Back in March I got an email from my pastor Wayne Taylor in Seattle. He was going to take a trip to do outreach in Germany and Austria during July. Before he returned to Seattle he wanted to meet with as many Calvary Fellowship missionaries as possible. So he set up a retreat at a YMCA hostel in Southern Germany from 14-16 July. We would fly in to Salzburg, Austria and go to the hostel just across the border in Germany. Later on I was asked to contribute to the teaching. Retreats are times for encouragement and strengthening, so I mulled it over and prepared a message about the encouraging things I have learned while experiencing difficult setbacks and puzzling situations I couldn't do anything about.
The day to fly came. At 2:30 Monday morning we got up to drive to Stansted Airport. Holly threw up in the bathroom. She did not want to go on the trip. Joanie and I now had to decide: was this because Holly's system did not like it at 2:30, or was this more serious? While we waited, I got the car out and stood ready to load the bags. Holly threw up again. We reviewed our options. I could go alone or go with Katie. I had just been to the York Conference alone because the girls had been sick. I didn't want to leave Joanie with the girls for another week. While we waited the time grew near when we would not reach Stansted in time. We decided that we wouldn't go. We went back to sleep at 4 am.
Later that day Joanie came down with the same illness Holly had. It turned out that it had been transmitted at a women's brunch on Saturday. Three other women had also contracted the same illness at the same time.
Since my house had become a disease vector I decided to close down the prayer meeting and the midweek Bible study so nobody else got sick.
That made it a vacation at home. We've always wondered what it would be like to have a vacation at home. You don't travel, so in theory when it's over you aren't tired from driving so far. Well, what was it like? A little boring, when the family is sick.
In the end I did what I have learned the hard way: submit to the will of God. Give thanks for all things always, says Ephesians 5:20. So I gave thanks that Joanie and Holly got sick and that we couldn't go to the retreat and I couldn't teach. That isn't a denial of reality. Giving thanks in a situation like this means that God will work all these things out for good, I just don't know how He will do it yet.
Monday night a woman who lives in my home state of Washington called me. Her 84-year old mother was visiting England with a grandson. Last Thursday (July 9), while in Westminster Abbey, she collapsed and found she could no longer walk. She was sent to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, awaiting treatment. The woman asked me to visit her mother.
When I got there, this lady thought I was an angel sent by God. She has been going nuts, with only herself for company. She couldn't take five days of being cooped up with herself. She wanted to hear me talk, and made me tell all about myself. Because of her hearing aid she made me speak up LOUD. So the whole ward and probably all the nurses on the floor learned that I'm a missionary, how I came to receive Jesus, and how I used to play in a Christian rock band, as well as the rest of my life story. Pretty insane.
If we had gone to Germany that woman would not have reached me, I wouldn't have visited her mother and shared the Lord with her. Joanie would have had to care for Holly while sick herself.
My message at the retreat would have been about the encouraging things I have learned while experiencing difficult setbacks and puzzling situations I couldn't do anything about. More encouraging than having all things work out for me is God making all things work out for good.
Joanie and Holly got sick on Monday, July 13. By Thursday it was time for us to get out of the house and move our bones. Joanie knew a place near Shepperton with a walk along the Thames River.
