End of my third year...

I just realized that my third year in medical school will end tommorrow! I just had a day of interviews with the big cheeses in this family medicine residency, and I thought it went well. The people running this program are amazing! They love Jesus and are not ashamed of making their passions known! This program is currently involved in starting numerous family medicine training program around the globe. It's awesome!

So, here are my plans for the next few weeks: I am flying back home to CA on Sat morning... unpack... pack... and drive to Phoenix on Sunday. I am going back to my school in Phoenix for a week of testing, then 2 more weeks of class... then studying for my second series of medical board exams.

Yay, at the end of next week, I will officially be starting my 4th year in medical school! I am very excited. I wanted to offer congratulations to Kavi as she officially become a DO tommorrow, in Pomona... I'm sad that I won't be able to make it.

Thoughts on the last rotation of the year: I'm glad I came to Tulsa to In His Image. I've met with many amazing people, each with a miraculous story about how they came to love Jesus and how they come to be in medicine. I've also learned of their passion to be 'physician-christians' instead of 'christian-physicians.' (a perspective of where our identity lies) They have a passionate and God centered vision in using medicine to reach the souls around the world. I believe and identify with their vision and mission. God inspired, God ordained, God sustained... to Him be ALL of the Glory! It is awesome...

A spoon of sugar: dwell on this: Why are we treating and helping people for? To make them feel better? Then what? If our purposes are to help people, then when will it end, and for what purpose?

If your answer ends with helping people, make them feel better, make you feel better... and that's it, then I can suggest that your efforts WILL be short lived. May we seek to prepare everyone we get in contact with for God's seed. Be the 'tiller,' prepare the soil for growth. Send me.

Crisp morning sun

As I was fix'n to drive to work this morn'n, I found myself actually driving with the SUNRISE... it was around 6:15am here in Tulsa, enveloped in a crispy clear air of 43F... (well, pls overlook the smoke stacks and all that... yeah, take a deep breath of crispy whatever...) It was such a liberating feeling. Makes me wanna fly, fo reals...

(*) WOW

Ever feel helpless living life as a Christian and seeing how corrupt the world is becoming? The report that we often hear about the rise of Islam and the diminishing Christian influences in the news/media/universities... Well, I've recently got an encouraging news... here is how it works. I think this will encourage you too, or at least get that hamster wheel rolling...

So, in 33AD, Jesus' time, there was about 120 committed believers who are sold out to do God's work. There was 1 committed church. There was 60,000 unreached people groups who have never heard the Good News (out of a total of 200,000 people on earth). The ratio of commited sold-out believers to unreached people groups was... 1 to 59,999!

Now, 2008AD, there are 700 million commited believers who are sold out for Christ, which is about 10% of the world's population of 7 billion. There are about 7 million committed churches. There are about 7,000 unreached people groups. That makes the ratio of committed Christ-followers to unreached people group to be... 1000 to 1!

What should we do about that?

Another fascinating thought: since the beginning of the world to about early 1900's, the world's total population has remained under 1 billion people. In Christ's time on earth, there was about 200,000 total people on earth; that was 1AD. Within the last 100 years the population went from 1 billion to almost 7 billion! It basically EXPLODED! According to some scientists, the planet earth as God had created could sustain a total of about 9-11 billion people... So... WHAT IS HAPPENING TO US? WHY ARE WE MAXING OUT NOW! SPIRITUAL IMPLICATIONS, ANYONE? ANYONE?

(*) !POWER!

Ever thought of what POWER is? Here is a perspective for you: the display of Christ's power is meant to start from the GRASS-ROOTS! What do I mean by that?

Right before Jesus Christ was taken up into Heaven at the end of His physical ministry on earth, He was asked one question (Acts 1:6-8): "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom of Israel?" Then, Jesus replied, "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by His own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
Alright, allow me to expand on this by some questions:

1. What kind of 'Kingdom' are people looking for then, what about now?
2. Why did Jesus correlate the Holy Spirit with 'POWER?'
3. What will 'you' (or us as readers) do with the 'POWER' of the Holy Spirit?
4. Where will the power of the Holy Spirit take us?

So, here are my proposed answers:

1. To put the verse into historical context, Middle-Eastern cultures and people groups desired literal display of POWER... such as the 'Kingdom of Israel,' 'Kingdom of Assyria'... When the walls of Jerusalem was broken down, Israelites cry and torn their cloth to display shame. Today, Muslims consider it shameful that a visible and literal kingdom of Islam on earth under Shar'ia law is not a reality. Our nature is to desire domination and control. We want a powerful authority structure that give us visible POWER and GLORY from the TOP-DOWN. Look at the world around you, as the bumper sticker says, "The person die with most toys wins."
2. Holy Spirit brings POWER to us... Holy Spirit is the ENCOURAGER and the COUSELOR. Holy Spirit is the POWER we need to be VICTORIOUS over ANY and ALL FEARS.
3. The Power of the Holy Spirit WILL allow us and make us into Jesus Christ's WITNESSES.
4. The Power of the Holy Spirit, that removes all FEARs, will take us to the 'ends of the earth.'

So, the Power that Christ brings through the Holy Spirit is from BOTTOM-UP, which WILL make us into FEARLESS WITNESSES. It's a grass-root movement! If you don't notice it, then have got to ask yourself, am I part of it?!

(*) Faithfulness

God's "F"aithfulness abounds! When we are Faithful to God (Father, Christ, Holy Spirit) in and through our tough times, we are actually the 'image' of God to those around us! I understand that we may just be trying to survive from situation to situation and are not necessary thinking about what others are thinking as they watch us go through stuff. But, when we are Faithful to our Lord through how we handle and experience hardship, we are 'In His Image' as a representation of Him to those around us.

Father Abraham when he was asked to sacrifice his son Issac, Abraham obeyed and trusted the Lord to provide regardless of the consequence. He was called the 'Father of Faith!' I don't think he had in his mind to be called that. But, through his display of Faithfulness, we saw God's Faithfulness. Thus, the ability to be Faithful in any situation is ONLY from GOD and it's a HOLY GIFT. I want to encourage YOU. When you are Faithful to our Lord even when nothing feels right... you're displaying a GIFT of GOD and GOD IS WITH YOU EXACTLY WHERE YOU ARE!!!

BE FAITHFUL AS THE FATHER IS FAITHFUL. WE ARE A 'LITERAL' IMAGE OF GOD.

My Cake

Oh boy, my cake... so I was waiting to share my cake with my three wonderful housemates (Drs Tim, Clint, Val) tonight... Then, Clint and his parents, Burt and Darlene (visiting from WI), surprised me by lighting bunch of candles on my cake (that my family sent me by mail). Well, we played some good card games and such... it was good fellowship times. Well, mom/dad/G/Jess, I love you guys and the cake tasted wonderful! Thank you.

What I did on my birthday...

So, as part of my rotation here in In His Image, I am encouraged to volunteer at this mobile clinic. You can read about it by clicking on the above link. There are 2 large vehicles, one is large mobile home conversion (aka 'Good Sam') and the other one is a large semi-truck conversion (aka 'Big Sam'). They each have 3 fully equipped exam rooms, a pharmacy, and a lab. The conception of this ministry/NGO started when God inspired Dr. Crouch (the founder of the IHI residency program) to minister to low income communities around Tulsa. They strategically placed these vans where the people would need their services the most. Everyone who comes are ministered to by medicine and by prayer. This ministry is also linked to a local church, which ministers to the patients who come. The vision is a ministry for total healing of a person. What is unique about this mobile ministry is that they actually stay at the places they serve 6 days a week. So, in a sense, they are sort of a 'fixed' mobile clinic. The ideas of not moving around too much is actually one to encourage community building. So, today, I got there a little late because I had to take a long, off-into-the-countryside trail. I only saw one patient, but, I was so jazzed! I also had to use a lot of Spanish with this one patient, and I was also very jazzed about that too. The patients are so nice and the people who work there really have a heart for taking care of people. We have some amazing brother and sisters in Christ!

Simplicity is calling me...

After almost a full week in Tulsa, I am getting a better picture of what life is like here. I figured that Tulsa and Okalahoma City, the 2 largest cities in OK, probably feels like a big city for people from these parts of the country (and those who have never seen LA, SF, or NY){I love both the large cities and the countrysides} However, for me, I'd consider Tulsa almost the countryside or may be a small town. There is a center of town with some high-rises, and some old looking churches, but, most of Tulsa are industrial and quiet neighborhoods. Due to the recent thunderstorms, Tulsa is quite green, and there are water in the creeks. There are lots of tall green trees, little creeks by the road, frogs croaking in those creeks, not much bugs (probably eaten by the frogs in the creeks), green pastures, open lands, cute houses, and mansions... I'll show you some pictures when I go explore this Saturday. The temperature is mild at around 65-75F, occassionally overcasted and some loud thunderstorms. I like driving here, it makes me feel that I am driving in some country place... very green and natural, and houses are mostly built out of bricks and stones. Gas is around $3.19 to 3.29 per gallon.

As for work, I am working 1.5 weeks in the clinic and 2.5 weeks in the hospital. I have been working with many doctors here and had good exchanges of conversations and stories. My overall impression of people here are that they are very nice. They also tend to be much gentler when it comes to medical education, not much pimping. I am enjoying the clinic work, everyone is very nice, but, having to rotate with a different doctor every 2 hours doesn't give me much time to adjust to each of their personal styles. I learned that about 30% of their graduates end up in the mission field long term. All the residents and staffs are Christians. Almost 20% of residents are from a foreign country... but they alls have amazing stories of how they know Jesus. A lot of them hangout together when off work and routinely go to Bible studies together. They also make it a habit to pray with their patients both in the clinic and in the hospital. Having been here for a week, I get the feeling of going to a church when I go to work... I really feel the 'togetherness' when I see how everyone interact here; like a family. The director of the residency shares spiritual guidance and calls the residents his kids.

I am getting use to the 'southern twang'... well, you may catch me with an occassional bad grammer or two when I get back... In general, people are not as superficial here and not as focused on appearance as much as... let's say, Newport Beach. (what kind of a standard do you have, SoCal boy?!)

Ok, I do have some life stuff that you can pray for me about: rejuvenation. As my third year in medical school comes to an end... I am feeling exhausted! I really feel I can use a good vacation and relaxation right now. I felt that I have put in a lot of energy this past year on various rotations, working hard, pulling 80-100 hour weeks on majority of the months (like all other med students), loving what I do, loving interacting with patients and their families, surviving tough life ordeals with God's/family's/friends' help... well, all that has just about drained me. I still have 2 end of the year exams to take at school at the end of May, and 3 medical board certification exams in the beginning of July and August. I still have to invest a lot of time into studying for these... ahhh...

So, I hate complaining, but, perhaps you can lift me up to our Father for some extra strength and energy and also restoration and rejuvenation in Him. Pressures of life never ceases, I feel that Wisdom from the Lord teaches us to grow and mature with our difficulties and not to avoid them. So, here we go.......