Paper Clip Girl

Yesterday was definitely the most insane day of this mission trip - so far! I am praising God for His faithfulness in all circumstances and how He provided so much grace and strength in my weakness.

It started off with Tamara feeling worse than ever, which meant that I had to prepare to teach the Bible lesson for the final session with the Arabic Church children. It just so happens that the lesson I was going to have to teach is the most difficult one in the Knowing Christ lesson series and I had about 1 1/2 hours to prepare and practice. I was still having trouble with my voice (I'm feeling much better overall, though), and I kept praying, "God, I have no idea how this is going to work out...I have no idea how I can possibly prepare this lesson." Amazingly, I did not feel panicked, and when the time came to present the lesson, it was honestly like God was keeping everything I needed to say at the forefront of my mind, and all of the distractions out. It was such a relief!

Our final session ended early and Carolyn and I began to pack up our materials. As we were walking back up to our room, we met Tamara in the hallway. She was coughing uncontrollably and said that she thought she was having an asthma attack. She has struggled with asthma over the past few years and apparently the bronchitis triggered an asthma attack. The conference physician gave her an inhaler, but as she was unable to get her breathing under control, an ambulance was called. She and Carolyn left for the emergency room, with the idea that I would follow. Mercy (a very sweet lady who was ultimately in charge of child care at the conference) agreed to help me pack up our hotel room and our teaching materials and then offered to drive with me to the hospital. I was grateful to have somebody to follow since I had absolutely NO idea where I was going and I am extremely uncomfortable driving on busy Massachusetts interstates.

That's when the insanity kicked up a notch. I was following Mercy and I noticed that we kept going around and around the town of Lowell. Since I really didn't have a clue about where we were going, I just kept following. But finally she pulled over and said that she wasn't from the Lowell area and the directions to the hospital that the hotel gave her were obviously inaccurate. We were in a downtown-ish area, so Mercy began asking people for directions to Lowell Hospital...and each time she asked, the directions were completely different! We ended up driving around Lowell for an hour, trying to locate the hospital, when Mercy decided to stop at the fire department and ask for directions. While she was asking one of the firemen, I received a call on my cellphone from Carolyn saying that she and Tamara weren't even at Lowell Hospital - the EMTs had changed their mind soon after leaving the hotel and had gone to a different hospital. Thankfully, one of the firemen offered to lead us to the correct hospital, so we wouldn't get lost again. That was such a huge blessing!

Tamara was in the hospital for about 3 hours before getting dismissed. I had to drive back to Boston, which would have totally freaked me out, if it weren't for the incredible peace from God that transends all understanding. It didn't make sense, but I felt so calm and able to do what I needed to do. We made it back to our host home at about 5:30pm.

Tamara and I aren't teaching clubs until Thursday, so we are spending the next two days getting some much needed rest. Please pray that we will continue to heal physically and that the remainder of our time in ministry here in Boston will go more smoothly. This has just been crazy! I am glad that things happened when they did, however, and not when Tamara and I were completely alone somewhere. I'm also so grateful for God's protection and provision and just being such an amazing God!

I'll have to post about the Arabic Church Conference later.... :-) Thank you so much for praying!