Looking for a Bridge

My name's Annika and I’m planning to become a Physician Assistant (PA). That’s been the plan for a while now, but that doesn’t mean I have everything figured out or that the plan is going smoothly. It’s a journey, and lately it feels like it’s been one detour or road block after another. There's been a lot of frustration and I thought it might be a good idea to chronicle this experience because I know a lot of people are doing the same thing as me, and hopefully they can learn from my journey and life just what things work and what don’t. So here goes…

This last week has been insane. Last Thursday I was informed that the EMT class I was supposed to take this summer, and which was supposed to start on Monday, was cancelled because not enough students signed up. This pretty much destroyed all of my summer plans and left me frantically trying to come up with another way to get the medical experience I need to apply to PA programs this fall (the medical experience requirement is one of the biggest factors for many programs, and it is also one of the most difficult to fulfill. This news about the EMT class came after I’d hit brick wall after brick wall when it came to getting experience from not finding job openings to being told nothing I’d done in the past would count to discovering that I needed 6-8 weeks of training to do anything that would count, and even after the training there was no guarantee I would actually find a job. The EMT course was the one solid plan I’d had. Needless to say, Thursday was a rough night.

     Luckily I have great family and friends who continually reminded me to trust God and know there was a plan, even if I couldn’t see it yet. Pretty much everyone reminded me of the wisdom of The Sound of Music, that “when God closes a door, somewhere He opens a window.” Or as one friend put it, “God is the bridge builder and he puts chasms in front of us sometimes to funnel us in the right direction. It’s the idiots that try to go around that are in trouble.” That last quote inspired the drawing to the right called “Looking for a Bridge” from one of my late night bursts of creativity.

     Today, after almost an entire week that felt like I was walking along the chasm with no bridge in sight, God decided to explode my world with awesomeness. It began with a talk this morning with a PA friend who really encouraged me to do a medical missions trip. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a while, but put off so I could do the EMT class. I’d been looking into trips again, but most required you to apply way ahead of time and it sort of felt like another brick wall. There was an exception however: Medics to Africa. This program lets volunteers come whenever they can and stay as long as they like. So, I whipped out the old lappy and sent off the application. The rest of the day I researched more programs and started filling out more applications. Before I could send any off though, I got a response from Medics to Africa and they pretty much said I could show up WHENEVER.

     The rest of the evening was filled with prayers of thanks, tears of joy and giggles of disbelief. This really was insane. Had I dared to pray for my ideal medical missions trip, it would’ve been one in the month of July that lasted a month, provided plenty of opportunity for medical experience (preferably with family practice and pediatrics), and was in Africa. That’s what I got people. Right down to the type of medicine they do (lots of midwifery, pediatrics, and general emergencies). I wanted to shout from the rooftops. The details are still being ironed out, but by tomorrow the tickets will probably be purchased and then in just a short week I will likely be en route to Kenya! It looks like the next bridge in my journey has appeared! GOD IS GOOD! 

Ephesians 3:20