Last night around midnight Laurie contacted me to let me know that they were in route to the hospital emergency room in Costa Rica. One of the teenage mission trip participants with multiple allergies was having a severe allergic reaction to something. When Benadryl wasn't helping her they had to administer an epipen. They loaded her up in the vehicle and rushed to the hospital about an hour away. The doctor administered some more meds and brought the situation under control. The teenage young lady was doing well. With prescriptions in hand they returned to the church in the early morning hours. Praise God for modern medicine, hospitals, and people who spend years specializing in caring for the body. Please continue to keep the mission team and our leadership team in your prayers as they continue their outreach mission this week. Running group events is every bit exciting, inspiring, and spiritually satisfying... but it also comes with inherent risks, stresses, and challenges that can quickly leave you sleep deprived, overloaded with stress, and emotionally worn out. Those aren't complaints. It's just a reality of running group events in developing countries and in the wilderness.
About 1 week ago I was in NC running an adventure camp for a wonderful deaf organizations. Around midnight (that seems to be the most popular time for emergencies) someone ran over to my tent to let me know that one of the teenage participants was in severe neck pain from a fall he took during a game of capture the flag (most of our injuries don't happen during the riskier activities we do such as rock climbing, white water rafting, etc... most injuries happen during the time between the headline adventures). I'm a former Respiratory Therapist and Wilderness First Responder. Along with a few adults we went over to do a basic assessment of the student. His pain was so severe and so unusual around his head and neck area that it was a no-brainer, we had to take him to the emergency room immediately (see attached picture). We never take chances with people's health. We always err on the side of caution. Long story short it was a pulled neck muscle combined with low pain tolerance. The student was administered some pain meds and muscle relaxers and released. We got back to camp at 4am. We had to get up a few hours later to run the day's adventures.
In June, Laurie had to make several trips to the hospital with her immersion team in Costa Rica. Thankfully none of them were too serious, but it was extremely taxing. She rolled with the punches and kept rising each day to lead the team on into their next adventure. It's what we do. Tired, exhausted, and many times drained more than people will ever know. We seek God for renewed strength, put an optimistic and sincere smile on our face, and march on. There is an enemy trying to stop what we are doing... trying to prevent ministry and lives from being impacted... but we will never give up. Onward and upward we march on.
Thank you to our small army of prayer warriors and supporters who strongly uphold us and this ministry! God uses you to bless us and the many that we encounter more than you may ever realize (until we get to heaven) =)
