Adventures WorldRace SethBarnes Sponsorship Giving

| by archiveworldraceblogs

…just kidding, but there are some gross photos. 
I’ve been meaning to post this blog for a long time and am finally posting it. I’ll explain later why it took me so long.

When I was accepted for the World Race trip I knew I would have to raise support in the matter of three months. I knew it wasn’t impossible but I would have to do save a lot, send out a lot of letters and possibly work at Ruby’s on the weekends again (eek!).

A few days after being accepted my parents mentioned to me that they actually had a savings account they had been saving for a while for me to use when I was ready. They prayed about it and realized this trip was probably the reason God had them save the money in the first place.

We decided to use the money for this trip but I still wanted to support raise so we wouldn’t have to use the entire account if at all possible. I sent out a few letters and have received a generous amount from my supporters. I have still had to use a good amount of the savings account my parents had for me but I haven’t had to use the entire account yet.

Just when I thought I would have the entire support raising taken care of, God threw me through a loop.

In Nicaragua, as many of you may know, I was eaten alive by the bugs. Now the bugs in Nicaragua aren’t the same mosquito bug bites you get on a summer camping trip. Nicaragua has a million different types of bugs, all with different symptoms, all of which I STILL have scars of to this day (3 months later), some still itch.  These bites are gnarly. First they bubble and look like mini warts. Then they open up and puss constantly, and doesn’t stop until you get antibiotics, which I didn’t find out until Boston two weeks later!
 
              [one of the lesions on my arm]

When we arrived in Boston my team’s flight was canceled due to poor weather. We tried all day to get on some flight but it just wasn’t working out. So we figured there was a reason why God didn’t want my team to get to Ireland right away. So we stayed in Boston for a few days.

The first day we spend in Boston the pain in my left armpit that I had been feeling for the past two weeks began really hurting to the point where I couldn’t move my arm without it hurting, I knew something was wrong definitely wrong, so Erin escorted me to the ER at Bringham and Women’s Hopsital.
    

                            [registration]                                                                                [pain chart, a 10]

At this point I have a really high fever, the chills, my entire body aches and the pain in my left arm keeps getting worse. The doctors in the ER performed the usual procedures, checking my vitals, taking a million blood tests, x-rays, giving me an IV, etc. They wanted to make sure I didn’t have H1N1, so they made Erin and I wear face masks, its really funny in retrospect but at the time I was so embarrassed and in too much pain to be my normal humorous self.
 
  
                             [ I was freezing]                                                [Erin did A LOT for me, she even helped me pee, love this girl]
 

The ER doctor’s couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me, so they checked me into a room. My team ended up heading to Ireland without me, but Cori stayed behind with me and my Mom flew out to be with me. After 4 days at the hospital, 8 Urine tests, 5 blood tests, 4 doses of antibiotics, 1 biopsy, and 2 Med Student visits, the doctors still didn’t know what was wrong with me and decided to discharge me with a Strep Infection in my left Arm. Either way they eventually had found antibiotics that seemed to be helping.

   
   [this is what they looked like when i was discharged]                                  [I still had bites all over, I still do]
 

Just when I thought that God had my team stay behind so that I could make it to the hospital, it turns out that my Traveler’s Insurance didn’t cover me while within the U.S. leaving me (my parents) with a $13,000 hospital bill (I could go on another World Race trip with that cost) I applied for MediCal and was denied. So now not only are my parents paying for the remainder of my World Race trip, but my huge hospital bill.

I think God wants me to fully rely on Him now for support for my World Race trip. I have a record of controlling my life myself and not depending on God, I think He’s taking matters into His own hands, and teaching me a very humbling lesson.

I have been on so many mission trips that each time I support raise it gets harder and harder to ask for money, but God is bringing me to a point where I have no choice but to humble myself and rely on Him. That is why it took me so long to post this blog because asking for support is something that is really hard for me to do.

Please, if anyone would like to support me I would really appreciate it. Whatever money we don’t use of my savings account for my World Race trip we can put towards my Hospital Bill. So if you are looking for someone to support on this trip or just felt sorry for me, please please please help support me on this trip! [just click on the “support me!” link on the left column]

Blessings.