I'll try to keep this relatively short -- we have a little packing to do before our flight tonight. Today was the kids' last day of camp. Breakfast this morning was interesting. The plumbers were here yesterday to fix some drainage problems we were having, but as of this morning *nothing* in the kitchen drained properly. So the sinks were out of commission, and by convenient coincidence, it was the leaders' turn to do all the dishes. I was out back with a couple of big tubs washing things from a spigot. Not quite what I was expecting this morning, but aside from wearing my back out a bit it wasn't too bad.
Then later this morning it was my turn to give a talk to the kids. It's sort of a culmination of the different parts that we learned about during the week -- unity, compassion, humility, courage, and encouragement. So my talk was on "God's love is unconditional".
It went over pretty well, I think. It's always hard to tell from up front. But anyway, I get to the end and close things out in a prayer. Just before we're through, there's some mumbling and rustling around in one part of the room. I look up, and one of the girls (14 years, I'm told) from Brittany's cabin is on the floor having a seizure.
Fortunately there were a lot of people around here when it started, and people helped out trying to hold her still and make sure she can breathe. One of her classmates said that this has happened before, but it's still very scary. And normally seizures in kids only last a couple minutes -- I've seen one or two before -- but this one kept on going. We found a hard surface to put her on and moved her outside for some fresh air.
Meanwhile, Ted is on the phone with a number of doctors in the area. He talks to an ambulance service, but they're 45 minutes away. So after talking to a doctor in (relatively -- ~20 minutes) nearby Paarl, we load her (still seizing, by the way) into a van.
Denise, Mike (the younger), Ted, Brittany, and one of the facilitators went along in the van to keep her stable.That was at about 11:30am.
And then the kids left on a bus at 12:15pm or so. Quite a way to end a camp.
At about 1:30pm I get a call from Denise saying that the girl (I don't actually know her name) is up and walking around. And smiling and talking. After having a 2-hour long seizure. How these sorts of things work... I have no idea.
All of that said, the last part of this trip has been an emotional roller-coaster. Even for me, someone who doesn't display much emotion externally. Someone grabbed my laptop and hid it in our cabin yesterday, so we had some hard talks with the kids. That's still unresolved, but at the same time I want to build up unity and the relationships among the kids. And I was stressing out about doing my talk last night, but then I was pulled into two (rather uncomfortable, but funny) acts in the talent show that we put on. Then I went to bed late, woke up early and groggy, and tried to review what I needed to say for the talk... but then got roped into doing dishes from a faucet on the back corner of the building. And then I actually give the talk, which went well (I had props!), but then that's burdened by this girl and the seizure. The day started with a million kids here screaming and running around all over the place, and now there are three of us on the property and it's nearly silent.
It's funny, actually. The devotional book that I try to read through every day has been sort of repetitive recently. The last three or four days have all been about how there are mountaintop experiences where we really feel close to God, and there are dark valleys where hope and encouragement (and logic) are harder to find. What I've seen from the past 48 hours is that those can definitely happen both in the same day. And even in the same hour. Peter writes "Rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed". It brings a song to mind, in a new, 24-hour-a-day sense:
Where I find joy, where I find joy...
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