AMEN Conference 2025: Touched By Grace

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Adventist Medical Evangelism Network (AMEN)

General Sessions

Josianne Bailey-Abesamis

From Breakdown to Breakthrough: A Journey of Grace

It is, I'm truly humbled to be standing here tonight with you guys.

When I was asked to share for Thursday night, I was very hesitant.

And I said, well, what in the world would I share on?

And touched by grace, you know, with the theme, that would have been a good clue for me, but in the moment I was just very bewildered that I was, that I could potentially be speaking to all of you.

And John kindly told me, Josie, what about your story?

And that immediately Put a little bit of fear into my heart because sharing my story in front of people is very intimidating but sharing in front of a room full of doctors is Even more intimidating, But the Lord laid on my heart that this message, that my story, I should share it.

And if you did hear the podcast, that was just the beginning of the story.

There is more to it, and you're gonna hear that tonight.

So with that, let's go ahead and first open with a word of prayer.

So if you would please bow your heads with me.

Dear Heavenly Father, I first want to praise you for bringing us all here this weekend for the safety and for each person that is here.

And Lord, as we embark on this weekend of spiritual challenges, encouragement, and fellowship, I pray that we each will be renewed in our walk with you.

Pray that we each will remember how we've been touched by your grace.

And Lord, we can walk away from here ready to share that with the people around us.

I ask for your Holy Spirit now to share this story and to touch each of our hearts in the way that we need to hear tonight.

Well, as physicians and educators, we spend our lives teaching others how to heal.

But there are moments in this calling when we find that we ourselves are in need of that healing.

Times when our knowledge, our confidence, and Even our sense of identity begins to crumble For many of us these moments come quietly Hidden behind professional polish and other times they're right out there in the open They happen when the pager stops beeping when the exam results arrive or when that student sits across from you in tears after a failed exam.

Paul wrote in 2nd Corinthians 12 9, my grace is sufficient for you, For my power is made perfect in weakness And this verse has carried me through a lot and I'm sure many of you as well and it's easy to quote But much harder to live What does it mean when our weakness is public, and when we feel powerless to fix something?

Over the years, I've learned that God allows our structures of self-sufficiency to crumble.

Not to destroy us, but to rebuild us on something stronger, which is Him.

And the journey from breakdown to breakthrough is, in essence, the journey of grace.

And today I want to share my journey with you.

I'm a homeschooled kid from North Carolina, raised with the best sister a gal could ask for, and parents and grandparents who sought after Christ and dedicated their lives to educating us in Christ's model.

Our spare time was spent outdoors with animals or practicing an instrument, And my mother, a very patient woman, told me once during these childhood years, Josie, things come easy to you, which is a blessing, but someday they may not, and you have to remember to persevere and that God is still with you.

At that time, this phrase did not mean much to me.

Tests, curriculum assessments, music, things didn't seem too hard to conquer.

In high school, it was decided I wasn't being challenged enough, so I was enrolled in the community college to get a jump start on college credits.

Now for young Josie, this was a very big deal.

I got to go to college and sit in a classroom with non-family members.

I did earn good grades, graduated from high school, and then moved on to Southern Adventist University to pursue a double major in nursing and music.

Halfway through my freshman year though, I was walking out of the dorm and saw someone pass by carrying this large black book.

It had a panther on it and Across the top of it.

It said biology and I thought whoa look at that book that looks so cool.

Think of all the neat stuff inside of it I want to take college biology After much prayer and discussion with my parents, I started to feel the call from God to switch my nursing major to biology and consider pursuing medicine.

Since that day, I've had 0 regrets with that switch.

Even though the twists and turns that came next, God has always given peace from that moment in my journey.

Learning the intricacies of what makes us work as living things is incredible.

Now granted, some classes stretched my brain and led to sleepless nights, but I was determined to complete both majors.

My advisor once told me, Josie, I do not think you should be taking this many credits.

You need a plan B in case you don't get good grades and you don't get into med school.

Now my family can attest, if you tell me there is something I cannot do, the next thing I'm going to do is try to prove you wrong.

My advisor actually fueled my determination.

I was going to graduate with both majors and go to med school to become a physician.

During this time, I believe that God was quietly shaping a plan to guide me toward success, not according to my understanding, but according to his vision of what true success should be.

After junior year, I went to live in Zambia with my sister as a student missionary at Riverside Farm, and there my love for obstetrics and gynecology was sparked.

Working with women, encouraging them, empowering them, administering to them, I knew I wanted to dedicate my career to this field.

As college neared its end, it was time to turn in medical school applications.

But I had a specific medical school in sight, Loma Linda.

It's where many of my family members had gone, including my father.

And I'd heard so many wonderful stories about Loma Linda, I wanted to join the ranks.

But more so, I wanted to go where I could learn more about ministering at the bedside and have God be part of the core curriculum.

The time came for applications to med schools to be submitted.

However, during this time, when applications were still being sent by snail mail back then, Our hurricane was ripping through the East Coast and through the city where the major post office processing centers were.

I was on an orchestra tour over this time and had sent my application off, but the horrific weather had put a glitch into the timing of this.

A lot of us that were applying to med school had been getting emails saying, we know there's a hurricane, we know your applications are trying to get to us, but if we don't get them by this date and time, We will not consider you for medical school interviews.

My friends, 1 by 1, prior to this orchestra tour, had been getting their confirmations that their applications had been received, but I was still waiting.

I remember standing in the rain, waiting to board the bus for our next destination, when I received an email, again, we know there's a hurricane, we have not seen your application, if it doesn't get to us by tomorrow at 8am, We will not consider you for this year." Now, the Josie that wants to figure everything out on her own and conquer it became very panicked.

My heart cried out to God, please God, you have led me to this point.

I switched to biology because I saw your leading.

You've given me this desire for medicine.

If it's your will, please help my application arrive before tomorrow." Minutes later, as I sat on the bus, my phone dinged.

And as I opened it, I knew I was going to see the same thing.

If we don't get your application by this time tomorrow, you won't be considered.

So with dread, I opened the email and read, Congratulations, your application has been received.

You will be considered for medical school interviews.

I cannot describe the relief that washed over me as I praised, Thank you, Lord.

Senior year progressed, interviews were completed, and friends began receiving those acceptance calls.

But I didn't worry too much, because I had this unshakable confidence that I would go to medical school some way, somehow.

Now graduation arrived and I walked down that aisle uncertain of what was next.

Friends were already making plans for medical school while I remained in limbo.

Some suggested the biomedical year at Loma Linda as a backup and initially I balked at this idea because why would I want to do a bio-med year and not get straight into medicine?

And why would I want to admit that I couldn't get into medical school?

But as time passed, and I wasn't getting any acceptance calls, God began shaping my perspective, and I had to learn to retrust his plan over my own.

About a month after graduation, I received a missed call and voicemail.

I looked at the number when seeing my phone and it was a 909 number.

And for those of you who may not know, that's a Loma Linda, California area code.

I excitedly listened to the voicemail and heard, hi Josie, this is Loma Linda University.

Give us a call when you have a chance." Fingers have never dialed a number so quickly as I did in that moment.

When the other line answered, I heard, Hi Josie, we wanted to let you know that you have been accepted into the biomedical program at Loma Linda University.

While this originally had not been my first choice, in this moment, I was very happy.

Not exactly what I hoped for, but I was willing because I knew it could get me to medical school.

Biomed was very rigorous and for those of you who don't know what that year really is, is it's pretty much a dry run for first-year med school.

You take the same classes minus 1 or 2 classes and you have to beat the curve in order to be accepted.

Every day but Sabbath was a long study day, but that laid a very strong foundation and introduced me to some of my dearest friends.

By God's grace, after bio mid-year, I was accepted into the official medical school program.

The summer between that bio mid-year and first year, I went on a student mission trip to Palau Adventist Hospital in the Philippines, and there I learned both what I did and did not want in a specialty, still hoping and desiring for OBGYN.

I returned to California and jumped into first year as an official medical student.

First year was long and demanding, but it was fun.

I joined the OBGYN interest group, did as much shadowing as I could, and I pushed for my goal to become an OBGYN.

Then came the second year, the dreaded Step 1 year.

Roger Seheult

Grace at Work: How Faith Transforms Physicians, Patients, and Practice

Let's bow our heads for just a moment as we pray dear Heavenly Father.

Thank you so much for allowing us to be here today Open our minds and our hearts to the to the word that you are going to give us in Jesus's name.

How faith transforms physicians patients and practice what I'm going to talk about the theme today is grace touch by grace, But if you don't understand where grace is coming from, which is Jesus's death on the cross, if you don't have faith in that, you can't experience grace.

So our story is starting off in India as you can see there at the top of India There's a little area called Punjab and I want to tell you about a four-year-old boy who in the last century What went on to a boat went on to a ship with his parents?

Why Because his parents were indentured servants and they were off to the Caribbean.

It was a long arduous trip as you can imagine and many of these indentured servants came to Trinidad so that they could work in the fields, the cocoa plantations.

So this little boy, his father died on the ship and so it was just his mother and himself when they landed in Trinidad.

As it turns out there was a mission, It was the Presbyterian Canadian mission in Trinidad that picked up this mom, this widow, and her four-year-old boy.

And this four-year-old boy was trained by the daughters of the top reverend in Trinidad.

He was born in India in May of 1876 at the age of 4 he traveled to Trinidad with his mother to start a new life he then became 1 of the earliest graduates of Reverend Gratz personal class from which grew Napa Rima College in Trinidad he was tutored together with reverence grants own daughters and became the top Presbyterian minister in the island.

A very smart guy and he had a number of kids.

And his eldest daughter, as you can see there, got married.

And she was his right-hand man, if you will.

Whenever he went to the church and got things set up.

He she was there She was she was required to play the piano play the organ she learned how to play all these instruments.

Her father, of course, was the top Presbyterian minister in the island of Trinidad.

She went away to high school in the island, and it was a boarding high school, so she would be required to write him letters.

So she would write these letters to her father.

And when she would come home on holiday, he had all of the letters there and he gave them back to her where all of the grammatical mistakes that she had written circled in red.

So that she, This was a very strict type of upbringing that he had.

He was a very high scholar, and she was also expected to be the same.

She had a habit, though, of listening to the radio, and she would listen often to the radio.

And at that time, there was a radio program called The Voice of Prophecy.

And she listened to HMS Richard Sr., and Specifically about a discussion about the Sabbath that was 1 of the areas that she really did not understand very well Obviously the Presbyterian Church kept Sunday and she had a question she would often discuss this with her father and finally at 1 point she Decided that she was going to become a Seventh-day Adventist and she did this was after she got married to that gentleman there who was a descendant of French landowners in the island a gentleman by the name of Errol Schueltz yes that's my grandmother and my grandfather and that's why I am here today is because of a radio station a radio that Played the voice of prophecy so she knew that That for her kids to have a future in that island She would need to move away because at that time the only way you could get kind of Educated in college or universities you have to go to England or to Ireland And so she made a very bold decision not only did she move away from the religion of her father, but she also moved away from the only home that she had ever known, and instead moved to Toronto, Canada.

He met another lady from England, my mom, and I was born in Toronto, Canada.

That's my grandmother there on the far right there.

And I'll explain exactly why there's a photograph there of my father graduating from the School of Dentistry in 1987.

You see, my father had a much younger brother who wanted to do dentistry and did not get into the University of Toronto.

And my grandmother had heard about Loma Linda University in Toronto and she said, you are going to Loma Linda.

So my uncle went to Loma Linda, my uncle Russell, he was 1 of the top students in the dental class and actually started the dental anesthesia program at Loma Linda back in the 1970s.

He did so well that my father, who was 41 at the time in Toronto, a science middle school teacher in the public school system in Toronto, had a decision to make.

Was he going to do this for the rest of his life or pick up everybody, all the roots that he ever knew, and move to Loma Linda to go to dental school at the age of 41.

Well, that's a whole other story in and of itself, but the good news is is that Loma Linda University School of Dentistry accepted my father at the age of 41, and he became a dentist and graduated in 1987 from the School of Dentistry.

This is the 1 graduate of the School of Medicine that is forever indebted to the School of Dentistry for being there because if I had not moved and grown up in the shadow of the medical center, I would never be standing here before you today.

So I grew up, let me tell you, I wasn't that great of a student.

You might be surprised, I had a 3.3 GPA in high school.

You'd be very surprised to hear that perhaps because everybody it seems that goes to medical school is studious but I was very inspired by last night's talk by Josie and the statement that was made there was that the only thing that we have to fear is if we forget the way that God has led us.

Every 1 of you here today, I know this, has a story just like mine, where if you were to look back and see how God has guided each 1 of you in your careers, and even in your family's careers, why you ended up where you are, You can see that it's not an accident that you're sitting here today right now Listening to this and and having the the privilege of being the right hand of the gospel well, I went to a University called UCR.

So let me explain to you taking 4 kids Going to dental school and having your wife my mom being a part-time nurse to support means that you don't have a lot of money.

We didn't have money to go to Adventist schools.

So the cheapest, the easiest, the closest to home was UCR.

Now I tell you, I barely got into college and it's because I had some issues with my grades when I was in high school.

I got a D in French and to go to the University of California, a D is not a passing grade.

So what I have noticed in looking back on my career is that God has wrought miracles and he's opened doors when I could not open those doors and he's closed doors that I've wanted to go through that I shouldn't have gone through.

And this example here is going to a university that I really wanted to go to.

It's a long story why I wanted to do that, but I really wanted to go to the University of California, Riverside, and I could not get in because of my grades.

And I don't know, maybe I should tell you the story.

I did something called the High School University Program, which meant that at the same time that I was in high school, I wanted to get into UCR.

I thought it was a nice backdoor way of getting in because once you were accepted to this program you were accepted full to the university.

I don't know if they have this program anymore but I got a call from Tricia Lyons.

She was the director 1 day and she called me at home and said I'm sorry but you can't come because we have a problem with your grade.

You got a D that 1 semester in French and you're not gonna be able to come in.

Obviously there was tears and I realized now how much was resting on that.

I went to a public high school, Redlands High School, and Mrs.

But she was my counselor and I was assigned to her and I explained to her my situation.

Of course I explained it to my father as well who made an appointment to see the vice principal and My dad went in to talk to the vice principal and he says, okay Mr.

He says well my son has a D in French and He's not gonna be able to get into the university and we don't know how this happened or why or you know I knew how I knew how it happened.

I Think I think honestly I mixed up the the the The the derivations of the verb on on the final exam and I think I got them switched around honestly.

I did remember at the time having a lower score than I thought I should but anyway and my teacher was a very nice teacher.

Okay, she was 70 years old but she looked like she was 50 and I used to say this story many years ago And I thought 50 is still pretty old and I'm now 50.

So it really hurts when I say this story But she looked very good and she had retired by this point.

She was not she was even no longer in the United States she had moved to Canada and she got remarried.

Casper, anyway, so my dad goes in and the vice principal pulls up the computer because we still had computers back in 1992 and he pulls up the grade and it says C.

It said C and the vice principal turned to my dad's like, it says C here, it doesn't say D.

And my dad's like, Oh, have you ever heard something that's happened to you and you're like, I'm not going to argue with this right now.

You know, we're not going to do an autopsy on this problem, right?

We're not going to find out how this happened.

I had found out later that my Counselor mrs.

Madam Gregory explained the situation and Again, I never I never talked to her.

I don't know if she went back and looked at it was ACI Got into UCR and to this day Whenever I go to France, I'm always a little bit shy about speaking French This was a very important decision in my life this is a very important thing because I saw that God opened up a door and and I would never have been able to go to that institution except by a miracle.

So this is really important to understand.

I have never ever been under the false understanding that anything that I've ever done after that point was because of me.

Christine Han

The Blessing of Brokenness and Grace

Dear Heavenly Father, you know how inadequate I feel, and I ask that your Holy Spirit would please be with me and each person here, and that we may draw closer to you and feel touched by your grace in this next hour.

And I ask Lord that you would please speak so clearly to each 1 of us.

We thank you Lord, in Jesus name we pray, Amen.

When you reflect on your life and the people you've met along the way, who first helped you see what God's like?

When I was in elementary school, I remember I told my dad that I was having nightmares and I was scared to fall asleep the next night.

And so the following night, my dad tucked me in bed, and his nickname for me was cutie girl.

He said, okay cutie girl, you pray first and then I'll pray.

And so I prayed, dear God, please help me to not have a nightmare.

And after he prayed, he would lay down next to me in my little bed and stay with me until I fell asleep.

And he did this bedtime routine with me for so many nights, and I remember my dad's prayers with me made such a big difference.

Growing up, my dad often told me that he and my mom loved me so much, more than anyone else in this world, but that God loves me the most.

That God's love is infinitely greater and deeper.

And I knew my mom and dad loved me so unconditionally, and I knew I felt God's love through my mom and dad.

And I just remember feeling overwhelmed by the thought, how much bigger and greater can God's love be for me?

My dad's love language was quality time, and he always knew how to show up for me, even in the relationship department.

So fast forward many, many years later, I was getting ready for a first date with a guy.

And of course, I had to make sure to get my dad's approval.

And just as I was about ready to go I went into my dad's room and to just let him know that I'm heading out heading out soon and he just looked at me from head to toe and he said in his gentle fatherly way do you have anything else to wear?

And next thing I know, he gets up from his chair and walks into my room and goes through my closet with me, going through all different options like he was on an important mission to save his daughter's outfit.

And thankfully, we agreed on 1 and he sent me off.

And I felt good because I thought, if my dad approves my outfit, then the guy must too.

1 of the ways my dad and I loved to spend quality time together was playing ping pong in our backyard.

He taught me how to hold the paddle the Asian way, and then it became a whole new world to me.

I loved ping pong with my dad, and we would count how many times we can get the ball to go back and forth.

And When it was time to call it a game, it wasn't really time, because my dad enforced something called bonuses.

And each time he missed a bonus, or if he felt pity on me because I messed up too soon, he would say, OK, cutie girl, 1 bonus.

So you can imagine how much love our ping pong table got.

It got so much love that over the years it started to slant inwards towards the net in the center and the table legs were breaking down and just getting really rusty.

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Series

General Sessions

Touched by Grace: Heaven’s Revelation of Jesus - Sabbath School Discussion

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Parts

From Breakdown to Breakthrough: A Journey of Grace

57m

Grace at Work: How Faith Transforms Physicians, Patients, and Practice

1h 1m

The Blessing of Brokenness and Grace

53m

Instruments of Healing, Witnesses of Grace

57m

Touched by Grace: Heaven’s Revelation of Jesus - Sabbath School Discussion

57m

Touched by Grace

49m

Amazing Grace

1h 2m

Sound Doctrine