Update from Jessica

Hi everyone

I know some of you haven't heard from me in a long time, and I apologize for not keeping people as "in the loop" as many of you have indicated you'd like to be. I'll try to be better about that.

I'm in my 2nd year of med school at McMaster right now, and have just finished the preclinical portion of my training. Starting this Monday I'm into the clinical part of my med school training (called Clerkship). I'll be doing rotations in each of the major specialties over the next year and a bit, and I'll also have some elective time in there, where I do clinical placements of my choosing. I'm really looking forward to this next phase of my training - feels like I'm one step closer to the goal! And it feels really good to have completed this first stage. Thanks to all of you who have been praying for me up to this point. It's been a challenging year, but God has been very faithful, and I know that I'm where I'm supposed to be.

I started having some sense during the summer that I was to explore the possibility of training as a surgeon once I finish medical school. The elective that I'm starting on Monday is an elective in General Surgery. I will be doing it in Chatham, Ontario (about a 2.5 hour train ride from Hamilton) for 4 weeks, which will take me up to just before Christmas. The surgeon that I'm working with came highly recommended. He is a Christian who has done some overseas work, and I am told he's an excellent teacher who is very enthusiastic about having students, so it should be a great experience. I'm very blessed to have received funding for my travel there and back, as well as accommodations while I'm there (a fully furnished apartment right across from the hospital that I'll have to myself!), and 2 meals a day free at the hospital. I'll be leaving Sunday afternoon. Please be praying for my time there. A big part of the reason I'm doing this elective is so that I can get a sense for whether or not surgery is a good fit for me, so you can be praying for direction. It also seems like the connection with this surgeon may be really significant, so you can pray for our relationship. He seems very interested in the overseas experiences I've had so far, as well as in my future plans.

Until a couple days ago I'd thought that I'd be back in Hamilton in January doing my obstetrics and gynecology rotation at a hospital here. But I just found out that I'm being "shipped" to Sioux St. Marie (a community about 8-10 hrs drive, or 1.5-hr flight, north from here) for that rotation. They had asked someone to volunteer to go on this placement, and then when noone expressed any interest, they drew names by lottery, and mine was chosen. I actually wasn't surprised - when they asked for volunteers I had a feeling it would end up being me, but I didn't say anything, because I wasn't really that interested in going at the time. I had said to the Lord that He could send me there if He wanted to, but He'd have to make it happen. And He did! So I leave Jan 3 for that, and will be there for 6 weeks. Again, all my transportation, accommodations, and meals are covered, and it should be a really good experience, since I'll get a lot more one-on-one attention there than I would if I were here. I've just had to adjust my thinking a little bit, because I hadn't planned on being away so long. It's sort of funny, because over the summer I was really hoping to get away, and had my heart set on travelling somewhere, but the Lord didn't open any doors and I ended up staying in Hamilton/Burlington for all my electives. Out of that time, I came to the point where I said, "Okay, Lord, I'll just stay around here until I finish school, and forget all about travelling until after that." I started to get used to the idea of staying here. And now I'm being sent to a few different places - totally off my "radar screen" (though as some people have pointed out, Sioux St. Marie is north!) - and I haven't really done much of anything to work either of those out - they just about fell into my lap! And I was just starting to get comfortable (Ha!). Anyways, I'm really looking forward to both these placements, and am also quite curious to know what else God might have in store for me in the next year, since so far He seems to have a very different idea than I do about all that. I'm glad He's in control. So I'd appreciate prayer for a continued ordering of my training, and that I'd be put in all the right places, with all the right doctors/supervisors, so that I can get the best preparation possible for whatever lies ahead in the future.

I still really miss being overseas, particularly in China, but God has been giving me much grace with that. I have been able to stay quite connected with people over there, which has helped. And I trust that God will take me back there at just the right time. In the meantime, I've connected really well with the Chinese people in my class. There have been a couple times when I've been invited to someone's house and only realized after I got there that I'd been invited to a Chinese party, where I was the only non-Chinese person there! It's been fun. I would love to be able to keep up practicing my Chinese so that I don't lose it, and I've had a few opportunities to do that, though I haven't done too much with it. There's also a good Christian community in our class, and it's been great to have like-minded people to walk with through school.

Aside from school, I'm very blessed by my church here in Hamilton, and feel very at home and supported there. I've been leading worship there, and have been really enjoying that. I'm living in a house with 3 other young women, and we have great worship times together, and times of praying for each other, which has been a huge blessing.

Well, I think that about covers it for now. Thanks to all of you who so faithfully pray for me. I'm about to step into a much busier part of my training, and would definitely appreciate prayer for that transition, as well as for strength and endurance throughout the process. I will be on e-mail during my various placements, so you can reach me by my mcmaster address (i.e. this one - I'll probably send e-mails from a different address, but you can keep using my Mac account without any problem at all).

Blessings to you all - I'd love to hear from you about what's going on with you, too.

Jessica