June 2000, Ukraine
“The Lord also will be a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble; And those who know Your Name will put their trust in You, for You, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek You” - Ps. 9:9-10
So back to work we went treating Christians with some very difficult dental problems. Many patients came with crumbling teeth that were nearly impossible to extract. The teeth were brittle and shattered easily when any force was applied to them. We came to know them as “Pink Teeth” – teeth that had been through a barbaric treatment which was the Eastern European version of root canal treatment. Because anesthesia was expensive and hard to obtain, the dentists in Eastern Europe didn’t use it for any dental procedures. Instead, they would drill directly into the nerve of an abscessed tooth, introduce arsenic into the canal and cover the tooth with a filling. After about two weeks of agony for the patient, the nerve would finally die, leaving the tooth brittle and quick to break. Lots of our patients wanted these teeth removed but were very frightened about the pain they imagined would accompany this procedure. It was so good to at least make the procedure painless by using good anesthesia.
Under Communism, Christians were severely persecuted and had a hard time providing food and medical treatment for their families. God’s children in Ukraine and Russia had suffered much during those years. We began to see that we were so privileged to help these brothers and sisters who were in need of so much help. Some were pastors who had been imprisoned or exiled to Siberia just for being faithful men of God. In exile, they went to work sharing the gospel there, seeing people saved and even starting churches! God had brought us on a special mission to help these very special believers. We heard stories of deprivation and separation from family that broke our hearts and we would hear even more as we moved on into Russia. We could see through the nearly miraculous repair and replacement of our equipment that God was making a way for these dear believers to get good care that they had needed for a very long time.