So pain is less than fun. And I experienced a lot of pain just before leaving the Philippines.
It of course hurt to say goodbye to all the people I met there, but I’m actually talking about when I hurt my back.
See I was outside the YMC picking up a little girl while wearing my backpack. I don’t know why, but my low back was covered in a stupid level of pain. Really it was stupid.
But some of the boys there asked if I was okay and opened and closed the gate for me.
I couldn’t stop myself from crying. I mean I was in stupid pain, remember? But as soon as I got inside, I had squad mates find out what happened, get me ice, and get me pain killer. And multiple people prayed for me.
It sucked struggling to move around during my last days at the YMC and at debrief. But I had to rest, which is what I needed. And resting helped my back start feeling better.
Travel day was straight up awful. It was so bad. A bus ride, 2 plane rides, and another bus ride was less than helpful. It made my back hurt more. But my teammates helped me so much by carrying all my stuff when needed.
The first two days at El Shaddai I only found out which kid was my buddy, ate, and laid around. It was not much fun. Not much fun at all.
Our third day there was an off day. So most people were going off the mountain into town. Because of my back I decided to stay back. But when I woke up Saturday, I was feeling better, so I decided to go up to hang out with my buddy.
I didn’t find my buddy, Madida, at first. But I meet Auntie (Anti in SiSwati) Futhie. She cooks and cleans for the kids at El Shaddai. But she lives somewhere else, so she usually only goes home once a month and she has five kids. Her mom and sister look after her kids while she’s at El Shaddai.
Anyway I ended up helping cook the food. And this ended up being a daily thing that helped me become very close to the “Aunties” who work there and most the kids.
Oh and because of my back, I wasn’t able to help the squad with the gardening or work projects they had to do some days. It was difficult to deal with at first. But it allowed me to help in the kitchen more and spend more time with the younger boys.
I didn’t expect anything good to come from hurting my back. In fact, I thought it was a totally bad situation. But because I hurt my back I was served by my mates, had to text, and ended doing exactly what I was supposed to be doing and forming such amazing relationships with incredible people. Now I am thankful my back got hurt. And honestly I cannot even imagine how everything would be now if I had not gotten hurt.
So praise The Lord for bringing good even from bad events and circumstances and stupid amounts of pain.
Yeah. Much love!
