September 2009, SE Asia
"I will lift up my eyes to the hills – from whence comes my help? My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth." Psalm 121:1
We always find it fascinating to see how God uses unlikely people and situations to bring about an important change of events. This was the case on our second trip to a restricted access country in South East Asia. We nearly didn’t go on this trip as we had been so restricted in our evangelism efforts on our first trip there. We had seen God bring a house church pastor’s son to assist Jack with the dental work when Jennifer was sick, and we had been able to give him a big stack of tracts in the local language to give out. We were thankful for an opportunity for Jack to share his testimony with one of the young officials but we just weren’t sure that it was God’s will for us to spend money, time and lots of hard work with so few opportunities to make Christ known. We made it a matter of much prayer and afterwards Jack felt more sure that we should go. After all, a restricted access country was requesting that we come, knowing that we are missionaries. More importantly, our service to the people of this country was helping our host missionary, Sam, to stay in this difficult country and share the gospel discreetly. So off we went, trusting the Lord to somehow make it possible for us to have more freedom to evangelize.
We had gotten to the mountainous area of our first trip and we were expecting to treat more school children with terribly abscessed teeth. We hated having to remove so many teeth, especially on the very young ones, but if it needed to be done, (and it did), for the sake of their health, we were glad it could be done with good anesthesia and gentle care. But as we headed out that first day, driven by our official driver, he received an urgent phone call. Someone instructed him to bring us to another location to treat a very important person! It was explained to our driver that this person had a serious dental problem and had been refused treatment at several government clinics. Now this person was insisting that Jack would fix this important person’s problem. We were uneasy about this. We only had our portable equipment with us and not all the advantages of a fully equipped operatory. If this patient’s problem was so severe that treatment had been denied several times, would we be able to do this? And what kind of ramifications would there be for us and for Sam if we couldn’t do what was needed? These were the questions that were going through our minds as we traveled to the location we were being rerouted to. We prayed, of course, for God’s help and wisdom in treating this important patient. When we arrived we were escorted into a large room. The one who had called was unsmiling and serious. It was interesting to observe our driver being noticeably nervous and somewhat intimidated.
The patient was brought in after we had set up our chair and equipment. The patient was middle aged and had some kind of a handicap. This was not explained to us but Jack thought that possibly a stroke or some brain damage was to blame. It seemed that the patient was not able to take care of basic needs, like brushing teeth. This became even more clear when Jack did his examination. The teeth were encased in thick calculus (tartar). It was obvious that neither the patient or anyone else had brushed these teeth for many years. Some of the teeth appeared to be giant fangs, like something out of a horror movie. To Jack’s great relief, this appeared to be the extent of the problem and this condition was something he could possibly relieve.
Jack explained, through Sam, that he thought he could help with this but it was going to take a long time. He was hoping that this patient would be able to tolerate the procedure long enough for him to complete the task. He set to work, scraping and prying the cement-like calculus from the teeth. Chunks of it flew through the air, bringing all of the onlookers rushing to the chair in alarm. They probably thought the large pieces were teeth that we were sending airborne! We worked for more than an hour, scraping and rinsing, rinsing and scraping. The large fangs disappeared and the patient began to look more normal. We marveled at this very compliant patient who was tolerating a very difficult procedure. Thankfully, we were able to get the worst of it cleared away. Jack called the others over to see the difference and they broke into big smiles. Jack explained that there was still more to be done but that the patient’s mouth needed to rest and to heal for a few weeks. He recommended that a regular cleaning be scheduled to remove whatever was left. By the time the healing would be complete though, we wouldn’t be around to do it but would be back in the U.S.
We had almost said no when our missionary host had written to us, requesting we come again to help him in this very restrictive country. We had prayed for more freedom to evangelize and it was about to come, through this difficult procedure we had just performed.
From that point on we were allowed to work in the schools without supervision. Sam jumped at the opportunity to share tracts with teachers of the students we were now treating and also the parents of the students. Never would we have guessed that treating a very important person who was now handicapped would lead to an open door for the gospel to go forth, but isn’t it just like the Lord to do just that?