Tori listens to one or our patient’s hearts during her 4th year medical school underserved rotation at Grace. She led this amazing devotion and graciously allowed us to share it with you.
My name is Tori Millington and I was a gap year intern in 2021 – 2022 and now I am a 4th year med student and today is my last day of my month-long underserved rotation here at Grace. I’ve written out what I’d like to share today because I know myself and we’d be here all morning otherwise
Today I’d like to open with Romans 8:28
“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” - Romans 8:28 (NIV)
And to demonstrate this verse I’d like to share my own story.
I was born 12 weeks early, just over 2 pounds spending the first 10 weeks of my life in the NICU. My parents - immigrants from England - had no family nearby, no real support system, were fighting for citizenship, and trying to navigate NICU life in a completely foreign healthcare system.
They were terrified - new to a country, new to parenthood, new to crisis - but somehow, by the grace of God, we made it.
There were no guarantees.
No promises of a smooth road.
Just long days in the NICU, paperwork they didn’t understand, and a constant feeling of being out of place - like they didn’t quite belong, like they had to keep proving themselves just to survive.
And still, they fought.
For me.
For a better future.
For the hope that the sacrifice they were making - leaving everything and everyone they knew - would somehow be worth it.
Growing up, I carried that story with me. It wasn’t just a story about my birth - it became the lens through which I viewed everything. My parents gave up everything for me. So I felt I had to make it all worth it.
I wasn’t just working for good grades or scholarships. I was working for them - to make their journey mean something. Every test I studied for, every accomplishment I chased, every late night I spent trying to be the best - it was all motivated by this deep sense of responsibility. Not out of pressure, but out of love. I wanted to make them proud because they never once stopped fighting for me.
They never let me forget how far we had come.
And I never let myself forget how much further I still wanted to go - not just for me, but for us.
I became the first person in my family to go to college - and while that was something to celebrate, I also felt the weight of it. Being first-generation means more than being the first to walk through the door. It means feeling like you have to hold the door open for everyone else, even when you’re still trying to figure out how to stand on your own.
But even in all of that striving - all of that pushing forward - God was present.
In the NICU.
In the college lectures.
In the moments of exhaustion and uncertainty.
He was there - quietly, patiently, faithfully - preparing a path I couldn’t yet see.
In Spring 2020, I thought I had it all mapped out: MCAT, med school apps, shadowing, research - the checklist was in motion.
And then... the world shut down.
COVID happened.
The MCAT was canceled.
Shadowing - canceled.
All the structure I clung to - gone.
And for the first time, I didn’t know what to do. I felt like a failure. I was embarrassed. I didn’t know how I was going to tell my parents I wasn’t applying to medical school that cycle - that their daughter, who was supposed to always have a plan, didn’t have one anymore.
So I walked into the Pre-Health Pre-Law office at UCF, looking for answers. And they gave me a new list - a list of things to consider doing during a gap year. One line stood out to me:
Grace Medical Home.
I didn’t know much about it at the time - just that it was a medical home. But something about it stirred something in me. So I applied.
And it changed my life.
That gap year at Grace was the best year of my life - and definitely not because it was easy, but because it was transformative. I walked in feeling lost, ashamed, like I was falling behind. I thought taking a year off meant I had failed. But what I found at Grace was the exact opposite of failure.
I found healing.
I found purpose.
I found people who believed in dignity-first care - who treated every patient like they mattered, like they were worthy, like their story had value.
I saw what it looked like when healthcare wasn’t just a transaction - it was a relationship.
I saw what it meant to truly serve the underserved - not just treat their symptoms, but listen to their hearts.
That year taught me that medicine could be rooted in grace. That there’s a difference between doing for people and being with people. And that distinction changed how I view this entire profession.
So when it came time to choose where I wanted to go for med school, staying in Orlando didn’t even feel like a decision. I knew I wanted to be close to this place. I knew I wasn’t finished with Grace.
Because this place - this ministry - had become the soil where my roots started to grow.
Now, four years later, I stand here - in my very last year of medical school - completing one of my final clinical rotations at the place that first showed me what compassionate care really looks like.
And I can’t help but feel the full weight of how God works.
He didn’t just fix my broken plan.
He rewrote it into something far better than I could have imagined.
Back in 2020, I thought everything was falling apart.
But now I realize - things were actually falling into place.
And what’s even more powerful is the way this place - Grace Medical Home - represents everything my parents needed 26 years ago. They were two immigrants, scared and overwhelmed, navigating a foreign medical system without support. They needed a place like this. A place full of kindness. A place that honored dignity. A place that felt like home.
And now, I get to be that for someone else.
I get to give back what they never had.
I get to offer what I once so desperately needed.
That’s the Gospel. That’s Grace. That’s God’s plan - not just for me, but for every patient who walks through these doors.
So when I say this has come full circle - I mean it.
I am not here by accident.
I am not here because of luck.
I am here because God is faithful, and He always knew what He was doing.
I’d like to close with Jeremiah 29:11
“‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.’”
If you had told me 4.5 years ago that I would be standing here - leading devotion, in my final year of med school, on rotation at the very place that gave me my start - I wouldn’t have believed you.
But God knew.
And today, I’m exactly where I’m meant to be.
Just like every single one of us is exactly where we’re meant to be. He always knows what He’s doing. Thank you for letting me share my story.
