by Jen Shin

How were you feeling prior to Match Day?

We were more excited, that it was finally happening, so we’d know where to go. We were praying that we would stay but at the same time, we knew there was a chance of going to LA because I put it as my second choice. We just prayed that God would be sovereign and that we’d trust in wherever we ended up. The day of, I guess the same. Things were crazy during that time. We just had Ethan at the time, too. We were excited.

What was your reaction when you opened the envelope?

I was happy and I think Tiff was ok. We weren’t so excited but we were still excited to be able to go back to LA. We knew that if we were to go back to LA, we could still go back to Grace [Community Church] or IBC. And all our college friends are still in LA. We were sad that we weren’t all staying. If we wanted to stay, we could’ve put San Diego programs as two and three. But we prayed about it and felt like Cedars [UCLA] would be a good fit for us…to be back in LA…and it’s good for fellowship placement for gastroenterology, which I’m thinking about doing.

Sorry, for what?

For gastroenterology. GI. It’s three years of internal medicine and then three years of fellowship. We love Lighthouse, but at the same time, we’re excited to try either IBC or Grace. We thought there was no church better than Grace Church coming out from college. And then we came to Lighthouse… and we love Lighthouse. Eventually we want to come back. Before med school, these days would’ve been bigger for me. But now it’s like, God’s just going to bring us wherever. We’re going to have days like these, special days. Like when Ethan was born, that was a special day. Now it’s like ok, wherever you want us to go. We don’t want being a doctor or being part of a doctor’s family to define us. It’s just another part of a job.

Anything else you want to say to the church family?

[Sees Pastor John walking by] Thank you, Pastor John. [laughs]. Well, we just want to praise God for the past five years we’ve been here. We’ve really grown to love the church. We learned the importance of the church and membership. We’ve enjoyed being in fellowship, serving with everyone. And we’re excited to see what the church will look like in three to six years. The Ho Family will be moving the first week of June. Let’s use the time that we have with them to encourage them.