I know, I know, I haven’t wrote a blog in like forever. Sue me. Actually, please don’t do that.
In my defense I had a few drafts on Word documents( because of you save them on here, when you do open them to the public it still will say the publishing date was when you first put it on private/development) but then my free trial of Office ran out and I haven’t decided if that is a purchase I need to make for now.
So month 2 in Malaysia has been pretty neat, this place is awesome. Awesome location, awesome contact, awesome people, awesome monkeys, awesome food. What is not so awesome is that along the way of trying all of this really nice food, I got food poisoning. That doesn’t sound too bad usually as it was something I definitely expected to get multiple times on the Race. Except this isn’t the normal one or two days of a tummy ache illness no this is a nasty bacterial infection called campylobacteriosis. What this sucker causes after 1-2 days of being inside of you is :as many as 10 watery, frequently bloody, bowel movements per day, abdominal pain mimicking a freakin appendicitis, fever that can get up to 104 (mine never got that high!), headaches, and symptoms can last anywhere between 2-10 days. Well its only day 4 for me meaning tomorrow I could be feeling great, or I could really only be halfway there.
Not gonna lie some healing would be real nice about now.
I honestly expected to have been healed by this point. I was praying, my team was praying, I had seen God heal others and even me(earlier blog) so I was pretty confident that God would show up.
Yep any second now…..
Tuesday: Read a blog on how God had healed a squadmate of mine from a nasty heat rash. Cool God, my turn! Any second now…..
Wednesday: Went to the hospital to get medicine and diagnosed. Doctor seems confident it isn’t that serious. Any second now….
Thursday: Ok God, I got my medicine, I got you, let the healing begin! Any second now…….
Friday: Symptoms still present. Getting really bored being by myself all day. Any second now would be great God. Read on Facebook that God healed some aching teeth of one of my squad leaders.
I should rejoice over that, I should be thankful.
But really, a tooth ache Lord! You chose to heal that over my stomach issues?
Why? Our team only has five people on it, and me not being able to go means that is 20% of our team not there, a pretty significant percentage. A sick me forced 2 of my teammates to leave the ministry we are doing and take me to the doctors. A sick me meant one less person that went out to love on the homeless and help them get to know God. A sick me means incomplete team times and feedback sessions. I don’t get it.
I am going to continue to wrestle with the Lord on these issues, but for now all I can do is be patient.
I would say I am a pretty impatient person. I get irritated when the food I ordered doesn’t arrive in a timely matter, waiting rooms are the worst, and slow drivers, OH those slow drivers!
I think that how we define patience today, waiting without complaining, is not the same patience that Paul listed as a fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22. That patience is much more powerful and meaningful; to endure discomfort without complaint.
I can’t say I have shown the greatest of patience over the last few days. I have come to realize how far I need to go in my process of sanctification. Compared to Paul who was beaten, stoned, imprisoned, shipwrecked (multiple times), and even bitten by a snake, my suffering is nothing. So even though I don’t understand why, I can still use this illness to practice patience.
Any second now….
