Broken

Today I heard form our Zimbabwe team leader who arrived there on Tuesday. She informed us of the weather, food, and what our living conditions would be like, all of which made me almost explode with excitement! She then began to share with us about her conversations with one of our hosts, Titsie. Titsie told her some of the horrific stories from 2007 when the gvt started "operation trash out" where they tried to rid Zimbabwe of its "trashy people." The place my team and I will be staying served as a refuge for many trying to escape the soldiers. She told of people whose hands, arms, and legs had been chopped off by machetes and one women who was burned from the waste down. My team is staying in Harare the capitol city where healing from this tragedy is more evident. However, the township where we will be working was one that was completely wiped out and still struggling. A local Zimbabwean even said it is hard for her to go there and she warned we may have trouble sleeping after we see the devastation. So many countries in Africa share these same stories. It can be overwhelming to think of the problems world-wide. However, for now I have been called to help bring healing to this township. Please pray that our God who heals would pour out His mercy on these broken people! Pray that through the little we do in sports or crafts or games, that Christ would sine through and bring them hope of a life worth living serving Him!

The fork in the road

As some of you may or may not know, this past year I have felt God calling me to go to medical school. Two days before classes were to start last fall I sat in front of my computer agonizing over the decision to completely change my class schedule to include the dreaded organic chemistry. After much prayer I redid my entire schedule. I cannot fully express the blessings that rained down after that night. Changing my schedule put me in a class that worked with Iraqi refugees. (But this story will have to wait because it brought so many more blessings and opportunities!) Even though I had to sit through an organic class, I knew I was supposed to be there and that gave me a confidence and joy I had not had before. I took two of the most difficult classes that semester: Organic Chemistry I and Human Physiology. I figured if God could get me through both of those together than maybe He really did want me to go to medical school. Looking back, that was by far my best and favorite semester. I made it though with a 3.95 GPA, and an A- in organic.

That Christmas break I went round and round in my head about medical school. Was I really supposed to go? I mean God did help me soar through those classes and I felt His blessing on everything I did. But really, medical school? I mean that's 8 more years of school, and I really just want to move over-seas anyways. I mean I can be a missionary and help a lot of people without 8 more years of school, right? Well, again with much prayer and agony, I signed up for organic chemistry II, and ordered an MCAT study book. Oh, the MCAT how I dreaded thee. I was really hoping it wouldn't get to that, however.

The semester started and I was gritting my teeth through every organic II class. I basically felt like, "fine God I'll do it, but I'm NOT happy about it." Then one Sunday I sat in my life group and a missionary was recalling when God called her to the mission field. She said she remembered getting to Mexico and seeing where she and her family would be living and just sobbing. She said she just had to cry out to God, "I'm doing this because you called me to it, but I do not want to." She then began to share with us that it's ok if we don't want to do what God has called us to, we just need to pray that He changes our heart. That's what I began praying and it did not take long before God answered.

I came home one night and found my father waiting for me. As I stepped in the door he began to share with me statistics he had read about Afghanistan. He said the infant mortality rate was something like 75% because the Muslim women are not allowed to see male doctors. That was it. That's all I heard and I knew I had to become a doctor. I have know that God called me over-seas, I have known that He called me to the forgotten people who no one wants to go to, but in that moment I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that He had called me to be a physician.

It is now July and I am heading in to my Senior year of college. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that I would be applying to medical school at this stage in my life. I have taken the MCAT and although I did not do extremely well on it, I did receive a score high enough to get into the school I am looking at. I have visited Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine and fell in love with it. It looks for globally minded students and takes 9 medical mission trips a year. I feel as though this school was created just for me. I am still looking at and may visit a few other schools, and am obviously praying about where God wants me. So until next semester I will not know for sure where I will end up.

Looking back at just the events of the past year, I am blow away by what God has done in my life. It is my prayer that He will receive all glory for what He has done and will do through the lump of clay that I am.