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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Jorrdan Bissell

A Testimony to God’s Patience and Grace

Dear Father in heaven, Lord, you know that I am a broken vessel, but God, you are the potter.

God, I pray that you mold me and you fill me with your Holy Spirit so that whatever pours out for me is from you.

God I pray that you expel any distractions, you surround this place with your heavenly angels that we may be able to draw closer to you, get a better understanding of who you are, that we may draw in a closer relationship for eternity with you.

So I want to talk to you guys about how I got to be a third year general surgery resident.

There was some turns along the way, and I realized that God had definitely directed that.

So, to tell that story, I feel like I have to go back a little bit, so I'm not going to tell you my, you know, go through details of my life story, but I do think I need to give a little foundation, a little background.

So, from as early as I can remember, I wanted to be a doctor.

I didn't have any influences in my family, in the community.

I don't know where the thought and the desire to be a doctor came from.

But as I grew up, it was always constant, that desire, that thought, that dream.

Yes, there were dual thoughts, dual dreams, you know, and the astronaut part, the firefighter, all those different things, right?

But I, for, it was always wanting to be a physician, a doctor.

And to the point when I, we went to Union College the summer before my freshman year of high school, mostly for my brother who's older than me, my ears perked up when I heard about this program called International Rescue and Relief.

And a four-year Bachelor's of Science in which you can emphasize in pre-med and go on to medical school.

And so at that point, the summer before my freshman year of high school, I knew exactly what I was going to do.

I was going to go to Union College, going to do international rescue relief with an emphasis in pre-medical studies and go on to Loma Linda and become a medical student there and graduate as a doctor.

I'd never been to Loma Linda, never been to California before.

But that was the pathway, I figured that was what I was gonna do.

And so I get to Union College my freshman year and I realized that this dream that was so far off was actually more of a reality of a goal that I could, you know, eventually realize.

And it was kind of a big shift in mindset to go from this just far-off dream that this is actually coming up pretty closely.

It was, It was actually when, if anybody here's any medical students here, graduates from Loma Linda's, when and if you went to 1 of our Aventus universities, it was when Dr.

Roddy came by and she makes her rounds across the different universities And she showed a video of the 4 years of medical school.

And that's when I learned a little bit more about the details.

I had no clue, really, what the medical training pathway was.

I just knew you go to medical school and from there, you know, something happens and you become a doctor.

I didn't really know all the details and so I learned what the 4 years entailed and I felt impressed that this was the pathway.

Now this isn't part of the testimony, but I think it's really important to emphasize that through that time there, I realized God was working in my life and was leading and protecting and guiding me on this pathway.

And I think it's a testimony for another time, but I had this foundation of knowing that this is what God was leading and directing my life.

And so when I get to medical school, I was so excited.

And after about the first month or so, when we're in all that excitement, all the newness of being in medical school, then I realized that I did not know what my next path was.

Because at that point in time, I had just reached the end of my goal, was to get to medical school.

And that's the start of the testimony and the journey that I want to share.

Up until that point, there had been times where I was trying to find God's path and God leading in my life.

And it seemed like through some prayer that doors would open and I would have this peace and assurance that God had opened up that door and I would excitedly jump through it.

It was reassuring and It's part of the testimony from prior of having that affirmation that God was having impact in my life.

But at this point in medical school, I was asking for direction and I did not know where to go.

And so I started just keeping my ears and eyes open for whatever way God would lead.

And early I became exposed to the field of neurosurgery.

Now if you asked me what I wanted to do when I came into medical school I would tell you I was keeping my options open but in my heart I knew that I wanted to do something surgical and and so I try to keep an open mind but I figured with this exposure to neurosurgery that it's something that is competitive, something difficult to get into, so if I have any interest in it, I should start getting involved.

And as I got more involved, showing up to different department meetings, getting involved with the interest group, I started to build on this pathway.

I still was waiting for that confirmation.

I didn't have that confirmation of peace that that was truly the pathway, but I figured God would show me in due time.

And so fast forward all the way to fourth year of medical school, and I'll take a moment to describe part of the medical training pathway for those who may have been in the situation I was when I arrived here at Loma Linda, that at fourth year you apply to specialties.

And so at that point I applied to neurosurgery and you go through this application process, you do interviews, and at the end of the interview cycle you rank which programs you like the best and they rank which applicants they like the best and it goes in this big computer and they match you.

And so you end up getting what your match is.

You sign a contract that says I will go to wherever they match me.

And so as I'm in fourth year, I was not getting that many interviews.

And at that point, I felt that I had this urgency, that time was running out.

And I started praying more and more and more, God, tell me, am I on the right path?

And it got to a point where I said, I don't, you know, it doesn't have to be neurosurgery, whatever you want, I'll do it.

And that was the prayer that I was just praying over and over and over again.

God, tell me what to do and I will do it.

And I knew before opening the email at 6 o'clock in the morning that it was going to say I didn't match.

But I still was trying to throw this little prayer out to God.

You know, God, if you match me, it'll be a testimony.

Because everybody knows that I did not earn this spot.

But despite my attempts to manipulate God, he was not fooled.

I looked at my phone, and I saw the email.

I was not necessarily devastated at that point.

But I had a backup plan that I had been working on.

So I'll take a step back and say that at the end of my third year medical school, I did my general surgery rotation.

And I thought, this is actually really fun.

I enjoy the patients that we're treating I enjoy the outcomes this is great and so I thought maybe I should do apply that's the end of my third year medical school I already have my pathway set up, I have my way rotations, I have my all the rotations set up for neurosurgery, I have my letters, I have my research.

You know, maybe I, well why don't I just ask for a letter of recommendation.

I ask for a letter of recommendation and I even get the letter of recommendation And I go, you know, if I do this and the neurosurgeons find out, they're going to think I'm not committed.

And then when the general surgeons look at my application, they're going to be like, why does this guy have all this neurosurgery background?

And I thought, you know what, I have to, I have to commit to 1 pathway.

And so let me commit to the neurosurgery pathway.

That's what I've been on, that's what I've been doing, let me commit to that.

And so I didn't apply, I stuck it out for neurosurgery.

And so my backup plan, which I don't advise anybody to really do this, was I figured that I would do what's called the soap or the scramble into a preliminary general surgery spot.

And although most people recommended I applied into that, I said no I'll just I'll just save the time and the effort and I will soap into it.

And I don't recommend that, so don't follow this plan.

And so when I woke up and looked at the email and saw that I did not match, Those who do not match get access to a website that shows every program in the nation, every specialty in the nation that does not have a spot that's filled and you can go through what's called the, formerly called the scramble, now called the SOAP, which is the Supplemental Offer Acceptance Program, where basically you have a couple of days where it's chaos, people trying to just jump into any program they can so they have a spot.

And I saw that Loma Linda had a preliminary general surgery spot open and I said, perfect, that's my plan.

I went back to bed, slept another hour until I woke up from the dean's office calling me saying, hey, where are you?

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A Testimony to God’s Patience and Grace

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