*no pictures this time guys. trust me, I’m doing you a favor…
It’s the fist day of ministry here in Africa and I’m stricken ill. We were doing carpentry at an elderly home and I began to feel very light headed. As I stepped outside the urge to pass out and throw up over came me. It was only by my unshakable stubbornness that I kept it down and made it to a patch of grass outside under a tree. So there I lay, fading in and out of consciousness, in the middle of this African Nursing home. Well, I suppose it was more fading out because I woke up about half an hour later to my teammates sitting near me. They asked, “are you okay?” So naturally I cracked a cheesy joke suggesting I’m fine.
I knew one problem was that I was dehydrated so I filled my bottle up with water from the well that was in that place. Brightest idea in the area of sanitation? Probably not, but give me a little grace here. We have been drink water from the sink since the race started and I’m not in the best mind at this point anyways. After we were finished, we walked back to our humble abode (an old preschool) and I went straight to the toilet. I’ll save you the details, but it wasn’t pleasant. following that delightful experience I went to the room with the best air circulation and, using one of my jackets as a pillow, took a well needed nap on the concrete floor. I proceeded to use the toilet about 6 other times during this poor excuse for a nap. Again, it was never pleasant. After waking up shivering, which is odd to me because it must have been at least 85 degrees, I noticed that some one filled my water bottle up and placed it by my side. No doubt, one of the wonderful Women of God on the other team that we are sharing this housing/ministry with.
As the others left for Soccer club, Zach and I stayed back. He wasn’t feeling well either and Jon stayed with us. Between the shivering and toilet visits, we both continued to try to get some rest. There was some relief toward the end of the day, but that was dispelled by 1am and 2am wake up calls to the toilet. Not a pretty sight, I know. So what then? Am I awake at 3:07 am right now, typing this on my phone to tell you how difficult things have been our first few days here in Africa? Heaven forbid; rather, let me not forget to share the following.
When waking up at 1am, I saw that down the hallway 2 women were still up with their bibles. In order to avoid the embarrassment of what I knew was about to take place in my office(the toilet), I sneakily tip toed into the bathroom. When I woke up again an hour later, I could no longer remain in my bed due to the heat. So I went into the living room to sit by the window. This time, I saw that there were actually 6 women sitting in the hall way. They were staying up and uplifting prayers to God for us. They just had a full day of ministry in Africa and will have to walk 25 minutes again to ministry tomorrow at 7:40(which is now in about 4 hours). All this in consideration, here they are. Staying up, sitting on the concrete floor, praying through the night. I say “are” because as I type this, I still hear their voices lifting up prayers to Heaven(shoutout to Team Jubilee!). Oh, did I mention that they also laid hands upon me and prayed over me? Yeah, at about 2am, while I am shivering in my cold sweats, after my many toilet visitations, as I am sick as a sickly dog, they placed hands on me and prayed over me. What affect did this have on me? Well, I’m not my bounce off the walls self yet, but I am well enough to write my first blog post in weeks. PRAYER IS POWERFUL.
For those reading this, I hope it was an encouragement to keep on keeping on. I will be going to the hospital tomorrow to get checked, but I can shake the feeling that I’ll be okay. Thank you for supporting me, whether that be through prayer, donation, sharing/reading my posts, and so much more. I can’t wait to get back on my feet to work for the expanse of God’s kingdom.
