Hello my wonderful Kaleo family!! I am just writing to give you a quick update of what I have been up to lately. Things here at camp have been pretty straightforward. I have been busy with child care and when I am not babysitting, I am working on maintenance or helping in the kitchen. It has been really cool being here and having more and more people show up everyday. It is really exciting to see all the people that God is bringing here to be a part of this team and I cannot wait until we have a full staff team. God is moving here and it is exciting to see it all unfolding.

Lately I have been learning lots! I have really been focussing on the Word and my relationship with God. I have come to a point where all I want to do is read my Bible and spend time with God. I recently read Romans 12 and it blew my mind! I suggest that all of you read it because it turned my world upside down! It was very eye-opening and made me realize why I am here and what my role is supposed to be while I am here. It was really exciting.

But more recently, I have been very sick. I had a really bad cold at the beginning of advanced crew, and it gradually went away. Up until a couple of days ago I felt fine. But I started to get a bit of a cough again and my chest was really heavy. I didn’t think much of it until I talked to my dad about it and he said that he wanted me to get it checked out right away. He was thinking that I may be getting pneumonia and that scared me a little bit, so I told him on my next day off I would go to the hospital and get it checked out. Well, I didn’t have to wait until my next day off because last night, my chest got unbearably heavy and Sheri drove me to the hospital because I was unable to breathe normally. We left around 10:30 and we didn’t get home until 2:00. It was a ridiculously long wait, and I couldn’t breathe the whole time. Other people in the waiting room were getting angry at the lack of attention that I was getting. There was one lady who was yelling for doctors to put me on oxygen while I waited for someone to look at me. Despite the tears, the hyperventilating, the dizziness and the light-headedness I managed to smile and utter a giggle quite often. I tried my darndest to keep things as joyful as possible, but it was very difficult at times. My breathing would speed up and my whole body would tingle. It was an awful feeling not being able to breathe and having everything tingle. It was a miracle that I didn’t pass out. It was the strangest sensation when my face would tingle. Although being in the hospital sucked, it was a great time to be able to refocus. Sheri and I prayed a lot to keep me from passing out and we prayed for the other people. We were praying the whole time and I would try in between my breaths, but it was very difficult. To keep this short, the doctor told me that there was nothing wrong with me and because he didn’t know what it was he was going to treat it like bronchitis. So, he gave me a puffer to help me regulate my breathing when I panic and can’t breathe and he put me on antibiotics. But the thing is, the antibiotics are going to make me feel sick to my stomach all the time, drain me of all my energy and I can’t eat anything with dairy in it or with iron in it. So for the next little while I will be so drained of energy I won’t be able to move. It is an awful feeling and I am constantly light-headed from the lack of oxygen going into my system. So please pray for me during this time and pray for Johann as well. He fell down the stairs and hurt his ankle really badly. The doctors say that it is not broken, but he is in tears from the pain of just lying there. A part of me feels like we are all under attack because of the good things that God is doing here. A lot of people are sick and hurting. Pray for all the staff, pray for strength and perseverance.

Anyways, I love you all! I think of you when I am not focussing completely on my breathing! You may joke about people having to think about breathing, but it is way harder than you think it is! Haha….I love you and I miss you!!

Trusting Jess.