It is Tuesday morning here in Mandalay, Myanmar and my team is out at ministry teaching English lessons to local adults at the church we are partnering with. However, I am sitting at the hostel we are staying at, not with my team, because God decided that He has other lessons He wants me to learn instead.
So bear with me for a minute. For the last day and a half I have stayed back from ministry because explosive diarrhea—yes, the kind where if you don’t make it to the toilet fast enough it comes anyway—every 10 minutes, a 30 minute bus ride to ministry, and only squatty-potties at the ministry site do not mix very well.
You heard that right.
I am currently fighting with explosive diarrhea.
Oh the joys of day-to-day life following God’s call into a foreign country.
However, even through the annoyance of missing ministry and spending very large portions of my day on the toilet, God has been teaching me lots of things that I might not have otherwise learned/it would have taken a lot longer for me to learn.
Lesson #1: This is most definitely a lesson, but also a running joke for both my last team as well as my new team. You need to be fully empty in order for God to fill you with everything He wants to fill you with. And God thinks He’s so funny by teaching me this lesson through a parallel of physical emptying.
Lesson #2: It is easier to hear God when you sit in stillness. And what better place to sit in stillness then on the toilet?
Lesson #3: Humility. It is very humbling when you poop your pants 3x in less than two hours and the cleaning lady for your room witnesses you having to change twice while she is still in the process of cleaning you and your teammates bedroom. Additionally, God showed me James 4:10 last night: Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will life you up. Last night I was wondering what humbling yourself looked like, and while I don’t think God meant for everyone to poop their pants, my experience was definitely humbling and brought me before the Lord (see Lesson #2).
Lesson #4: Surrender. So I grew up in a frugal household and naturally am a pretty frugal person, including while I am on the Race. You can ask any of my former or current teammates I am always the person asking for a “take-away” (to-go) box and then collecting the leftovers of everyone’s meals so that they become my next meal and I don’t need to buy one. However, even though this sense of not wanting to spend excess money is not bad—it can become bad when it affects my ability to do ministry. You see, I was eating meals from the slightly sketchy restaurant at the corner of our street because it was cheap, rather than ordering food from the pizza place that we know cooks their food fully, and I was drinking water out of a tank that we are pretty sure has mold in it—both of which probably did not help my case of diarrhea, if they didn’t cause it themselves. And although “safety is a personal choice” (one of the WR mantras) I should not make the choice solely personal when it begins to hinder my ability to complete the task God has placed in front of me. So for the rest of the month I’m going to supplement meals with my personal money to ensure that I am not hindering my body from being able to do what God has placed me here to do.
Lesson #5: That God will provide for me and things are just that—things. For most of the Race I have been very careful to take care of my clothing because I have a very limited amount for the entire 11 months; however, as I was debating “do I really need to throw out this pair of underwear and shorts—MAYBE they are salvageable” God convicted me that in this area to the fact that I was not trusting Him to be able to provide for me on the most basic of level, clothing. Heck, this month we can only wear shorts around our hostel, and for at least two out of the next three months I will most likely be only in skirts—so then why am I so concerned about throwing away my shorts? Because I wasn’t trusting God fully. Ouch. That one hit me probably the hardest. But thankfully God gives grace, and now that I know I can trust God to provide for me as His name says He will—Jehovah Jireh. Side note: after I made this realization I ended up needing to throw away four pairs of underwear and one pair of shorts….
So yeah, those where the five lessons that God chose to teach me today through the channel of explosive diarrhea. Although it is comical (yes, I am laughing at it too) if you would please pray that it goes away quickly I would greatly appreciate it. I have started taking ciprofloxacin, which is helping but prayers are ALWAYS appreciated. Thanks!
And because photos are always fun in blogs, here is a picture out of my window that I wake up to as well as one from what I casually see while walking down the street/highway—herds of cows!
