Before leaving on the world race, I had a really big fear of getting sick while in a different country. I was so afraid and I dwelled on that fear for so long. I was blessed enough for the first six months of the race to be fairly healthy. Sure, I had a few bad migraines, some head colds, and occasional bad case of diarrhea but what world racer doesn’t?
But as soon as I got to the airport in Phenom Phen, Cambodia so start my travels to Africa my body felt like it never felt before on the World Race. My stomach was in extreme pain, I had a fever, and I had chills. There was a point that they almost didn’t let me stay on the plane and fly to the Middle East where we had a connecting flight to get to Africa. But the head of the plane took my tempeture and it went down at the point so they let me stay on the plane. As soon as I got to Africa I was still battling sickness. It was on and off with stomach pains and constantly having to goto the bathroom. And then there where days where I didn’t go to the bathroom at all. All I knew was my stomach was in pain and something had to be done about it. So my team leader took me to the doctors for some tests, after they took my blood the results came back that I had a pretty nasty stomach infection. I was actually happy to find out that something was wrong with me because I was able to get medicine, start feeling better and move on with ministry.
A few days went by and I actually started feeling better. I wasn’t missing anymore ministry and I felt my joy coming back. But then all of the sudden out of no where we stated walking to a dinner party that we got invited to by someone from our church and my stomach was in a lot of pain and I knew it was just a matter of time before I started throwing up! I was lucky enough to get through the dinner party without pooping my pants or throwing up all over the church members but I knew it wasn’t long before any of those things started to happen!
My team and I finally got back home and the first thing I tried doing was closing my eyes to go to bed and when I woke up the next day, hopefully I would feel all better (boy oh boy was that wishful thinking!) it was around 11pm at night when I abruptly woke up my teammate, kara, and went running to the bathroom. I spent that next hour of my life in a cockroach invested squatti potty pooping my brains out and throwing up at the same time. (My teammates and I like to call it the two for one special which is probably every world racers worst nightmare). This was easily enough the worst night of the whole world race. But even with all the pain and the disgusting things coming out of my body a thought came to my mind and let’s just say it was I thought I didn’t expect to come to my mind in a time like this. Here’s the thought: THIS IS ALL WORTH IT! When it comes to sharing the name of Christ across the world, this is worth it. I then started to think of things I was thankful for. I was thankful that the boys who are my age that work at the house weren’t there (that would have been embarrassing). I was thankful this didn’t happen on a travel day. And I was extremely thankful to have a teammate that cared so much to sit with me through the whole thing and take care of me every step of the way.
We prayed for healing over my body the next day. I went to the doctors again and they couldn’t find anything wrong with me and ever since then I’ve been feeling good. I’m thankful that God continues to protect me. I’m thankful for my teammates who care for me and treat me like Christ would.
