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!
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