Hurdles

"Any fool can run in circles, but it takes a wise man to hurdle."- Anonymous

I am a sports lover. It’s in my blood. My dad was a high school football coach when I was a little girl. Dressed in an orange and black cheerleader uniform complete with yarn tassels on my shoes, I went to watch him coach the Tigers in my formative years. Football was king; we ate our dinner on TV trays in the living room on Sundays to watch whatever game was on …usually Green Bay or Chicago it seems. (You young kids don’t remember that Steeler games were often blacked out in this area) My paternal grandfather and maternal grandmother were baseball fanatics. They always had the Pirates on the radio or television.
Once in high school I was exposed to, and enjoyed, a myriad of other sports. Track and Field was one of them. My younger brother was a track star. He was a hurdler. Besides my brother John, I have known/watched many excellent hurdlers in my day. A guy by the name of Denny Moyer said “Hurdlers are sprinter with a problem. They’re not satisfied just to sprint. Anybody can sprint, some not as well as others of course, but anyone can sprint. Not everybody can run hurdles. There’s an extra dimension involved.”
One of the funny things about hurdles is that you don’t get disqualified if you knock the hurdle over. It will slow you down (and I imagine be pretty painful to your foot/leg) but you can keep running.
In this race known as “patty takes a mission trip”, I have cleared a few hurdles by the grace of God. The “extra dimension” that D. Moyer talks about has been the Holy Spirit for me. Hurdles of pride and fear were knocked over with a well placed verse or two in my daily readings or the Pastor’s sermon. And it is with a thank you to God that I report that the hurdle of monetary need has been cleared, as ½ of the money I need for this trip has been handed to me by faithful servants who felt led to support me. But as I came around a bend in this race, I had a hurdle staring me in the face that loomed very large, at least in my imagination: immunizations.
To go to Honduras, you need to be protected against malaria, tetnus, Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B and typhoid. Quite a list! I had my friends praying for the courage to even GO to get these shots. Last Wednesday, I took a ½ vacation day and headed down to Oakland to the Allegheny Health Department. First hurdle: parking. I prayed for an open spot on the street FOR I AM AN EXCELLENT PARALLEL PARKER, but none came open. (maybe God knows I’m not as good as I think I am). I had to settle for a parking garage several blocks away. One obstacle out of the way. I got to the waiting room and found it to be full of people who also wanted to be tortured with a needle. (who knew?) Approaching the window, I was handed a plethora of paperwork. I raced through it as there were two other ladies I wanted to beat into the line that seemed to wrap around the building. For surviving the pain of the needle, I was asked to pay $100. Finally it was MY TURN to go into the inner office, roll up my sleeve and get my shots. My elementary school nurse’s office (back in 1961) was more modern than the setting I found myself in. A wooden chair beside a metal desk is where I offered my arm (actually both of them) for the pinch. I am happy to report, it wasn’t nearly as bad as I had imagined. One more hurdle cleared on my way to Central America.