by Jen Shin

How were you feeling leading up to it?

I think once I decided to rank San Diego first, second, and third, I didn’t think about it too much, I wasn’t that worried, until about a week before and then Mabel reminded me that it was coming up in a week. I think that’s when I was thinking, “Ok, it’s important.” It dawned on me that we might be praying on our own but we haven’t been praying together. So the week leading up to it we prayed together. We tried to pray specifically and boldly. We prayed specifically for San Diego, being open to wherever God would take us to. I felt a conviction to be specific, knowing that God can do anything and so why not pray for the miraculous. So we prayed for the miraculous. And if it wasn’t going to happen that’s ok – we were ready to go. That put me at ease for that week. Right when we were about to open the envelopes, though, we were all a little hesitant. Because the longer we didn’t know, the longer we go to stay here. But eventually we opened it. Ted got all of them and gave it to each of us, we were sitting in a big circle. No one would go – no one would open it. We were one of the last to open it. I was last. That was a little scary. Pastor John was there, and we prayed before we opened [the envelopes].

What was your reaction when you found out you were staying?

Mabel and I were really happy, for a lot of reasons, mostly to stay near church. Also, her family’s here, her job’s here, our comfort zone is here. Again, we were ready to go somewhere else, if God wanted us to go somewhere else, not clinging onto our comfort zone, just knowing this is a place where we can be safe and learn and grow. Plus if I was a first year resident trying to get plugged into a church, it would be hard, attendance would be hard for me. It was good to stay in a place where we were already plugged in.

So, which hospital are you placed at?

Scripps Mercy, the one in Hillcrest across from the UCSD Hospital.

And you’re going into internal medicine?

It’s adult medicine – not pediatrics, not family medicine. Subspecialties are like cardiology, pulmonary, and GI. I’d like to thank the church, they were praying for us. Various ministries were praying for us. It’s a blessing to be with our church.