Lina C.’s story

Lina is a full-time intern at Grace Medical Home. She is working at Grace as part of her AmeriCorps service term which started in October, 2019. Lina graduated from UF with a bachelor’s in health education and a minor in health disparities. She is preparing to apply to medical school when the next cycle starts in May. When she found Grace, it seemed almost too good to be true.

“And at that moment, I knew Grace was different.”

Lina recounts her introduction to Grace Medical Home—the time she interviewed with Stephanie Garris, the CEO of Grace. “Stephanie shared that she and the staff were praying for someone to come into Grace to lead the Navigator program and, about a week later, my AmeriCorps director sent her my resume.” After the interview, Stephanie asked if she could pray for discernment on Lina’s side as she considered different assignment opportunities. Lina notes, “I’ve never prayed with my interviewer before.” Needless to say, it seemed like an answer to prayer on both sides.

Lina’s first day was the day Grace Medical Home opened at the East Concord Street location. All the staff and volunteers present split into four groups that rotated through the four wings of the building to pray. They prayed thanks for the resources God had provided. They prayed praise for God’s goodness through every hurdle in Grace’s past. They prayed petition after petition for God’s grace to fall on the patients—just as the staff and volunteers have since the day the medical home was dreamed of.

“I’ve loved getting to see how passionate followers of Christ put their faith into action here at Grace.”

Her awe at the clinic’s devotion to Christ didn’t stop there. Lina confesses, “I probably teared up every morning during devotion for a solid month.” After all, how many clinics, counseling centers, or offices start their business day by intentionally setting apart time to reflect on the Christian faith. Lina recalls the variety of devotion volunteers: staff and patients of Grace, local pastors, and even hospital CEOs. “It’s been incredibly encouraging to see how many people in the community are cheering us on and are for our mission.”

“Many patients would express their amazement and confidence in God’s provision…”

Lina’s initial role at Grace was to establish and coordinate the Navigator program. For those who aren’t familiar, navigators are volunteers responsible for making patients feel at home and comfortable from the moment they walk in—navigators greet patients at the door, talk and play with them in the waiting areas, and escort them around our sprawling clinic.

As she was also responsible for navigating patients around the new building herself, Lina reflects back on what a unique opportunity that was. “When I first started, I loved greeting them as they took in the new building. Hearing them gasp and watching them tear up as we walked through the beautiful, spacious hallways never got old… to this day, I sometimes hope it’s a patient’s first visit in the new building so I can rejoice with them.”

After the first couple months, the Navigator program has needed less involved management by Lina. But Grace has plenty of other pressing needs a person like her can help with. Lina counts her blessings as she now assists in many other facets of Grace’s day-to-day ministries—sometimes scribing for providers or translating for Spanish-speaking patients. And the number of blessings only keeps growing as she works more and more in the sacred space between provider and patient.

“Grace providers go above and beyond for their patients…”

Because of her experience navigating, Lina notes that she rarely finds herself going into a room with a patient she hasn’t previously met. Almost daily, she finds herself getting more wrapped up in those patients’ personalities and stories. There are stories of tragedy and also of God’s providence, stories of suffering and stories of God’s healing interventions.

For example, a new pediatric patient named David and his family. David was “perfectly healthy” for the first seven years of his life. But then his health began to decline into a medical mystery. The patient and his family arrived from South America three months prior; his condition had only been worsening since. When the Grace Medical team met David, he presented with unexplained neurologic symptoms that resulted in uncontrollable drooling, difficulty swallowing, inability to hold his head up properly, and tremors in his limbs. You can only imagine how terrifying this must be to his parents, nonetheless to David himself.

Amazingly, a new pediatric neurology nurse practitioner had just begun volunteering at Grace one month earlier. As a result, Grace was able to immediately schedule an hour-long appointment with the exact specialist needed. Not only could the pediatric neuro provider help answer the family’s questions, but she was able to connect them with additional specialists that could help further. In addition to participating in that interaction, Lina was able to see the Care Coordination department assist the family with applications to different charity foundations. That way the family would be able to afford the tests and medical care their son needed.

At the end of the visit, the parents described how grateful they were—not only for Grace helping their family medically, but for how welcomed and loved they felt.

“My experience at Grace has confirmed that medicine and ministry can coincide, and I’m confident the way I’ve watched providers and staff pursue both will inform the way I approach my career.”

Lina raves about all the amazing work she has witnessed at Grace. As she strives to become a physician, she takes inspiration from the providers’ dedication to administer, not only the best medical care, but also social, mental, and spiritual care.

While Lina has been serving her AmeriCorps assignment here, Grace has had the most gap-year interns serving at once. Her experience in the Navigator program allowed her to work alongside each one. Lina makes sure to give credit to the amazing interns she works with:

“We offer each other encouragement throughout the application process, support during interview seasons, and celebrate when someone has gotten an acceptance. Our intern lunch and learn sessions have given us the opportunity to meet with lawyers, physicians, and medical students to discuss topics like the broken healthcare system, how faith and medicine can work together, and what medical school is like.”

The medical home model was a mode of healthcare that Lina was unfamiliar with before starting her service term here. After working closely with it, she says, “I realized the great need for more places like this.”