Advance, but slowly.

The retreat was great, but way too short. In the end I had an afternoon to myself, so I sat on the balcony and watched the palm trees swaying over the lake, listened to the call to prayer blasting out from the next village, read a great book ("i am not but i know I AM" by Louis Giglio) prayed and played my guitar.

I was a little worried when I started coughing, but thought it was just the change in air. When you live with pollution every day like we do in Cairo, it messes you up to breathe clean air.

That evening I taught the first of my three classes to the School of Worship. It was the opener to my series of "Worship through the Bible", an account of worship styles, methods, problems and successes from Genesis to Revelation.

That night as I got in to bed I started shivering, had a really restless night, and the next day I woke with a headache and really felt under the weather. I taught through the second two sessions and still felt rough as we drove back to Cairo.

I arrived back at the church just in time for the sound check for the evening service. Travis the Youth Pastor was leading an unplugged-style set, and I played guitar and sang harmonies, which was a real treat. Friday I woke up feeling much the same, and got through our full day of services before getting home and collapsing. Then for the weekend I was like the living dead - no energy, bad moods, grumpy, and on Sunday I had the shivers and sweats all day.

So much for the refreshing retreat. I feel like I'm beating the flu now, but it's been no fun at all, and I hope it doesn't come back and wallop me again any time soon. I'm praying for protection over all my girls!