So first of all, I would like to say thank you for every prayer prayed for me while I was healing from my unfortunate head injury. I do honestly feel 100% back to normal, minus the little patch of hair that is missing from where my stitches were. I had my stitches removed Wednesday and all of my soreness was pretty much gone by then as well. The biggest thing I ask is that the credit for my quick recovery not be given to me. While yes, I am a pretty stellar person, I did not just will myself to get better. God knew that I would not be patient enough if it took much longer than it did so He allowed for my body to heal itself so I could go back to my new life asap. He also has helped me see all of the blessings that came from this experience. I would also like to thank (and she's going to be really embarrassed I'm putting this in here) my roommate and friend Tiffany. She has been the best and sweetest nurse. She washed my hair for me when I couldn't because of my stitches. She has cleaned my cut for me to make sure it is healing as best as it can. She's also given me neck messages to help loosen up the tense muscles. There are not many people that would be continuously selfless like she is and I am so thankful for her. If you can't think of a friend that would clean out your head wound for you, you need to get yourself a Tiffany in your life!
This was our first week with host families in Jamaica. Tiff and I live with this lady Annette and her husband Manny. Annette sells like beach cover-ups and other vacation clothes to tourists staying in villas near Montego Bay. She said she just goes as often as there are people to sell to but since right now is the busy season for her, she has gone into the city almost every day. She also runs around Montego Bay picking up new material for her clothes and buying groceries and other necessities for us and her children and grandchildren that live nearby. Tiff and I have been able to go with her a couple days and even though she does most of it on her own, it's fun to get to travel around Montego Bay with her. She spoils us like crazy too, making sure we are always full with plenty of snacks on reserve. She just does so much to make sure her family has everything they could ever wish for.
We do have a church that we have become a part of here in Catadupa and I have loved getting to meet the pastor and all of the members. They are so sweet and greet us with such big smiles every time we come to church. Church services here run about 3 hours which does seem like a marathon compared to what I am used to. I am definitely ready for lunch when church is over but I really enjoy being there. Different members are invited to come up and share something God has shown them either with a story from the week, Bible verses, or a song. You can tell so much of the service is Spirit led. We do have a planned worship session but those few songs are just the beginning of all of the singing, praising, dancing, praying, and worshipping that go on for the rest of the service. I love seeing the joy on everyone's face while they worship. You can tell that they really get it!
Highlights from this week:
-We have become frequent visitors to this frozen yogurt place in Montego Bay. It conveniently has wifi and I would much rather pay for delicious yogurt with free wifi than just pay at an internet cafe.
-There is this plantation next to our house that we are allowed to go in and out of as we wish. It's kind of cool to see all of these exotic fruits growing on trees. It's an excursion destination for cruise ships so we see tourist buses pass through every once in a while. You can tell they are confused when they see us walking around like we live here.
-We get a fruit plate with breakfast every day! This really is a huge deal because we really didn't get a lot of fruits and vegetables in Haiti so fruit here feels like a luxury. Plus it's all so fresh and delicious!!
-Tiff brought her eno hammock with her so we've been able to put it up a couple times on our patio area. It's super relaxing to be out there when it's raining because there is a roof over our head so we don't get wet but we can listen to it.
-One of our team members had a birthday this week so we got cake and ice cream and danced all night long.
-Saturday we got to go to one of the beaches in Montego Bay. It was nice being at a beach with real sand and the water was so calm and pretty! It reminded me of Florida beaches
On Sunday, we sang this song and part of it said something along the lines of "the devil is under my feet and he doesn't like there". So naturally I had this visual of me standing on the devil which is kind of a weird thought. But if you think about it, if you were just standing on a person it would be easy for them to wiggle out from underneath you and knock you over. However, as Christians we are supposed to place our faith on the solid rock and foundation of Jesus Christ. So then I visualized me standing on this giant boulder that was on top of Satan. It is impossible to knock someone over when you are being crushed by a boulder. Even though those are maybe weird visuals it totally makes sense. If we decide we are strong enough on our own and walk away from Christ the solid rock, it's easy for the devil to knock us off our feet. But when we place our feet and our lives on Jesus, Satan does not have the power to knock us down. We can be victorious over evil if we constantly choose to place ourselves on the solid foundation of Jesus.
Tuesday, March 24, 2015
Monday, March 16, 2015
Struck Down but Not Destroyed
Before reading this blog post there is something you need to understand: this is not a post intended to scare you or beg for your sympathy. It's just my life and what has happened to me and I want to share it with you because I think it's really cool. So here's my story:
Quick back story. I am in Jamaica in a city called Catadupa. It's about an hour drive up the mountain from Montego Bay. The church we are staying at is part of a group of churches all throughout the island. They have been having tent revivals recently so Thursday (3/12) they were having a ladies group in the tent. We were playing one of those cheesy cute ice breaker games to get introduced to everyone. Then I just remember seeing the faces of everyone across the group look up in slight terror and gasp. Then I saw this bright flash of light and had the sensation of being hit in the head by a giant frying pan. One of the posts of the tent had fallen and landed on my head.
The next few minutes are kind of a blur. I fell back onto the bench and was just grabbing my head crying, still trying to figure out what had happened. As quickly as I had the energy, I was taken to a car and driven to the hospital in Montego Bay. When I am hurt, I like to try to make people laugh because it just puts everyone, especially me, at ease that everything is going to be okay. So I started making jokes on the way down about how out of all people this would happen to me. When we got to the hospital, I was given medicine for the pain and was ushered to get x-rays. At that point, all I knew was that I had a cut on my head, my neck was sore which was to be expected, and I knew I had definitely suffered a concussion but other than that I felt pretty good. After I had gotten my x-rays done, I went to see one of the ER doctors to find out the results. Before looking at the x-rays, the doctor asked me what had happened, checked my reflexes, and checked for any signs of pain anywhere else in my body. Of course, I continued to make jokes the whole time because why not?! Plus, you could tell he needed someone to brighten his day so that's what I was going to do. So when he pulled out the x-rays, he held the first picture up to the light, flashed me a face of confusion, and put it back. Then he grabbed the next picture, looking at it and me with the same confusion. After he had studied all the them, he took two of them out again and said he had to look at something and that he would be right back and ran out of the door.
It was at this point I started to get concerned. I looked at Amy who was with me and couldn't help but laugh because we were so confused. When the doctor came back he said he wanted to show me something on my x-rays. He held the first one up to the light. It was a side view of my skull and at the top you could plainly see that there were 2 little cracks in my skull. Then he held up the second picture and showed me one of my vertebrae was slightly crooked. Then he just looked at me and all he could say was "How are you in such a good mood? You should be in so much pain. I don't understand!" It was then I realized that the joy and peace I was feeling was not just the drugs. It was God! I explained that I was thankful I was so lucky because it could be looking and feeling much worse than it was. I was laughing because the fact I had the ability to laugh was a blessing. He told me I needed to go see an orthopedic doctor and by the time we left, he was making jokes of his own. I think having someone look at such a bad situation in such a good way really confused him but he liked hearing Amy and I talk with such assurance and peace about what was going on.
I ended up having to say 2 nights in the hospital because of delays in finding out some test results. I couldn't have visitors most of the time so it gave me lots of time to think. I was asking God why had this happened to me. Not in a mad way. I just knew there had to be a reason, there always is. (Normally I put my Bible encouragement at the end of my blog but it really fits in best here.) I thought of the story of Job. In Job chapter one, it tells of a conversation between God and Satan where Satan asks God's permission to do all these awful things to Job in order to test him. I just pictured the same kind of conversation happening about me. I imagine Satan walking up to God and being like "look this Audrey girl has had no reason to doubt her reason for this trip she's on so I'd like to make this tent pole fall on her head and see how she reacts." And God in response saying "okay you can because I never give my children more than they can handle and she can handle this but I'm going to make the wind blow in such a way where it will keep most of her safe so she can return to doing My work as soon as possible." And honestly, when you think about the size of the pole and how hard it fell, I shouldn't be okay. I should have been knocked unconscious. I should have been in the hospital longer than 2 days because the damage could have been so bad but I wasn't. I should be terrified and sad and scared but I'm not. I know God protected me. And though I definitely do not wish to have this happen again, I am not angry that it did.
As far as the physical damage, I did have a concussion, I have 2 skull fractures, got 5 stitches, and have a very sore but not broken neck. I am wearing a soft collar for a couple weeks just to give my neck time to heal. But here's the cool part, if I were to tell you all the ways I saw and experienced God during my time in the hospital this would be the longest blog post ever. Yes there were times I didn't enjoy being there. Hospital food here is no better than hospital food anywhere else. I missed being able to talk to my teammates. I didn't have a phone so my family didn't even know it had happened until the day after. Plus I got super bored. But the amount of peace and love I felt from God was amazing!
Jamaica really is beautiful. The weather right now is perfectly sunny during the day and slightly chilly at night. The people here are so wonderful too! Especially coming from Haiti where we couldn't talk to anyone, it's so great to be able to walk around outside and talk to the people we meet on the street. We are also going to be here when 2 short term teams are coming to the church so I'm totally excited to get to meet all of them and welcome them. Obviously, prayers for a quick recovery would be greatly appreciated. But even more than that, prayers of thanks to God for His protection and power in your and my life. He really does have a plan for us!
Quick back story. I am in Jamaica in a city called Catadupa. It's about an hour drive up the mountain from Montego Bay. The church we are staying at is part of a group of churches all throughout the island. They have been having tent revivals recently so Thursday (3/12) they were having a ladies group in the tent. We were playing one of those cheesy cute ice breaker games to get introduced to everyone. Then I just remember seeing the faces of everyone across the group look up in slight terror and gasp. Then I saw this bright flash of light and had the sensation of being hit in the head by a giant frying pan. One of the posts of the tent had fallen and landed on my head.
The next few minutes are kind of a blur. I fell back onto the bench and was just grabbing my head crying, still trying to figure out what had happened. As quickly as I had the energy, I was taken to a car and driven to the hospital in Montego Bay. When I am hurt, I like to try to make people laugh because it just puts everyone, especially me, at ease that everything is going to be okay. So I started making jokes on the way down about how out of all people this would happen to me. When we got to the hospital, I was given medicine for the pain and was ushered to get x-rays. At that point, all I knew was that I had a cut on my head, my neck was sore which was to be expected, and I knew I had definitely suffered a concussion but other than that I felt pretty good. After I had gotten my x-rays done, I went to see one of the ER doctors to find out the results. Before looking at the x-rays, the doctor asked me what had happened, checked my reflexes, and checked for any signs of pain anywhere else in my body. Of course, I continued to make jokes the whole time because why not?! Plus, you could tell he needed someone to brighten his day so that's what I was going to do. So when he pulled out the x-rays, he held the first picture up to the light, flashed me a face of confusion, and put it back. Then he grabbed the next picture, looking at it and me with the same confusion. After he had studied all the them, he took two of them out again and said he had to look at something and that he would be right back and ran out of the door.
It was at this point I started to get concerned. I looked at Amy who was with me and couldn't help but laugh because we were so confused. When the doctor came back he said he wanted to show me something on my x-rays. He held the first one up to the light. It was a side view of my skull and at the top you could plainly see that there were 2 little cracks in my skull. Then he held up the second picture and showed me one of my vertebrae was slightly crooked. Then he just looked at me and all he could say was "How are you in such a good mood? You should be in so much pain. I don't understand!" It was then I realized that the joy and peace I was feeling was not just the drugs. It was God! I explained that I was thankful I was so lucky because it could be looking and feeling much worse than it was. I was laughing because the fact I had the ability to laugh was a blessing. He told me I needed to go see an orthopedic doctor and by the time we left, he was making jokes of his own. I think having someone look at such a bad situation in such a good way really confused him but he liked hearing Amy and I talk with such assurance and peace about what was going on.
I ended up having to say 2 nights in the hospital because of delays in finding out some test results. I couldn't have visitors most of the time so it gave me lots of time to think. I was asking God why had this happened to me. Not in a mad way. I just knew there had to be a reason, there always is. (Normally I put my Bible encouragement at the end of my blog but it really fits in best here.) I thought of the story of Job. In Job chapter one, it tells of a conversation between God and Satan where Satan asks God's permission to do all these awful things to Job in order to test him. I just pictured the same kind of conversation happening about me. I imagine Satan walking up to God and being like "look this Audrey girl has had no reason to doubt her reason for this trip she's on so I'd like to make this tent pole fall on her head and see how she reacts." And God in response saying "okay you can because I never give my children more than they can handle and she can handle this but I'm going to make the wind blow in such a way where it will keep most of her safe so she can return to doing My work as soon as possible." And honestly, when you think about the size of the pole and how hard it fell, I shouldn't be okay. I should have been knocked unconscious. I should have been in the hospital longer than 2 days because the damage could have been so bad but I wasn't. I should be terrified and sad and scared but I'm not. I know God protected me. And though I definitely do not wish to have this happen again, I am not angry that it did.
As far as the physical damage, I did have a concussion, I have 2 skull fractures, got 5 stitches, and have a very sore but not broken neck. I am wearing a soft collar for a couple weeks just to give my neck time to heal. But here's the cool part, if I were to tell you all the ways I saw and experienced God during my time in the hospital this would be the longest blog post ever. Yes there were times I didn't enjoy being there. Hospital food here is no better than hospital food anywhere else. I missed being able to talk to my teammates. I didn't have a phone so my family didn't even know it had happened until the day after. Plus I got super bored. But the amount of peace and love I felt from God was amazing!
Jamaica really is beautiful. The weather right now is perfectly sunny during the day and slightly chilly at night. The people here are so wonderful too! Especially coming from Haiti where we couldn't talk to anyone, it's so great to be able to walk around outside and talk to the people we meet on the street. We are also going to be here when 2 short term teams are coming to the church so I'm totally excited to get to meet all of them and welcome them. Obviously, prayers for a quick recovery would be greatly appreciated. But even more than that, prayers of thanks to God for His protection and power in your and my life. He really does have a plan for us!
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