[ David's "But God" Story ]*

Here is the story that David contributed to the blog I mentioned in the last post:


I had lost my job a little over two years ago and was dealing with a lot of guilt and feelings of worthlessness - even to the point that I had almost completely stopped eating for nearly five months - when God blessed me with the opportunity to go on my first foreign mission trip to India. Even up until the day before we left, I didn't feel like I should go. My guilt had convinced me that I needed to stay home and try to find a few more days of work here and there. Thankfully, my wife pulled me aside and said that she and our future family would benefit far more from what God would teach me during this time than would a couple hundred extra dollars that I could earn if I stayed home.

Almost immediately upon arriving in India, I came down with an intense fever. I had already lost about 25 pounds from not eating for a few months and would end up losing another 15 pounds while in India from what was later determined to be H1N1 (Stephanie looked right past me when I got off the plane as she didn't recognize me).

But God...

During this physically, emotionally and mentally trying time - on my back with a 102-104-degree fever in a foreign land that itself was nearly 100 degrees - He renewed my spirit like no other time in my life. There was no television, no internet, no distractions. So for hours a day, while the other guys were out preaching and praying in villages, I could do nothing but spend time in the Word and in prayer. God spoke to me in ways He had never spoken to me before. And in this period of my life when I felt so poor in so many aspects, I now count it as one of the richest, most joyful times.