Nerd Camp

The last six weeks or so I was in Nashville participating in a program at Fisk and Vanderbilt Universities. For those of you who did not get my emails, here they are:

Friday, June 3rd:
"Nerd Camp ;0)"

Hey everyone!

I hate mass emails but I know that ya'll are praying for me and I just wanted to send a quick word saying that I made it to Nashville just fine and things are going great. Everyone here is like me--nerd through and through. ;0) But we also know how to have a great time and have been doing just that before classes start on Monday.

I have been designated as the Nashville tour guide. Not that I have ever even been to TN, but I have been the one leading us all over the place. Last night I loaded my car full of hungry girls and we set out to find some grub. We ended up in Opryland. It was a really neat adventure. Today we took a practice MCAT all day and tonight set out for another adventure into the great unknown. We ended up at the Pantheon, the Titans stadium, the country music hall of fame, the state capital, countless other fun sites, and finally Ben & Jerry's ice cream. ;0) As we sat and ate our ice cream, we laughed about being from Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Oregon, Montana, Illinois, and the list goes on. We mocked each others accents and joked about the expressions we used. Then we cracked on ourselves about being at "Nerd Camp." We just never knew it would be this fun.

Nashville is gorgeous and the campus we live on is amazing (check out the pictures at www.fisk.edu --we live in Jubilee Hall & it's the coolest bldg on campus!). A few girls and I ran through a park this evening and just enjoyed soaking it all up. It's been so amazing to make friends so quickly & to enjoy each others company so much. Please don't stop praying! I know that the quick transition and easy development of relationships is God at work. Pray for my new friends--I don't know that any of them know the Lord. Tomorrow night will be difficult as they are all going out drinking. We are all so much alike, and yet not. I want to enjoy being their friend and simply show them the greatest joy I've ever known.

Thanks for your prayers and your support! I had no idea what I was getting into, but this is beyond anything that I could have dreamed of....

Please keep me posted on how I can be praying for each of you!

Until the world knows Jesus,
Janice
Is. 43:1-2!!!!!

Monday, June 6th:
"A Gallon of Milk and a Historical Landmark"

I know I just sent an email a few days ago, but I wanted to update ya'll again now that classes have started.

This evening I took a carload of girls to Wal-Mart, and we were running a little late for dinner coming back. I had bought a gallon of milk and needed to put it in the fridge. They headed straight to dinner while I ran to the dorm to put my milk away. We parked in the back of the dorm, and I literaly began running toward the front of the building. As I rounded the corner, I found myself standing in a crowd of tourists gazing upward at my dorm as I held my gallon of milk in my hand. I tried to quietly slip through unnoticed but was quite out of place. The dorm we live in is a historical landmark and the most important building on campus. There are strict rules about the things that we can wear and do in the lobby as well as things we can have in the dorm period. But it is a lot of fun and is definetly a neat experience.

Anyhow, class started today at 7am bright and early. My organic class lasts from 7-9:30 on MWF and is taught by a Vanderbilt professor. On MWF afternoons we have seminars about various things. Tuesdays and Thursdays we spend in the Vanderbilt Medical Center shadowing some of the world's top doctors, doing case studies and research, and learning hands-on. I thought today would be rough having organic at 7am, but the time flew and it was actually quite enjoyable.

I am still having an amazing time getting to know the others here from all over the country. I took some girls with me to FBC Nashville yesterday, and I really had some neat opportunities to share with them. We actually ended up going to their church picnic that evening and participating in a sunset service on the lake! I am constantly seeing God's hand of provision every time I turn around.

The program here is rigorous, and we are going to be pretty busy but this is probably one of the neatest opportunities I will ever have. I know that this is the Lord's mission field for me this summer. I am soaking up the benefits of rubbing elbows with world renown doctors, but I am striving to be salt and light every step of the way. The opportunities are endless. I mean, there is nothing quite like the wonders of God's creation found in the human body. I am getting to experience that on a new level, but I am also getting to share that with others who don't really see things that way.

Well, sorry to write for so long. Things around here are just so exciting! And my emails are sure to get fewer and farther between (as well as shorter for that matter) as things start to pick up here the next few days.

Keep your eyes on Jesus!

Until the world knows Him,
Janice

Thursday, June 9th:
"Brain Surgery Day 1"

Well, my day began bright and early at 5 am. I dressed my best and sported my new white coat and Vanderbilt Medical Center ID Badge. I boarded a shuttle bus where I was dropped off next to the hospital. I was picked up by a woman who worked for the doctor I would be shadowing for the day. I scrubbed up and headed for the OR. Our patient for the morning had a large tumor in her brain in the speech region. For this reason, the procedure was done while the patient was awake in order to make a speech map of the brain. Imagine having brain surgery awake!! I saw much of the tumor be removed and then took a quick lunch break.

After lunch I headed to class--kind of anti-climatic after brain surgery. Today was the first day of our problem based learning class, a class in which we receive a case, research the problem, and develop the appropriate diagnosis. Because today was the first day we just spent time getting to know one another. The class is taught by med students here at Vanderbilt, and I really had an incredible time just getting to know them and learn from them. They were incredibly encouraging and supportive of us and our aspirations. They know that the road to and through medical school is not easy and comes with a lot of uncertainty. They gladly answered every last question of ours. They will be an amazing resource for me both this summer and in the future. I learned a lot from them today and was really encouraged to pursue my dreams.

This experience continues to grow on me. Around every corner there is a new surprise and a new blessing. I just really couldn't have expected things to be like they are. I am tired, and I do take in a lot of new information every day, but it is such an exciting time. On Tuesday we were given our white coats and ID badges. As I walked through the medical center I kept catching glimpses of myself in the reflective glass on the buildings. I just couldn't quite believe it. I stood in front of the mirror for a long time in the bathroom trying to decide whether or not I looked like a kid playing dress-up or like I fit the part. I never quite decided. Hopefully I'll be able to send a picture, and you can be the judge. ;0) I am just blown away by the opportunity the Lord has given me to be here. Sometimes I feel really childish because I get so excited.

Today we were all asked to share our stories today of how we got involved in medicine--where we were coming from and where we want to go. We just went around the table sharing, and I just happened to be the last to go. It was neat to sit back and see the vastly different backgrounds everyone was coming from. I was humbled to get to be among them and to share my story! So, I briefly explained to them what had sparked my interests and what not. I told of going overseas and seeing children with AIDS in Africa. I simply explained my heart for the people and God's way of leading me to the place I'm at now. They applauded at the end! No one else got applause. I just don't quite understand it. "God, why me?" is the question I am constantly asking.

When God called Abraham, he told him that he was going to bless him and make him great. But the whole reason behind that was so that he could be a blessing to others. I see it the same way in my life as well, and I pray that I really will be a blessing to all those I come in contact with that God may be glorified to the ends of the earth! And I think too that all the people of God are blessed by God in the same way. We are so blessed to get to walk in intimacy with him--whether that be in the medical field, in teaching, in business, in parenting, or wherever God has placed us. It's awesome that we are not all called to the same places because who would be a light in the darkness elsewhere? And I might be young but I know that some of the places seem less honorable than others, but the apostle Paul says that greater honor is given to the parts that lacked it and the unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty. He also says that the parts that seem weaker are indispensable (1 Cor. 12:22-25).

So, wherever you're at today enjoy walking in intimacy with God! That is the greatest joy of all--greater than watching brain surgery even. (Of course, I know some of you would rather have brain surgery than watch it ;0)

Have an amazing day!

Until the world knows Jesus,
Janice
Is. 43:1-2

Thursday, June 23rd:
Brain Surgery & the SBC Annual Convention

How is everyone? I hope you are all staying cool and hydrated! ;0) I just got back from my evening jog with my workout buddies up the steps of the Capital Building. Tonight, like many other nights, I caught myself just daydreaming. The sun was setting as we stretched on Capital Hill and overlooked the city. The 3 of us talked about the adventures of our week--seeing stem cell transplants, brain surgeries done through the nose, spinal fusions, and more. We laughed about certain happenings and talked about the basketball game tonight. We discussed the embryology of the heart and congenital heart defects such as atrial septal defect and patent ductus arteriosus. We speculated about our friend Becca and her new little boyfriend. It was a good time as always. The jog always ends with a steep uphill climb through one of the rougher neighborhoods around. Something about running through there always gets us talking about the things we are passionate about--it sparks something in all 3 of us that makes us turn to one another and say, "I want to be a doctor, and I want to be a doctor where no one else will be."

I've been incredible busy this last week. I finished up organic chemistry and am now doing biochemistry. I had a lot of projects due and did a presentation today on congenital heart defects. I'm still having the time of my life, and I'm still blown away that I am here. I bounced around from OR to OR today watching several different neurosurgeries. I stopped by the holding room where they begin to administer anesthesia and sat beside a 17 year-old girl with a tumor on her pituitary gland and her mom explaining how the procedure would go and easing some of the anxiety.

Well, I could tell about many more adventures, but to some of you I am speaking a foreign language. I am grossing out others of you, and I am annoying others of you by sending out terribly long mass emails that really don't say a lot except, "I'm excited to be playing doctor!"

Amongst my medical adventures, I roamed into the Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting a couple times this week as well. I got to sing in the choir last night behind Casting Crowns and watch as Dr. Bobby Welch, president of the SBC, exhorted Christians to evangelize. Parts of the meeting itself were incredibly interesting to see the business aspect of things if you will. It gave me a lot to think about as I got in my car to head back to a dorm full of lost people.

Lately I have been studying the life of King David, a man after God's own heart. Did you know that it was years after David was anointed king that he actually took the throne? In fact, before he was even king of Israel, he was king over Judah for 7 and a half years!!! That's almost as much time as I will spend in med school. ;0) Anyhow, I was amazed as I began to realize how long David spent running from Saul, and even after Saul was gone, how long he spent at war with the house of Saul. But David held on to God's promise. The young shepherd boy had seen God's hand at work and knew His God would never fail Him. He knew that God had hand-picked him from many other seemingly better qualified men. Yes, there were times when he doubted, and times when He cried out, "God, where are You?! How long, O Lord?" There were even times when he gave in and gave up (1 Sam. 27), but God sustained him. And "David strengthened himself in the Lord his God" (1 Sam. 30:6). The crown did not fall into David's lap. God used many struggles leading to the kingship to prepare His chosen one.

I have seen the same principle at work in my life. Just in the last year I see the different struggles I faced with sickness and change and even a near death experience ;0) to smooth off some of my rough edges and draw me near to God. The fire is hot, but the fire is refining.

"But now THUS SAYS THE LORD, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: 'FEAR NOT, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, YOU ARE MINE. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through the fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. FOR I AM the Lord your God...' " Isaiah 43:1-3

What a promise to stand on! God is faithful.

And you know what's so good about the promised throne? Our promised throne is here. And there is a Father there waiting just for us. "Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in time of need" (Heb. 4:16).

Have a great weekend and enjoy being HIS!!!!

Until the world knows Jesus,
Janice

The Starting Point

Tonight over dinner I discussed fertility with a young missionary couple, Brad and Carrie for all you Woodlandites. We also discussed racism, labor, and seminary. But above all we delighted in God. We shared the highs and the lows and God's goodness at all those points. We talked for nearly four hours. Fellowship and community are so beautiful.

We joked about Brad's pride in his fertility, and how he should get passes to the YMCA because his boys can swim. We laughed about how babies are made in China--it's in the water or something. We talked about birth control and how it's like abortion, and I grappled with how I felt about that. Then there was Carrie's random soloiquies about racism, and Chris's family history involving rape and pillage. Any passerby would have marked us crazy--something about sitting in Guadalajara for 4 hours I guess. But what we shared went far deeper than sex and babies and race and the many other things we discussed. We shared that common bond found only in Jesus Christ. What a beautiful thing!

I'll never forget the look in Carrie's eyes as she talked about her students. I'll never forget the way Brad listened so intently as I told about the last year of my life. I won't forget how hard we laughed and how the time flew by so fast. The honesty and the authenticity permeating our conversations and laughter was refreshing. It was good to declare that God is good, and that His love endures even through the darkest of nights. It was good to speak of His wonders and His faithfulness to His children.

Brad encouraged me to start this thing. I don't even know who will read it. But it is a good place for me to continue to declare God's goodness and to archive the journeys He takes me on. Maybe it will bless someone else. I hope it blesses you to hear that God is good. I hope knowing that God is in control stirs some sort of comfort in your spirit. I pray that the thought of Him brings a smile to your face today.