“We are preparing to admit you to the hospital and anticipate you may be here for a few days,” said the doctor.

“But we are due to be at a conference in Austria today. Our flight leaves in just eight hours!” I said.

Three days earlier, towards the end of a reunion with Pauline’s family, I had begun to have a fever and feel generally unwell. On our arrival home, my condition continued to deteriorate. Tuesday night, as my temperature continued to rise, Pauline phoned the emergency doctor who told her to keep a close eye on me. Wednesday morning, we felt it wise to visit our family doctor who started me on a high dose of antibiotics, thinking I might have a chest infection. However, my temperature continued to climb Wednesday night, reaching 102.9°F. I started to experience rigors and shortness of breath. Pauline decided it was time to visit the hospital emergency room.

It wasn’t long before I was seen by a nurse who immediately tried to get a cannula into my vein to extract some blood for testing and commence IV fluids, as I was beginning to get dehydrated. She tried twice without success. A short time later, a doctor also tried without success. After what seemed like hours, a senior physician tried several times to access my veins, including on my feet, which was really painful. Thankfully, on the tenth attempt, he managed to access a vein in my wrist and insert a cannula.

Samples were on their way to the lab, and a chest x-ray had been taken, so all we could do was wait. At about 1 a.m., I began to feel a little better. Soon the doctor returned looking puzzled. She informed us that all the results had come back negative. There was no sign of a chest infection on the x-ray, and all the blood samples were within normal range. The medical staff were baffled and could not explain why I was experiencing all these symptoms. They had witnessed my pyrexia, rigors and shortness of breath. Now they didn’t know what to do other than prescribe another high-dose antibiotic and send me home with instructions to return if I began to get worse again.

Pauline and I wondered if the experience hinted at a more sinister spiritual battle. Perhaps Satan didn’t want us to attend GYC Europe! But why?

We arrived home, and I settled into bed at about 2 a.m. Pauline spent some time trying to cancel our plane tickets, without success. At about 5:30 a.m., we were both wide awake. “How do you feel?” she asked me.

“I feel pretty good actually.”

“Well? Shall we go?”

“How long do we have before we need to leave for the airport?”

“About 45 minutes.”

“Okay, let’s go!” I said.

The next 45 minutes were a whirl of packing and setting out for the airport. We prayed that the traffic would not be as heavy as usual, and our prayer was answered. We made it to the airport on time. I began to feel tired and weak, and Pauline kept encouraging me as we rushed through the terminal to our boarding gate. Once on board the plane, I began to feel better. Nine hours later, we arrived safely at our hotel in Linz, Austria.

We had made arrangements to fly into Munich and rent a car and drive by Bogenhofen, our Adventist academy and seminary in Austria, to pick up some supplies that had been shipped there for our exhibit.

“What are you doing here?” asked an astonished Gaby Vogel, director of the language school. “We were praying for you. We just heard this morning that you were in the hospital!”

“I was in hospital just a few hours ago,” I replied and explained to her what had happened.

The next day we were able to set up our AFM exhibit. We had been given a prime location on the main thoroughfare leading to the conference hall. We were able to begin networking with the young people, making new friends and meeting old friends, too. Imagine our surprise the following day when AFM missionary-in-training Daniëlle K. came and set up her table right next to ours! Lynette had volunteered to assist with registration, so she, too, was very busy for several hours.

Though I managed to attend most of the morning sessions, I was too exhausted in the afternoons to do much, but I perked up sufficiently to attend the evening meetings and man the booth with Pauline each day. During our time at GYC Europe, we had the privilege of meeting a few previous AFM student missionaries and quite a number of young people who were interested in mission service. None of the interests were ready to embark on such a spiritual experience immediately, but they were determined to visit the AFM website and keep a close eye on mission opportunities with a view to applying in the future. We received several requests for prayer and sensed the Holy Spirit was really impressing these individuals to consider both short-term and long-term mission service. We had several discussions with youth leaders and organizers of GYC Europe and had the opportunity to network with other supportive ministries in Europe. We look forward to developing stronger ties with these ministries.

The meetings themselves were excellent. Mark Finley and David Asscherick were the main speakers. The presentations were deeply convicting, challenging and encouraging. Under the theme, “The Hour Has Come—re-igniting the dormant embers of the Reformation,” 1,200 young people from 44 countries responded positively to the call for proactive involvement in reaching out to the millions in their own countries who have never heard about Jesus. Let us pray that a significant number of them will also respond to His call to reach the more than 2 billion in unreached people groups around the world, too.

• Twitter