Admittedly, my last trip to West Africa was crazy busy, pretty much on the go from 6AM – 11PM every day. I got worn down, and by the end, I was on reserves (voice was shot from Africa trainings, etc.) But whereas usually I can take a couple days to recharge after a trip, in this case I needed to lead a missions emphasis weekend at a local church, teaching adult classes and preaching in the service, just a couple days after returning. Then a couple days after that I had to lead a Pathways training for local pastors and ministry leaders for two days. All of it went very well, but it all caught up with me.
Shortly after returning, I started to have fevers, violent shaking from chills, body aches, nausea, coughing, profuse sweating episodes, headaches, etc. But I needed to soldier on. Then, after finishing the ministry responsibilities, the next day I headed into the hospital (no available appts at doc) just to get quickly checked out, and after some blood tests, they said I was not allowed to leave.
America is not set up very well for detecting tropical diseases, so although they couldn’t confirm much (even though several doctors are quite sure it is Malaria,) they did find my blood count was messed up and I had to spend two nights in the hospital. Ugh! That was not in the plan. After initially getting worse, by the third day I began to improve so they released me (just a few hours ago.) Good thing, cause I have to take our son Andrew to Western Washington University tomorrow and drop him off for his first year away from home.
We were very encouraged by all the prayers and support from many, and I’m well on the road to recovery. Staying away from malaria-carrying mosquitoes in Africa when you are living with an African family is like telling a Pacific Northwest dweller not to get wet when it rains most of the year. But I’m thankful that after having worked for 10 years in Africa, this is the first time the pesky vermin caught up with me. I hereby join the ranks of malaria victims, but I’m not about to let it slow me down in my Africa work. My next trip is in a couple weeks to more malaria regions, but when I am weak, He is strong. His grace is always sufficient (2 Cor. 12:7-10).
Pressing on by His grace, Eric