Last week I visited my alma mater Wheaton College for my 10 year reunion. I had the opportunity while there to speak to the pre-med students about my journey from being in their shoes to now. I remember thinking as a college student that this journey towards medicine was forever - would it really be worth it? But ten years has flown by; there has been lots of joy along the way; and I so enjoy using the gifts God has given me in medicine to serve His people around the world. I thought I'd share a little bit of that journey (and of my presentation) with you through this post.
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| Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL |
My medical ambitions began young. At age four I decided I wanted to be a doctor and drive a bulldozer to work. Somehow the first goal was easier than the second because I have yet to find someone willing to let me drive their bulldozer! My medical journey continued and the interest grew greatly through my experience with Transverse Myelitis at age 10. I woke up one morning paralyzed from the chest down from a virus in my spinal cord. Through two years of physical therapy, God healed me completely and gifted me with the ability to walk again and even run and climb mountains. My interest in other peoples and cultures began as a young child listening intently to stories of missionaries in Sunday School. Our family embarked on a life changing cross cultural experience when we moved to the Mexican border as I was entering 8th grade (picture on the right is my mother, my sisters, & I with a friend in Reynosa, Mexico). During the three years we lived there, I grew to love learning Spanish and learning about other peoples and cultures.
I truly believe all these formative childhood events occurred so that the work of God would be displayed in my life.
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| Chicago - John Hancock building, Lake Michigan |
In college, I grew to love missions more through a summer working with a community development project in Bolivia. Despite suffering from significant reverse culture shock on my return to the U.S., the people and the place of Trinidad, Bolivia still hold a special place in my heart. My first medical missions experience encouraged me greatly during my first year of medical school. I loved leaving the textbooks behind and observing firsthand how amazing it was to serve the impoverished people of the Ecuadorean Andes Mountains with medicine and the gospel, word and deed. My journey in medical missions continued through experiences in medical school and residency in Kenya, Trinidad, Togo, and the Dominican Republic.
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| My sister Lauren and I both graduated from Wheaton and now she works there! I so loved getting to spend quality time with her last week. | |
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| Two of my college roommates - in 10 years the three of us have added two husbands, 3 1/2 kids, 2 additional degrees, criss-crossed the U.S. multiple times, lived overseas, and traveled to at least fifteen countries! I'm so thankful for these and other friends God has given me who know my history, know my weaknesses, and love me anyways no matter the physical distance between us! |
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| The Wade Center at Wheaton with the actual wardrobe which inspired C.S. Lewis as he wrote, "The Lion, The Witch, & The Wardrobe" - one of my favorite books |
I've referenced this quote before on the blog, but it continues to
capture perfectly my feelings towards the work ahead of me: now with
support raising, in France with becoming fluent enough in French to
be able to lecture medical students, & in Burundi with working at a hospital with no
running water and extremely limited resources. I'm so glad that where I
am most weak and insufficient, God's strength shines through all the
brighter.
"The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
surely I
have a delightful inheritance." Psalm 16:6
I'm so thankful for the heritage God has blessed me with - what a joy it is to have parents and others who have been discipling me and praying with and for me all my days.
Thank you, too, for journeying with me!
