We all need Ziba in our life...

You may have heard that I've been facing a few challenges since finishing the ILT meetings and returning to Spain this week. I'd been feeling a sore throat threatening since our day in Amsterdam and, sure enough, I woke up on Wednesday morning with bronchitis-like symptoms and no voice at all. By Thursday, I also had a pounding sinus headache and was finding it difficult to breathe and so, that morning, I decided to inhale with a menthol vapour rub.

And that's when a really bizarre accident happened: there must have been an undissolved lump of vapour rub in the water, and when I put my face above it to inhale the steam, it suddenly "exploded," showering my face with scalding water. My skin began to peel off - like when you immerse a tomato in boiling water to remove the skin. Anyway, I knew enough to immerse my face in cold water for as long as possible, and I also put egg whites on it, as I've heard the natural collagen is good for burns.

But nonetheless, when I got to accident and emergency, they told me that part of my cheek had third degree burns and that there was quite extensive burning on the rest of my face too. My eye was swollen shut and surrounded by painful blisters, but when they checked the inside of my eye they were able to tell me that there were no lesions on the cornea. Even so, I have a painful and ugly mess down the right side of my face. It's a sticky pallet of dead skin when I wake up in the morning, and then it begins to bleed so that it's looking like a raw steak by the afternoon. As I'm a bit anaemic, tending to heal slowly and scar easily, I'm praying very much that it won't leave major scarring on my face.

Anyway, as I was still very ill and weak with the respiratory infection, and now I had painful bleeding facial burns on top of that, I was really feeling in a bad way. My friends and teammates have been amazing, though. It's said that "a friend in need is a friend indeed," and my friends have been wonderful over the past couple of days: driving me to the doctor, sending me food, doing my shopping for me (so that I don't scare people in the supermarket!), helping me clean my house in preparation for a guest arriving from overseas, offering to pick my friend up from the airport (as I can't put on glasses and wouldn't be able to see to drive…) I've also had an influx of emails, best wishes and assurances of prayer from other friends around the world.

This morning in my quiet time, I was reading in 2nd Samuel chapter 16, part of the story where David is fleeing from Absalom and heading into the desert.  In the first two verses of that chapter, a man called Ziba comes out to meet David in the desert, bringing him food, wine and donkeys. I found these things quite symbolic of the help that friends can give us when we're in a hard place. Food spoke to me of providing nourishment and strength (like the person who sent me food today), while the donkeys spoke to me of support and help (like the people who did my shopping for me or helped me clean the house.) And vs 2 says that the wine is for refreshment when exhausted; I don't like wine personally, so I can't imagine it being refreshing, but this spoke to me of the refreshing that comes from knowing that different people are praying for you, and emailing with kind words.

And so, I couldn't help thinking that we all need people like Ziba in our lives; we all need people who will reach out to us with help and refreshment when we're in a hard place (or, like David, in a dry and desert place.) And we need also to be that kind of person for others.

Who are the Zibas in your life? Who are the people you can turn to and depend on when things are hard? And to whom are you, or could you be, a Ziba in their time of need? I've been blessed this week by the love and care of good friends, and I know that we all need friends like that.

I also want to say thank you to everyone who has emailed me to say they are praying. I do very much value your prayers for recovering from this bronchitis, as well as for prayers that this burnt flesh will heal quickly and well, and not leave ugly scarring on my face. Thank you.