Drip, drip, drip and more drip

The last time I wrote it was about the long dark African night. It was one of a series of nights I had with malaria that I could not get rid of. After two months of slowly getting sicker my body was giving up. Every other night was high fever, chills, sweats. backache, bodyache, headache.

Due too the meds I take for P.D. (parking zones disease) and the the disease itself, I can have some really crazy dreams and strange nights but those nights with malaria, I thought the morning would never come. Eventually I did get Steven to take me to the hospital at Rippon Clinic. After a blood sample showed malaria I was escorted to the private suite at the back of the clinic. It is a private suite since it has its own toilet that only I, the nurses, the doctors and the few dozen people I was too weak to fight off could use. There I lay for two days on quinine drip.
But I did have it better than Bev who slept on the floor for two nights. She did have a mattress from home though. And sheets. I don't think I would have made it without her. No more drip, drip, drip...

So what did I learn from the experience? Apparently nothing for as soon as I could get back to work I did.

I have become a work freak. I cannot sit still. If there is no class to teach I write a sermon. If there is no sermon to prepare I counsel. If there is no one to counsel I fix things. In Africa there is always something to fix. So there is always work. This week two water heaters failed. So I have to fix them. But parts aren't available so I have to make parts. It can wear you down and lay you out. And put you back on drip, drip, drip and more drip.

But God has His way to teach us. At the monthly missionary fellowship the host, Dan, shared about the way we missionaries overwork. We lead but never follow. But if we don't follow then who are we leading people to? It convicted me that I am getting people to follow me but not teaching them to follow Jesus Christ. I need to get back on drip. But I need more than drip I need streams of drip. Rivers of living water flowing from the Spirit into me and then to others. But I have a problem. Maybe you have it to. I seem to think that just because I have drunk the living water and I never thirst that I don't need to drink anymore. That condition can lead to dehydration. The Spirit causes water to well up within me but I also need to partake. I can get so full of streams of water flowing to others that I never stop to let it keep me satisfied. I am not a theologian so don't take this analogy too far but if the man who drives the water tanker doesn't fill the radiator of the truck sometime, the engine will overheat and the tanker dies and no one gets the water.

Lord help me to be refreshed and filled. Not drip by drip by more drip but by streams and rivers of the water of life, YOU!