July 2004, Honduras
“The Lord is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy.” Psalm 145:8
We worked in Honduras with Quenton from 1999-2005 And we came to love it there. Because it was fifteen to twenty years ago that we served there, it’s hard to remember exactly what year certain events took place, but we believe this story happened in 2004. No matter the year, these were events God used to teach us about Himself and about missions.
The villages high in the mountains were very needy. The people had very little of this world’s goods and no access to medical or dental care. This was very typical but the mercy of God demonstrated in one village was truly memorable. There was a tiny Bible believing church in this one village and we enjoyed meeting some of the believers there.
We had a full day of dentistry, helping many people who waited long hours for their turn. There were mostly extractions to be done which we expected. The people’s teeth were in terrible condition because of lack of good hygiene and poor diet. But one patient stood out among the many who came.
He was a fourteen year old boy who had a severe problem with gagging. His problem had started many months before. Anything in his mouth started him gagging almost uncontrollably. It was going to be hard to help him because even putting a dental mirror in his mouth to check him started the gagging reflex to kick in. Although the mirror had to be removed to help the gagging to stop, Jack had caught a quick look around. The boy was missing two molar teeth on the upper left side of his mouth and there was one of these teeth stuck to the gums on the lower left tongue side gums under the space of the missing teeth! How that tooth got there was a mystery. Because the boy only spoke Spanish, and we didn’t, it was hard to get a clear history. After a lengthy question and answer time through a bilingual Christian man the story emerged. There were two rival gangs in the village. The rivalry had erupted into a gun battle between them many months before our visit. The boy in our chair was not in either gang but had been shot in the face by accident. An exam of his face revealed a small scar on his left cheek, presumably where the bullet had entered. This corresponded to where the teeth were missing. Jack removed the tooth that was caught on the gums and thought that would be the end of the treatment for the boy. However, the boy continued to gag even after this tooth was removed! Apparently, there still was something else causing the gagging. After many attempts to look further at the back of the boys throat, Jack caught a glimpse of something white deep in the area of the left tonsil. Now Jack would need to somehow get an instrument down into his throat to check out the white “thing.” At one point he was able to get a dental mirror back far enough for a very brief look. It was another tooth! Now he needed to get it out. After repeatedly trying to reach it with an instrument, and lots of gagging on the poor teenager’s part, Jack pulled out another molar tooth that was embedded in the boy’s tonsil!
His teeth had been knocked out and apparently this tooth went down his throat, but not all the way! It somehow had become embedded in his tonsil, but the boy didn’t know it. He just began gagging whenever he swallowed because of the “foreign object” stuck in his tonsil.
Apparently the force of the bullet was enough to pierce his cheek and knock the teeth out of their sockets, but not enough to shatter the teeth or cause further damage. His face now looked normal, just a small scar, having healed just about perfectly with no medical help or medicine and no infection from the gunshot wound. His only problem was the gagging and now that had been resolved too! This certainly has to be one of the most unique dental cases we have seen in our years of ministry.
God was watching over this young boy when he was shot, and now God had brought him to us to remove these teeth and alleviate his discomfort. If we hadn’t been the ones to pull that molar tooth out of this boy’s tonsil, it would have been hard to believe that this is the way all of this happened! And yet it did. We could only guess that the Lord had chosen to graciously heal an innocent victim of a crime he wasn’t involved in. Not only that, but by coming to the “clinic” in the mountains of Honduras, this young boy also heard how he could have eternal life in heaven through accepting Jesus as his personal Savior. What a wonderful, merciful God!