We’ve been sprinting for about three weeks and we really haven’t let up. My plan was to just keep pushing on, finish out our time in Cambodia strong and hit Thailand with the same amount of gusto.

Only hitch in that plan? My body says, “No.”

A couple of days ago I started feeling a bit weak. Yesterday morning — Sunday — I tried to contact Savorn and let him know I wouldn’t be able to preach, but he didn’t get my message until I was already at the church.

So I did preach. Sort of. It was considerably lower-energy than I usually bring to the pulpit. Most notably, I did my sermon sitting down. And at a very, very low volume. Benjamin and I had planned to do staff and university student video interviews before enjoying a celebratory reunion lunch for kids returning to our campus from their colleges in the city, and some of our university graduates who already entered the workforce.

Instead, Benjamin did those interviews – and I took a nap. Later — I’m not sure how long it was — I got up from my brief and insufficient repose and feigned a degree of vigor, buoyed no doubt by my excitement to spend time with these kids whose happy childhood has been my last 20 years’ primary calling.

I got my favorite souvenirs of the trip, photos of these beautiful young adults whose lives God has woven into mine through some mysterious working of his will that has left me stunned with gratitude.

And then, after somehow making it back to my hotel in Phnom Penh, I basically crashed. Well, if I remember correctly, we did have dinner. And then I crashed. And I woke up this morning with a ‘freight train runnin’ through the middle of my head’ as Bruce Springsteen might have it. Unlike the Boss, my freight train wasn’t piloted by a romantic obsession, rather, by a horrible sinus infection or — I hardly dare speak it’s name — covid.

I’m thrice vaxxed, and the covid rate in Cambodia really isn’t that high. Oh, and we spend almost all of our time outside. So I’m struggling to see how it could be The Virus, but enough of the symptoms match that I’m going to have to consider it. 

I started azithromycin tonight, and if it’s a sinus infection, I expect to be feeling significantly better tomorrow. We have to test for covid on Wednesday anyway, so unless I get worse, I’ll probably wait until then to find out for sure. But unless I have a dramatic improvement, I may be stuck in my hotel room for the rest of my time in the ’Bodia.

I’ll keep you posted. Benjamin is going to coordinate with our staff to keep on track with the video production, and I’m going to do what I can. Which is probably not much of anything. If I do test positive, our trip is pretty much off the rails. We won’t be able to go to Thailand, and I may not be able to return to America until I test negative again.

For now, I’m doing okay. Just a little frustrated. But if I get nothing else from this trip, at least I have these pictures and the sweet time we’ve had with our staff and kids thus far.