When I graduated in 1972, the only school that I hadn’t received a rejection from was the University of Virginia.
During that summer the dean of the medical school at U.Va. called me at home and was sorry to inform me that I didn’t make it into the medical school but offered me a two-year program in the graduate school in anatomy. The program was within the medical school with the associated coursework, which culminated in my masters of science in 1974. I again applied for the medical school and was rejected that year. In the mean time I stayed in Charlottesville and worked in the operating room as a surgical technician. During that year I became a Virginia resident and yet again was rejected for the fall 1975 class at the medical school. I had some soul-searching to do and considered going back to Ohio to try to pursue a dental degree. However, I decided to stay in Charlottesville for the fall season, even though the medical school class had already started, to reevaluate my options. It was during this time that I decided to do something I had never done in my Christian life and that was to fast and pray and ask God to open the door to medical school. I will never forget that month of September 1975. I bought a Naves Topical Bible and looked up every verse on prayer, fasting, and supplication. I then decided to fast until I had assurance from the Lord that my prayer regarding medical school was answered. I didn’t eat any food but I did drink water. I would pray as often as I could during the day going about my duties and fervently in the evening asking God to honor His Word regarding prayer. About the fifth evening while I was enjoying God’s presence, a sense of peace that I can’t describe came over me and I knew that my prayer was answered; however, I didn’t know the particulars of the timing. Approximately one week later while I was working in the operating room as a scrub technician, I got a call from Dr. Ed Pullen, who was one of my anatomy professors and assistant dean of admissions, that a medical student had just dropped out. Dr. Pullen said when the spot opened up he told the dean he knew someone who really wanted to go to medical school. He told me to run immediately to the dean’s office because they wanted to offer me the position (the urgency was due to other department heads wanting to get their sons into med school). I arrived out of breath at the dean’s office. The dean, Dr. Knorr, made me promise to study hard and reached over to shake my hand and welcome me as the last student to be accepted for the fall 1975 class. Thus, my acceptance approximately four weeks after the class started was truly a miracle and my obvious answer to prayer and fasting.
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