PAACS

So, really I should be writing a paper now, but I got side-tracked. My paper is due tomorrow morning and its 7:04pm. I'm still missing some sources for my bibliography...oh, the life of a college student.

Well, my paper is about PAACS (Pan-African Academy of Christian Surgeons). I had an opportunity to become familiar with the program during my one month in Gabon.This paper is for one of my Religious Studies classes. Anyways, so I was reading up on PAACS and its history (from www.paacs.net) and it just stirred up my desire to go back to Gabon and be a surgeon...preferably Gabon, but really anywhere in Africa, South America, Asia or wherever there is a need. I have such a hunger to glorify God by serving others through surgery. AHHHHHH...I want to go NOW. I wish I could fast forward appx. ten years when I will be done with all this blasted schooling and residency. I cannot wait for the day when I can go back to Bongolo as a surgeon (if they will have me). But, really, I will go anywhere. I just want to serve!!! Anticipation of this day is killing me. But, it keeps me focused and driven.As Paul says in Philippians 3:12, I "press on" toward the goal which Christ has set before me.

I love how God used this past summer to encourage me and grow his passion within me. Before, I used to waiver (especially when chemistry got rough) about whether I truly wanted to be a doctor, but now I KNOW that this is what God would have me do. He used my time in Bongolo to confirm that within in me. Then, he grew that desire within me. God caused my life to intersect with so many special individuals and experiences. So, like I said, God used my time in Gabon to grow his passion within me and to let me dream. I have huge dreams. HUGE, HUGE, HUGE dreams and I won't let them go, because I know God has placed them within me. I wish I had ten million lives to give, so that I could spend each life serving God a different way. So here is my wish list/ list of dreams:

- Maintain a good pre-med GPA
- Get a good score on the MCAT
- Get into and graduate medical school
- Become a board-certified general surgeon
- Work as a MISSIONARY surgeon - get out of the U.S.!
- Teach surgery wherever...who knows? Maybe I'll start the South American College of Christian Surgeons?!
- Begin a new hospital in some remote area in a third world country
- Begin a Christian medical school in some remote area in a third world country
- Begin a Christian orphanage in a third world country

The list goes on...But here is the punch line. These aren't just dreams. I treat them as realities, because my God is God of the impossible. He is the same God of Africa, Asia, South America and the rest of the world. He is God of the universe and nothing is TOO great for him to accomplish.

Ecclesiastes 3:11
"He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end."


Praying & thinking of all of you in Libreville & Bongolo!

P.S. - My mock medical school interview went well...I had a great interviewer who gave me good feedback, so hopefully, when I get to real med school interviews I will do well!