What A Day!

June 20, 2009

What a day! Today was my first day to do any physical work and it exhausted me. I did not realize that two weeks of inactivity and the flu would take such a toll. Sadly the physical “work” that I did was mostly walking around camp up and down the hills. It did include lifting some blocks and 4x4’s but still it was not enough work that it should have exhausted me.

After lunch I lead a group of Deacons in several ropes course activities. The time went well and I was ecstatic that for once my lack of Spanish did not seem to interfere with the debrief. God worked and brought some conviction, and I was able to compose the necessary questions. My group had the task of passing a long rope through the Spider’s Web without the rope or their arms touching the web. Anything with the Spider’s Web seems to bring up the issue of integrity and this time was no different. Several people had touched the web but said nothing because they did not want to frustrate the rest of their group by having to start over again. But in the end they did not feel that they had real victory after completing the challenge. What followed was a good discussion with application to our daily walk. Another aspect of our discussion was how sometimes we lose focus of the goal because we are so caught up in the details in front of us. Someone mentioned how we can do that when serving God as well.

As soon as the last debrief was over and we climbed the hill to main camp two things happened. A torrential downpour and what seemed to be a migraine headache. The headache had been brewing all afternoon but thankfully did not hit until after the activities. I had to wait out the storm a bit before heading to my cabin to try and sleep. The latter did not work and so after an hour I decided to drive over to the Williamson’s and get some aspirin. The power had been out for about 3 hours and it was still raining as I left. Getting in my car I was met with a swarm of termites, the kind that emerge after the first rains of the season. They joined me in the car which was not a pleasant experience. It was not pleasant either to see that no one had picked up the ropes course supplies and that I would have to get at least some of them together.

I got some aspirin and planned to head back to my cabin. Cindy prayed with me before I left and I decided to wait a few more minutes because even the 30 second drive could have been too much since I preferred to have my eyes closed. Then all of a sudden (either the aspirin had kicked in or the prayer) I could open my eyes and the pain was gone. What a relief! I had not been having migraines for quite a while and I am not sure what triggered this one, but I hate them. I would even give up chocolate if it meant never having a headache again. Whether it was overworking myself, possible MSG in the chicken I ate, or something else all I know is that I am so thankful to feel better and have been able to read and write this evening. The power came back on too which is another blessing. I suppose that maybe I will not try and get in a run tomorrow since I do not seem to be in great health. I will have to take it slowly this entering back into normal routine.