Five Can Be Less Than One
About the only time I consumed soda as a child was when I was sick. Mom said that the carbonated water could help calm an upset stomach. Because the last thing anyone wants to do is clean up after someone who got sick after drinking a grape or other colored soda, my mom stuck to the classic 7-Up. For some reason she never bought Sprite and to this day, if I drink Sprite I think it's tasty but a mere whiff of 7-Up will send my stomach on a virtual teacup ride. While it is never fun to be sick, it's not so bad when your mom is there ready to meet all of your needs and most of your wants.
When I moved away from home, I was 19 years old and found myself living with five friends in the middle of Madrid, Spain. The adventure was part of a lifelong plan to give missionary service for two years. This meant leaving my home and all that I knew to share with others my beliefs and invite all the people I could to come unto Christ. The work was very simple but it required a lot of legwork and travel throughout the city. Because of all the time we spent outside, we did the best we could to stay healthy since no one wants to spend their volunteer time lying in a bed because they feel sick.
But one evening I knew I could do no more and my companion and I returned home a couple of hours early. I immediately went to my bed and hoped to sleep off whatever ailed me. We were six guys in one apartment so we didn't own a thermometer but when I awoke my sheets were as wet as a rain soaked lawn. I tried to get up to shower and change into something dry but I found that I could barely move. And when I did manage to move my joints felt like rusted over hinges that need several applications of oil. I managed to sit up on the edge of my bed and all I wanted was my mom and a glass of 7-Up. Both were thousands of miles away.
My friends were great and they really tended to every need that I had. A couple of them went out to the store and bought me a lemon Schweppes and they tracked down some saltine crackers. Someone else made a batch of chicken soup and they brought me extra blankets and sheets for the alternating chills and fever bouts. It turns out that no amount of homemade care was going to fix what turned out to be a case of typhoid fever. I don't recommend it to anyone. Its symptoms sapped my strength and made me homebound for almost three weeks. Those twenty days showed me that it sometimes takes the work of five guys to almost equal the day-to-day efforts of just one mom.
When I moved away from home, I was 19 years old and found myself living with five friends in the middle of Madrid, Spain. The adventure was part of a lifelong plan to give missionary service for two years. This meant leaving my home and all that I knew to share with others my beliefs and invite all the people I could to come unto Christ. The work was very simple but it required a lot of legwork and travel throughout the city. Because of all the time we spent outside, we did the best we could to stay healthy since no one wants to spend their volunteer time lying in a bed because they feel sick.
But one evening I knew I could do no more and my companion and I returned home a couple of hours early. I immediately went to my bed and hoped to sleep off whatever ailed me. We were six guys in one apartment so we didn't own a thermometer but when I awoke my sheets were as wet as a rain soaked lawn. I tried to get up to shower and change into something dry but I found that I could barely move. And when I did manage to move my joints felt like rusted over hinges that need several applications of oil. I managed to sit up on the edge of my bed and all I wanted was my mom and a glass of 7-Up. Both were thousands of miles away.
My friends were great and they really tended to every need that I had. A couple of them went out to the store and bought me a lemon Schweppes and they tracked down some saltine crackers. Someone else made a batch of chicken soup and they brought me extra blankets and sheets for the alternating chills and fever bouts. It turns out that no amount of homemade care was going to fix what turned out to be a case of typhoid fever. I don't recommend it to anyone. Its symptoms sapped my strength and made me homebound for almost three weeks. Those twenty days showed me that it sometimes takes the work of five guys to almost equal the day-to-day efforts of just one mom.
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