Words of Truth

This post is NOT about weight loss (even though I’ve lost 32 pounds so far).

We have lived here for six years.  A lot of our stuff has been sitting in boxes for the entire time (mostly decorations).  We decided recently that we are going to sell our house and move.  The first step is to clean and fix up the house, and then we need to get rid of as much of our “stuff” as we can. We are dividing things into five categories:

• Stuff we want to keep in the house until we move. Our clothes, our furniture that we use every day, computers, etc.
• Stuff that we want to keep which we will put in storage. For instance, furniture we don’t use right now, winter clothes (for now).
• Stuff we are going to sell.
• Stuff that doesn’t sell that we will just give to Goodwill
• Stuff we are going to throw away:  old papers, broken things, etc…

As we are going through the boxes, we have found several figurines that we thought would be worth something.  Precious Moments, Cherished Teddies, some collector’s plates, etc.  I looked up the retail price of some of these things, and then looked on eBay (and other sites) to find out how much people are paying for them right now, and it’s somewhat discouraging.  For instance, we have a Precious Moments graduate figurine that retails for about $50 right now.  The last one that sold on eBay went for $2.  Does anybody know where I could sell these things to make some money?

Another thing we are trying to sell is my guitar.  My parents bought it for me when I was about eleven years old.  I took lessons for a few years then, and then stopped.  I started up again in college, and lasted about six months that time.  Since then I’ve taken it out of the case once or twice a year, tuned it up and played a few songs.  So it needs to go.  The only problem is that I don’t know how much it’s really worth, and where I should sell it.  Any ideas?

US Navy Medical Corps Gold Collar Device

I will be documenting my journey (no matter if it ends in a month or in 8 years) to becoming a Navy doctor.  It seems strange that, after floundering for so long, I now have a solid goal that I can work towards.  I’m not saying that the last several years have been a waste.  On the contrary, I have grown closer to God, my family has prospered, and we have enjoyed our time in Indiana: the kids’  school and our church have been amazing. But career-wise it has felt  a little like treading water (expending a lot of energy to stay where you are with no real progress).

Today we told the kids about the current plan. They seemed excited about the possibilities. Becky was most excited about the possibility of living in Florida (one of the possible posting sites for me).  To a seven-year-old, Florida is where Disney World and the ocean are.

I have been studying for my MCAT.  The test has four components:  an essay component (about which I am not worried), a verbal reasoning section (which should not be a problem for me), a biological sciences section (for which I need to learn organic chemistry), and a physical sciences section (for which I need to learn chemistry and physics).   The funny thing is that I have never taken any college “Math” courses.  I took courses that required math (like Chemistry, statistics, nursing, etc).  My trigonometry is rusty, since I haven’t cracked a trig book since my junior year of high school (wer’re talking 1992 here, folks).

So here’s the plan:  brush up on algebra.  Then brush up on trig and chemistry.  Then teach myself physics and organic chemistry.  All in the next five weeks.  Yaaay!

The good news is that, if I am successful in teaching myself physics and organic chemistry before I take the MCAT, I should do well on the MCAT, and then this school year will be much easier (more of a fine-tuning of the stuff I’ve learned).

I looked around at several schools in the area (and some in Iowa…just in case that was an option).  I only found one school where I could take these two classes this school year that didn’t require me attending class five days a week:  Indiana University’s Kokomo campus.  I am currently talking with them to find out what I need to do to register for these two classes for the fall.  And that’s where we are right now:  studying, preparing, and praying.

I have come to a decision. I gave my life to God back in 1991 when I was in high school.  I told Him I would do whatever He wanted me to do.  I felt that God was calling me into full-time Christian service.  I spent four years going to Bible College to become a missionary. When I graduated, I found out that the student loan debt I had accumulated would prevent me from using my degree, since missionaries must be debt free. After talking to several pastors, family, and friends, I decided that I would become a pastor instead. I enrolled in seminary to pick up the pastoral classes I missed in my missions program (the programs are very similar since a missionary is essentially a pastor overseas….an oversimplification, but it works).

After graduating seminary, I spent almost two years looking for a church to pastor.  There were about 15 churches in that timeframe that were serious possibilities.  One church wanted to pull my credit report, I said no.  They said, “Nevermind, then.” One church had about 20 people in it, and was dying (I believe the church is currently dead) due to moral problems in the church.  Another church decided they felt God had not actually called me into the ministry.  Several churches simply told me they didn’t feel that I was a good fit for their church. The search continued.

In January of 2002 I came to a decision. If God didn’t want me to be a pastor, I would do something I’ve always thought about doing:  become a doctor.  I looked at a medical school website and found out what classes I needed to take to qualify.  My family doctor was excited about me becoming a doctor.  “You’d make a great doctor,” I remember him saying.  I took Chemistry and Biology that semester.

Then in March an Evangelical Free Church called me to be their pastor.  That is a long story in and of itself, and I don’t have time to type it right now.  We moved there in May (when my classes were done) and I worked there full time as a pastor while still working as a CNA.  My salaries weren’t enough to pay our bills, so I enrolled in nursing school in 2003.  I resigned as pastor in 2004 due to…another long story but it had to do with the church not following my leadership.

Fast forward to now. I graduated nursing school, moved to Indiana, and I’ve worked as a nurse for six years trying to pay off debts so that I can become a pastor again.  We haven’t made much progress, and as the regular readers of my blog know, I have had trouble understanding why God doesn’t pay off my debts so that I can reenter full time ministry.  I have come to the conclusion that perhaps He doesn’t want me to right now.  Evidently he has something else in mind.

And so we come to my decision.  Kim and I were talking last week about our future plans (many things are up in the air right now…where we will live, the kids’ school, my future career, etc). and we came to the decision that I should look into becoming a doctor again.  The only way that I can see that it would be possible for me to pay for medical school would be for me to join the Navy (something else I’ve always wanted to do).

If God allows me to become a doctor, it is my prayer that I will be able to do some medical missions (perhaps that was what I was supposed to be doing in the first place?).

To become a doctor, there are still a few prerequisite classes I need to take (mainly, Organic Chemistry and Physics).  So I need to do that.  I also need to take the MCAT (Medical College Admission Test) which tells them if I’m smart enough to be a doctor.  If I get a good score, I apply to medical school and the Navy HPSP program (that will pay my way through medical school AND pay me a monthly salary).

Kim and I have been praying hard about this and we have determined that this is what we are going to do.  I have told God that if He doesn’t want me to do this, then please stop me, because I don’t want to do it if He doesn’t want me to.  There are three “full stops” that I have specifically mentioned to God (and Kim) where, if one of these conditions happens, I will stop trying to become a doctor:   1. I fail the MCAT, 2. I do not get into the Navy HPSP, or 3. No medical school will admit me.   Any one of those three things can happen (also, the rapture could happen any day, so there’s that).

So here’s the plan.  Right now I study for the MCAT, and take it in July (also I step up my weight loss to reach Navy standards).  In August I find out if I got a good MCAT score or not.  If I did, then I start taking prerequisite classes this year, and apply to medical school AND the Navy.  If I get accepted (I should know that around Christmas, probably) then I would start medical school in the fall of 2012.  At that point I would be an Ensign in the Navy. I would graduate medical school four years later (becoming a Lieutenant), and do a residency program (usually four years long). Then I would spend four years in the Navy on active duty (most of this time at naval hospitals).  Then I would be able to find a job as a doctor, and (hopefully) do medical missions at the same time.

It is a long road, and I have just set foot on the first brick. But I am resolved to reach the end, and with God’s help, I will do so.

I have heard several people in the past month or so debating the positives and negatives of social media websites (e.g. Twitter, Facebook, etc).  Some say they use Facebook (hereafter referred to as “FB”) to make new friends.  Some use FB to network their business.  Some use FB to keep informed about news and current events.  Some use FB to stay in contact with people they know. Is FB good or bad?  Useful or useless?

I use FB to keep in touch with people with whom I would not otherwise keep in touch. Before I joined FB, I had regular communication (read: at least once a month) with my wife, kids, parents, siblings, and my best friend (this doesn’t count people at church and work). After joining, I now talk to people that I haven’t talked to for years. For that reason, I think it is a good thing for me.

Here are my rules regarding friend requests:
1. Family gets an automatic pass. If you are related to me, I will accept your friend request.
2. If I don’t know you in real life, I will not accept your friend request.
3. If I don’t consider you a “friend,” or at least “friendly” to me, I will not accept your request.
So if you’re on my friend list, you are either related to me, or I enjoy spending time with you. If we lived in the same city, I’d probably do stuff with you often.

But what about Twitter?  I have a Twitter account, which I initially set up so that I could use my phone to update my FB status (so my friends would know things I wanted them to know….things like “Broken down on the side of the road…I-69″ which is an actual tweet of mine).

This whole debate reminds me of when I was in college and some friends would stop by my dorm room and ask me what I was doing.  I was reading a book (which I enjoy doing), and told them so.  They said, ” What are you doing that for?  How do you find time to read?” I asked them what they were doing, and they said they were going to play basketball.  See, we had the same amount of free time, we just chose to do different things with it.

You can say that FB and Twitter are a waste of time FOR YOU, but you can’t say that for anybody else, because they may find them useful.  I know I do.