Our month in Lesotho was great, and it definitely provided some of the most memorable moments of the trip thus far. One of those memories comes with a few scars so that I will never forget it. I was expecting the unexpected this trip, but never would I have guessed that I would be rushed from a small village in Africa to the nearest hospital for an emergency surgery. Thankfully, God had it all planned out and even let me have some fun in the process.
Let me set the scene… It was one of my favorite days of the month up to the point that the pain started. I reconnected with my friend Moseli (read all about him in last week’s blog) and a few women who had grown very close to our hearts were healed of some injuries they were dealing with. It is still a day that I look back on and celebrate, despite what happened next. We had just hopped in the truck to go work in the fields, and I felt some pain in my lower abdomen. Within ten minutes, before we even reached our work site, I was in unbearable pain and had a noticeable fever. I knew something serious was happening, I had never felt so sick and been in so much pain in such a short time frame. My friend Alex had his appendix removed a while back, and he seemed to instantly recognize what was happening, so we turned around and figured out how to get to a hospital.
That was a rough ride. Every bump we hit along the dirt road made things a lot worse. After about an hour and a half, we made it to the hospital. They saw how much pain I was in and took me in pretty quickly to start the process. It was decided right away that I needed to get my appendix removed, but I needed to wait until the morning because the surgeon who was there at the time did not know how to perform the laparoscopic appendectomy. Thankfully, I made it through the night without any further complications and I was taken in for surgery the following morning. Pretty crazy how God shows up in these kinds of times. You would think that as I laid down on the operating table I would be pretty terrified, but I knew He was in control because I was blanketed by His supernatural peace the entire time.
I woke up that afternoon and was told that everything went smooth. I was in some pain and would be for the next few days, but the surgery was successful. I just had to spend a couple days in the hospital and then I could head back to our village. This is where God got creative. He introduced me to my new friend in the bed across from me, Majara. It was clear that this was a divine appointment because not only was Majara the only man I could physically see from my bed, he was also the only man in my ward that spoke english. That was definitely no accident. We got to talking and I learned a bit of his story and how he found himself in a really tough spot. He had chains around his ankles, and told me that he had been in a fight with the police and once he was medically cleared they were taking him to prison. Over the next few days we had some great conversation, went on our doctor-ordered walks around the hospital together, and simply hung out and laughed a lot. After those few days, it was clear that the Lord had touched this man’s heart. He had a sense of peace knowing that his life was in the hands of Jesus, and he was ready for whatever was coming next. I am so thankful that God allowed our paths to cross. I learned a lot from that man and it was definitely a friendship that both of us needed at the time.
I love how God sees every situation as an opportunity to love His people. What I saw as a huge bummer, He saw as a way to make a new friend and provide some much needed encouragement. Next time you find yourself in a less than ideal situation, I encourage you to pause and look around, maybe God brought you there for something special. After a few days, they gave me the thumbs up to go back to our village. God hit me with one last blessing on the way out. My total bill for the surgery, all the medicine, and three days in the hospital was only $16. That is not a typo. As someone who is fundraising to be on this trip, the bill that I was expecting was definitely going to set me back a bit, but God had it all taken care of! I’m all healed up now and am back to our scheduled ministry work with my squad in Swaziland. Thank you all for your prayers throughout this process, I can’t wait to tell you all about the next time that God shows up in an unexpected way!
