Hello fellow blog readers! I thought it was about time for a blog post that informed you about my experiences and life lessons I have learned so far whilst being on the Race.
If you are a subscriber to my blog or are a frequent reader, you might recall that I contracted Dengue Fever back in January during month 1 of the Race. I won't go in to the details of that sickness, but basically I was down for the count and unable to do ministry for about 2 weeks because I was either sick with Dengue or I was recovering from it. (You can read my past blog posts about Dengue Fever here and here.)
Flash forward to month 4 of the Race, and I got sick. Again. My squad and I had just arrived in Thailand, and on day 2 of being there I woke up with a 102.5°F fever and was sore all over my entire body. I was worried that I might have gotten Dengue Fever again, so I went to the hospital to get checked out. Turns out I didn't have Dengue Fever, but instead I had bronchitis. And as Sweet Brown says, "Ain't NOBODY got time for that!"
But the fun didn't stop there! My fever and cough didn't go away after about a week. In fact, the fever got worse and I started having pains in my chest and it became harder to breathe. So I went back to the hospital and was told that the bronchitis turned into pneumonia. Lucky me, right?
So there I was. Month 4 of the Race in Chiang Mai, Thailand, and I was admitted to a hospital for the first time ever in my life. I spent 8 days and 7 nights in the hospital. And to top it all off, I had the "pleasure" of having my left lung drained of some nasty fluid. (That jar that I am holding is filled with the fluid that came out of me. Gross!) I was literally halfway around the world from my family and friends back home. Not only that, but I was unable to do ministry the entire time I was in Thailand because I was either sick, in the hospital, or recovering from my stay in the hospital. Sounds like a good enough reason to be sad, mad or upset, right? WRONG! God used this time to refine me and show me that He is so much greater than I could have ever imagined. Here are just two things I learned that month alone:
1) During my bout with pneumonia, many of you prayed for me. Some of you even fervently prayed for me. My mom would constantly Facebook message me or send me an email to tell me about the many World Race parents, friends and co-workers who were praying for me back home. Someone even called her from Canada to pray with her over the phone for me! I also got a lot of blog comments, emails and Facebook messages from you all saying that you were praying for me. I literally had people ALL around the world sending up prayers for me. And even though I still had to get the fluid drained from my lung, I was filled with so much joy and had a peace about it all. (Except for getting IV's and anything that required needles. I do NOT like needles. But you get the idea.) Yes, getting pneumonia was not ideal, but I realized how thankful I was for the power of prayer, for modern medicine, for the ability to even be able to go to a hospital and receive medical attention, and many, many, many, other things.
2) God can heal the sick, but sometimes he doesn't because His goodness is so much greater than what we can even comprehend. You see, if it wasn't for me getting sick, my teammates would have never gone to a nearby temple in Chiang Mai and met Toi, a former monk who now works at a temple and is an assistant to the head monk of over 1,300 temples in Chiang Mai! I want you to read some of their blog posts about Toi because you can definitely see how God used these girls to shine a light in a dark place. Toi might not have accepted Christ during the time we were in Thailand, but a seed was planted. And it's because of stories like my teammates meeting a former Monk and befriending him that, for the first time in my life, I have true confidence and assurance that God really can use a bad situation and turn it in to something good.
Here is a list of blogs written by my teammates about Toi:
- Sara Shoup – Praying at the Feet of Budda and I Stopped Going To Church This Month
- Pamela Gessler – Just Being Available and How Thailand was Not What I Expected
- Anika Erickson – The one where we preached Jesus in a Buddist Temple…
- Jen Dannelley – Jesus Loves Toys
I want to challenge all of you to seek out God's goodness the next time life throws you lemons. The situation might stink in the moment, but if you seek out God and ask Him to reveal Himself to you, He will. You might not see the forest for the trees during your "lemon" moment, but I guarantee God is working in your life! Hindsight is always 20/20, and God knew that this "lemon" situation was going to happen before you were even born. So take courage in knowing that He has already written your story and that He has your best interests at heart.
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