Far from home but close to God
One night, While I was on a two-week service trip to a school in Kenya, I started to feel sick.
I went to bed with a stomachache, telling myself I would feel better in the morning. But a few hours after falling asleep, I woke up and had to run to the bathroom to throw up.
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After being comforted by my roommate and switching hotel rooms, I still felt sick to my stomach. I didn’t even have a distraction from the pain since we were on the trip without our phones, and there was no TV in the hotel.
I began to feel very worried. Here I was sick, 9,000 miles away from home, without my family or phone.
I began to feel very worried. Here I was sick, 9,000 miles away from home, without my family or phone. My only form of entertainment was the Christian Science weekly Bible Lesson from the Christian Science Quarterly. I opened it to find the line from the Bible, “For I am with thee, saith the Lord, to save thee” (Jeremiah 30:11). The idea that I could be so far away from what I called “home,” but that God was still there, really stuck with me. Physical distance does not affect our relation to God because God is everywhere and we can never be separated from Him. God is always with us, comforting and protecting us, no matter how far away we may think we are from our usual sources of comfort.
I continued reading the Lesson and came across this passage: “For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the Lord” (Jeremiah 30:17). Despite feeling so far from my parents and my phone, I felt comforted. God, the only source of true power, was there. God is the source of all good, and instead of focusing on what I felt was missing, I could simply see God’s goodness.
Despite feeling so far from my parents and my phone, I felt comforted. God, the only source of true power, was there.
Lying in bed, I came to the realization that God heals me, no matter where I am or how sick I feel, and distance is no limit to His power.
I fell asleep reading the Lesson and woke up the next morning feeling no pain at all. I was healed and able to join the group activities at full capacity later that day.
I’m grateful for what I learned about God’s ever-presence through this healing and that I now know I can always find help in the Bible Lesson.