Not your typical Beginning: Jellyfish, underwear, and compassion

Not Your Typical Beginning- Jellyfish, Undies, and Servanthood

” It’s day 5 and I’ve already seen my leader in her underwear.” Is a journal entry written by one of my teammates, Jeremiah. Needless to say the month did not start out as planned. It all started in Boca Chica on squad day before we would be split up for our different ministries. World racers were scattered across the beach playing soccer, tanning, sipping on coconuts and coronas, and swimming in the ocean, when out of no where the jellyfish attack. I was innocently walking back to shore with several of my teammates, when my legs started itching and it felt like I was being pinched all over. Ahead I heard “jellyfish!”, and once out of the water I was handed a lime to squeeze on my legs to help with the sting; No problema right? Wrong. The next day we were all loaded up on the bus, and my legs were on fire. I lifted up my skirt to see that the once little splotches on the fronts of my quads were now the size of hand prints and inflamed red. After an Almost 2 hr bus ride from Santo Domingo we arrived in Azua. 

Our ministry contacts for the first week are Pastor Louis Ferrara, and his wife Rebecca in a neighborhood called Feince Sei. World race style our packs are all in the back of a truck with our men, and we are off down a dusty road lined with Palm trees and Guineo groves. We arrive and are ushered into our bedroom that is three quarters of the way full with the bed, and the other quarter space is soon occupied by all of our luggage.  

Everything here is dusty, but the people are not dry and lifeless, they are so full of JOY. It’s so amazing to me how much JOY these people have. The Lord has given them joy and it pours out in their smiles, their hospitality, and their hunger to go out and share the word of God. Yep, that’s right the first night we were here we got to go out with the church and share the word, pray and invite people in the community to come to church service with us. Service here is so, again, full of JOY. All I wanted to do was get up and twirl, and twirl the kids, so I did. Thank you God for freedom to worship you. 

When we got back to the house, across the street, I was sweaty, and gross, and my legs were super inflamed, and starting to get blistery. I showed Pastor Louis, because he is also a doctor, and he gave me some oral antibiotic medication to take to keep away infection and said he would check it out again in the morning. It was so hard to sleep. I woke up the next day and the blisters were huge, literally stuck out over 1.5 inches in some places, and every time I sat down they would pop, and leak and leave constant wet streaks on my skirt, lovely. Pastor Louis got me an antibiotic creme as well, but the itching, burning, and soreness continued.

Then next day I had to stay in from ministry, and the next day and the next, because it was so painful to walk and the redness and swelling were spreading. Pastor Louis took me to the neighborhood clinic with Katie, and unfortunately I hadn’t done my research before going. I walked into a room with a medical table covered in a used sheet, a table with saline solution in what looked  like an old pop bottle, and a metal bowl filled with not so sanitary water that all the medical instruments were soaking in. At this point I was in so much pain I was willing to have anything done just to relieve a little. Little did I know that everything that was about to be done was exactly the opposite of how you are supposed to treat jellyfish stings. They had me lay on the table on my stomach, and with Katie in front of me holding my hand they popped every single blister on my legs, mainly with tweezers ( that came out of the bowl), and pulled off all the skin connected. They then proceeded to scrub my skin down several layers, until it was completely raw. I’ve never been in so much pain in my entire life. Before they began they gave me a shot in the hip, that I had no idea what it was, but was hoping it was a numbing agent, it wasn’t. 

Thank the Lord for Katie coming with me, because I almost went by myself. I came close to crushing the bones in her hand several times, and was in much need of a wooden spoon to bite. The people in the waiting room were most likely terrified to be seen after hearing me sobbing and crying out on the other side of the wall. Throughout my pain though, there was peace. Peace as my teammate clenched my hand, and prayed peace over me. She just continued to speak peace over the room we were in and speak over me that I was strong. I don’t think I could have gone through it if she hadn’t been there. 

I never thought when I prayed for compassion that this is the route I would need to take, but our God can use all things for the glory of his kingdom, and as awful as it was, I would do it again, and again to have what he’s given me in my heart. On that day alone, he opened my eyes to the medical care the people in Dominican receive, and I was given top notch treatment I’m sure. My heart is more broken for the injured, I can now pray with more empathy for those in pain, and I was brought Joy, as odd as that seems. Joy from the fact that God doesn’t give us more that we can handle, and he has confidence in me, Rachael Grace, to wade through this pain and come out on the other side with him, more equipped to Love other people, and depend on him.