This past summer, I had the privilege of being on staff at a local Bible camp back home. It was my fourth summer working on staff, and every year I looked forward to spending my summer serving God with my fellow staff and loving on the 2000 plus kids that came through our programs. This year, however, was a little bit different. I had a rough time with camp summer of 2012, and I didn't plan to be back in 2013 unless 2 very specific things happened, which was my way of saying "this is how I know God wants me back at camp". So the year progressed, and sure enough both things happened. So I sent in my application and (very late) got offered the job of food aid coordinator. I was excited about this, because I had pretty much only counselled and I felt that that time of my life was mostly over. As the food aid coordinator, my main responsibilities included putting together food for the cook of our secondary site, running night snack every night for the kids at the main site, and pretty much anytime one of the staff needed food outside of the main three meals at the main site, they talked to me.
It was a great job. It kept me mostly busy, but not too busy. I had time to help out the cooks every once in awhile and also had time to spend with Jesus, although that never seemed to happen as much as I wanted.
So that was the first week. At the end of the first week, they asked me to also take on the responsibility of Dining Hall Coordinator, which meant I was also in charge of the people doing all the dishes. A normal DH crew consists of 5 people and a DHC, but that week there was 3, not including me because 90% of the time I was doing Food Aid stuff and I was only there to direct. This week was really hard, though I was blessed with three really great, hardworking guys that I actually had a great time with. I often left them by themselves to go run things to different places, and they were totally fine.
Honestly, things went downhill from there. After week 2 and 3, the hardest stretch of my summer started. I was asked to take on canteen, which took many hours because I had to make hundreds of these ridiculous gummy bags every single day, as well I had to put each cabin's order together to feed them and all the staff... I often pulled staff that had free time in to make gummy bags and still didn't have enough.
As well as doing canteen, I was helping in the kitchen with every spare second I had, and even still people were calling me asking if I could do things for them. I hate saying no because I feel like I'm letting people down, so I always say yes to things... -> downfall number one.
Doing the work that during a normal summer 3 or 4 people would be doing took its toll... I remember feeling totally exhausted at the end of that week. But unfortunately for me, I wasn't done working. I had agreed to work weekend camp, the one weekend of summer that we run summer camp for all the kids who don't want to stay for a whole week. Weekend camp is always the hardest to staff because everyone likes their weekends and wants them off. I agreed to do it because my cousins were coming and I wanted to see them... But of course, my campers for that weekend were 5 and 6 years old, which is the youngest, and my junior counsellor was fresh from the training program... Literally on Friday she was in training and on Saturday she was a counsellor. She did really really well and for that I'm so thankful, but that still meant I was carrying a lot more responsibility then usual.
Then on Monday, we started camp again. Ridiculous right? That's 12 days of non-stop campers, and for any of you who have ever worked at camp, you know it's a long long time.
And that's where I started to feel really sick. It had happened like that before, when I had been really tired, but this just didn't stop. I felt constantly nauseous... They had asked me to take on another week of canteen, and I had agreed... But it was too much. I walked out of canteen one day because I was so nauseous, and I spent every morning lying in bed till like 11 before I could convince myself to get up. I moved like I was 90 because I felt so constantly sick, and I stopped eating totally which was a huge mistake. I knew that part of the reason I felt so sick was because I feel nauseous when I'm hungry, but feeling so incredibly sick meant I didn't want to eat. I lost weight and totally stopped eating. I fell asleep sitting up because I would wake up in the middle of the night otherwise, and I was almost constantly on anti-nauseant medicine to hopefully make me feel better. None of it worked, and I spent the weekend in bed at home before returning yet again to camp on Sunday evening. I had come up with a theory that this was the result of acid reflux, and decided to tell the camp that I was on an acid reflux diet. Which meant no fatty food, no butter, no spicy food, no fried food, no especially acidic food, and no artificial sugar. Which left plain chicken and carrots. Every meal. I had also started on an acid reducer pill, and was really hoping that the combination would reduce my sickness and help me feel better. I had yet to lose the contents of my stomach at any point, but lived in constant fear of it.
Week six passed and I felt slightly better, but Friday was just really bad and I felt so sick the whole day. I ended up walking in a parade the next morning, but ducked out early because I felt really sick yet again. The next day, Sunday, my mom took me to a doctor, who confirmed my thought of acid reflux and prescribed me a much stronger medicine that I started taking later that day in hopes that I would be able yet again to return to camp that evening. I got to camp before realizing that there was no way I could make it through that week feeling the way I was. I had been resisting before because I was the only one who knew how to do my job, but I gave up and told the programming staff that I couldn't do it. They said they could find someone to do it, and told me I could go home Monday evening which was fine with me. I typed out an 8 page summary of my week for my replacement, which turned out to be one of my closest friends at camp, and then spent Monday walking it through with him. Well actually I didn't really move, I more gave him directions and tried not to move. He did really well, and when I still didn't feel up to returning for Sunday night of week 8, he took on my responsibilities for another week, which was awesome. I ended up going back to camp Tuesday morning and working on the kitchen for the rest of that week, which was difficult, for a number or reasons, but I still enjoyed it.
I went to see a different doctor a few weeks after camp ended, and he ordered a test for h pylori, a stomach bacteria (which I didn't have) before confirming that it was indeed acid reflux. When my symptoms still didn't go totally away, he ordered a barium swallow test from a local hospital where I had to drink multiple different things and they would watch them go down my esophagus. This test though, came back totally healthy. No one had any idea what was going on. I was a total disaster. The next step was to go see a gastrointestinal specialist, which I wouldn't have been able to see until February (which was too late at this point because I had been already accepted to my dts at this point), so we were out of options. I was still on the same medicine, and we had no idea what to do. I stopped the medicine at the beginning of December to see how much of an effect it had on me, and felt the same.
So I guess that takes me until now. I'm almost 2 weeks into dts, and loving every second. My stomach keeps telling me what it does and doesn't like (example lots of onions and artificial sugar, like pop and candy). I still can't participate in things as fully, such as crazy dance parties, because I can't jump for that long, and doing anything really really active makes me still feel sick. These past few mornings have also been really hard as I've been feeling really sick, so prayer would be highly appreciated.
However, despite the Enemy's attacks to my immune system, I absolutely love life on dts. Whether it's crazy dance parties, or worship you can belt out, or day trips to super cool islands, or just life here on base, I love it. I trust my new family here a lot and I love connecting with them.
Today, (since it's almost 8 am on Friday in aus) I challenge you to live life to the fullest. Don't not do things because they make you uncomfortable. Look for God in everything, and love everyone that comes your way.
Blessings in the best Heavenly Father of all time,
