an apparent food allergy from the flight to JoBerg from Istanbul. I took Benadryl before leaving Machava, then was offered Tylenol PM from my team leader later that evening. Man, did that knock me out! I don’t remember when we arrived in Maputo (this could have been jet-lag too) but only remember waking up Sunday morning still itching and getting ready to go to Sunday morning service (this topic may be in another blog). Church service was good, aside from the constant itching. It was very different from your typical Adventist American style of service, something I will have to quickly get used to.
After service, Pastor Autur, our ministry host, took me to the nearby clinic. Praise God for him because I thought I was never going to find relief. The doctor there had to draw blood (scary moment) to see what was in my blood stream. That’s when he told me it was an allergic reaction to either the cheese or I ingested whatever meat they served on the plane. I was injected with a steroid, in my arm not my rear, and given two tablets I had to take 12 hours apart for a week. I made it 5 days until I realized I wasn’t getting much relief. I mean it wasn’t nearly as bad, but I was still a little itchy. Pastor took me to get hydrocortisone cream which did the trick!
Some of my teammates asked me if I thought the hives were a spiritual attack. I never thought of spiritual attacks before. I didn’t know what that meant, but that’s when I took it to Jesus, as Kacey, my squadmate, would often say. I asked God why was this happening to me and what I had to learn so early on in the race. Of course, I didn’t hear anything definite (another possible blog post). I just had to praise God through the itching.
This got me into a good habit though, because I had to take my tablets at 6 every morning! The first day I set an alarm but the rest of the mornings, even now, my body just gets up at 5:30. I get up and spend time with Jesus. What a friend we have. This time has become a time I look forward to, my own quiet time with Him. I always admired those early risers that could spend time with Jesus and not fall asleep. Well, now I can say that’s me! He was probably trying to get me in the habit of waking up early to spend time with Him. And I don’t hate it.
