Remember this name, first years

There is one piece of advice that I would give to all JMC first years when they return for second year in the fall:

Tim Beer.

He's graduating this May. He's a genius. He shared all of his second year notes. He makes dense, frustrating lecture notes readable, understandable, and do-able.  Given the widely varying quality of lecture notes that you'll get for Foundations of Clinical Medicine, this guy's notes are a gem.

USE his notes. PRINT out his tables.

I can't tell you how many exams he's prevented me from failing this year.

I don't have much second year advice because, overall, I didn't do too well. But this is one thing I would strongly, highly, fervently recommend.

If we could vote for students to receive Teacher of the Year awards, I would vote for Tim Beer.

Time to go look at his notes...

Winding down and burning out...

Sad, this blog. Right? I'd fully intended to keep up with the writing throughout the year, but clearly this hasn't happened. Better late than never!

With exactly 2 weeks left of my second year of medical school, I find myself so utterly burnt out and exhausted by the pace and intensity of learning that med school demands. And a learning curve that's steeper than anything I've ever attempted before.

And then there's Step 1. 

For you non-medical people, that's the first of the three-part National Medical Licensing Exam (the "boards"). It's the toughest one of the 3 steps, and the score you get largely determines which medical specialty you are eligible for.  No big deal, right..?

But as tired and drained as I am, I look forward to my 6 week period of boards studying with anticipation and thankfulness. And I'm gonna write it here now, for 1-month-into-the-future me.. as a reminder.

1. I'm anticipating this time because it's everything we've been preparing for, hearing about, and dreading - since Day 1 of medical school. Whenever upper years and doctors told us, "You should definitely know this, because it's on the boards." We would look at each other and cringe with fear. The booaaardds! It was a scary, mysterious monster that loomed between us and the envied "clinical years". And I'm finally 2 weeks away from doing battle with it. I hope I'm ready.
2. As difficult as this period will be, it represents the FINAL weeks of my pre-clinical years. Yes, the 12-hours-a-day, 6-days-a-week will blow. But just 6 weeks of suffering and I can say goodbye to the endless lectures, the hours of studying without a face to put to the disease, the monotony and stress of it all. Forever. 
3. Thankful. Not everyone gets to be a full-time student. Not everyone makes it into medical school. Not everyone gets the wonder of studying the human body. My God has become so much bigger to me, as I've learned more about His creation. The intricacies, the detail, the fragility of how everything works together... He is an awesome God.
4. Broken for the sickness, the sorrows, the pains that fill this world. We live in a fallen world because of sin, which tainted everything good that God created. But there is such a huuge redemption plan, a powerful act of grace and sacrifice and love! One day, Jesus will wipe away the tears and sorrows of those who know Him. And until that day comes, I have the privilege of using my medical knowledge to serve the needy and point them to Christ, the one who gives real healing and eternal life. 

It was a rough and humbling two years, but I am so thankful for everything that I've learned.

Dad in East Africa

{Photo credit to dad}  Taken during one of mom & dad's annual visits to Kenya

Please join me and my family in prayer as my dad leads a team of Korean medical students to East Africa on medical missions! They'll be there for the rest of January and all of February. Many of you who have experienced short-term missions know that God uses the prayers of supporters in powerful, faithful ways on the field. So again, please, we would be so grateful if you could lift my father and his team up with prayers over the next two months. Here are some specific requests:

• God. Pray that the team, the missionaries, and the people that will be served will be blessed with a rich, undeniable experience of God. That God would make His presence known to all who are touched. That His powerful gift of salvation would be received by many.
• Team. The medical students that attend this trip are part of my dad's program for students who are interested in becoming medical missionaries. Pray that their hearts will be convicted through this trip, and that God will raise up future physicians who willingly forsake a rich, prestigious career at home to bring spiritual and physical healing to the ends of the earth.
• Dad. Pray for physical strength to endure the long traveling hours and the pressure of leading this team without my mom, who couldn't join him this year. Pray that he will have intimate times with God every day. Pray for love for his students.
• Safety. For physical, mental, emotional, spiritual safety. Some of their ministries take place in areas of unrest. Many of their ministries are located in rural, middle-of-nowhere areas. Pray for this team's safety. 
• The rest of us... For me, sister, mom, grandparents. That we would not be anxious about my dad's safety and well-being, but that we would be vigilant in prayer and thankful for a chance to serve the Lord as a family, even though this time it's only my dad making the trip. 

Thank you for praying. Really. 

{Photo credit to dad} Oh, that precious children like these might come to know the healing and forgiveness of the Lord...

Before the Throne

When Satan tempts me to despair

And tells me of the guilt within

Upward I look and see Him there

Who made an end to all my sin

Because a sinless Savior died

My sinful soul is counted free

For God, the Just, is satisfied

To look on Him and pardon me

To look on Him and pardon me

What a powerful Gospel we are gifted with. As the years of my walk with God increase, and my understanding of the Gospel and God's love for His people increase, the words of this hymn hold more and more meaning and weight.  My heart sings this song today.

Hallelujah, Praise the One, Risen Son of God.

Loving you deeply, through prayer.

Photo credit: You Na

How Deep the Father's Love for Us - Phillips, Craig, and Dean

Today, I'm praying for this group of women (pictured above). Each one is a dear sister and future colleague. I could go on about how God has been opening our timid, injured, or calloused hearts; and allowing us to share in each other's deepest struggles and richest blessings. But I've gushed about my girls on this blog already (I think), so I'll save Part 13958 of that for another day.

Today, I feel an urge to pray for you girls.

Thanksgiving for your words and prayers for me - the gentle way you point out my need for Christ. The thoughtfulness with which you ask me the hard questions. The love that you show, even when I am hard to love.

Prayers for the personal "bondages" that we all identified last week: the things in life that prevent you from fully enjoying God, and from obeying His word.

Prayers that you will truly believe...

• That health is a blessing, but it is far better to be sick if it will drive us to Jesus.
• That success is a blessing, but that we will praise God in times of poverty or  failed careers or thwarted life plans - if it will turn our eyes to the pure, holy, everlasting promise of heaven that we've inherited.
• That friends, family, husband - companionship - is a blessing, but that we would embrace and cherish loneliness if it will increase our longing and desire for a deeper relationship with Jesus. The one who never fails us, and never leaves us.

And that at the end of this race, when we stand at heaven's gate, I will see you there; and we will all share in a wondrous, joyful, unspeakably amazing celebration with Jesus Christ. Until then, let's press on. =)

Real Life at the Jeongs

Today,

I was going to make homemade biscuits for the first time.

I lined up the ingredients real nice, so you could see everything that went into my biscuits...

And then, pleasantly surprised at how fast I got done, I stuck the two trays in the oven and turned on a Friends rerun to watch while waiting.

Three minutes into baking, my oven started smoking. And suddenly, I noticed that our whole apartment looked hazy and smelled like burning wax.

I yelled for YS, and just as he ran the 5 steps from the bedroom to our kitchen, the fire alarm started ringing. Great. A visit from 911 to start off our vacation.

Thankfully, it wasn't a fire (whew!) and we were able to turn off the alarm by wildly fanning the air under it with our pillow; and I rushed my two trays of half-baked biscuits outside to cool off.

What is the lesson you can gain from this? You probably should not use wax paper as "cookie sheets" when lining your baking trays, especially when the baking temperature is quite high (like 450 F). That's the only thing that burned and smelled, so I assume that was the problem.

When I started this blog, I resolved to share both the goodies and the mess-ups of my life - recipes included. So here you are: one major mistake that you should learn from and not repeat.

There is a time for second chances, though! I will re-try these tomorrow morning. From the half-baked biscuit that I tried (and then spat out at my husband's command), the taste was promising! Maybe tomorrow I'll add some herbs and garlic... Stay tuned!

Now if someone could just tell me how to get rid of that awful burning wax smell...

::Edit: I just realized that my laptop deleted the 2 photos that I uploaded from my camera, after I deleted the photos off my memory card. Ah, well. Tomorrow will be a new day for photos too.::

To the girl that became a woman overnight...

On November 13, 1991, when I was just 4, my life was changed forever. That day, Mom went to the hospital to take out the baby hiding behind her big belly. I was excited, but also scared. Why did she have to hide inside Mom for so long? Would she share my toys with me? 

At first I didn't like it. Mom, Dad, and all my relatives had focused their sole attention on me.... until my sister was born. Now I had to share the love with her.

But soon I found that having a baby sis around wasn't so bad after all! When Mom and Dad were busy, I could play with my sister. When I wanted to practice being a teacher, or doctor, or pilot, I always had someone to play my student, patient, or passenger. 

There was never a dull moment in the house, especially with a funky, goofy sister like mine!

Having a sister to complete our family was (is) a huge blessing from God as well. He knew how much I would need a sister to weather all of the changes that our family would face. 

Together, we moved from our big home in Canada to the small apartment in California. 

Together, we found new friends and fell in love with our church family in LA. 

Together, we braved out the mean boys on the school bus who kept calling us Chinese. 

Together, we were able to turn what could have been a difficult, lonely move to Mongolia into a Boxcar Children adventure (the book series we were obsessed with back then). And because we had each other, it was much less daunting to play with kids whose language we didn't understand; to endure   the walks to gym class in -40F weather; and to adjust to our new school and church communities. 

My sister was just a little girl of eleven when I had to leave home for boarding school in Germany. I was sad to leave my family behind, but the transition was much harder for my sister. In my eyes, she turned into a woman overnight. One summer I came home, and my sister still wanted to play "Chinese jump rope"; not many summers later, she had grown into a teenager who experienced and saw more of the hurts and difficulties of life than I wished for her. But our God is a God of extravagant love: I could clearly see His hand in the life of my sister; praise Him for molding her into the woman she is today!

I can hardly believe that this beautiful, caring girl is now 21 and a senior in college. My sister is the most deeply loving, gorgeous, kind woman out there. Many more life lessons and experiences are sure to come, but I know that God has been faithful and will continue to reveal His faithfulness in her life. 

Dearest Lemon,

Happy 21st Birthday!! You're the rock star of the Pak clan, the only one that would ever have the courage to take new risks and blaze through a Pak-untrodden path. I love you to the moon and back (and I only pull out my cheesy phrases for you)! Thanks for blessing my life with lessons in love, laughter, and second chances (that is, after our fights... hehe). Can't wait to see you in January!!

Love,

Unni

PS: Stay goofy!