Dental Training and Clinic in village M

WE ARE NOT DENTISTS!  I realize I am stating the obvious here but just to put all of our perceptions in their proper place I want to affirm the obvious.  This is not formal dental school.  This is a quick training for simple cavities with simple hand tools and drills that do not need electricity.  This is training to help our village in a very practical way.  But not merely for doing physical good.  We want to build relationships to share the most important gift anyone can give, the Gospel of Jesus Christ! 

I (Brita) have been excited about the opportunity to receive dental training and participate in a clinic for more than a year.  The opportunity to show love by serving them in a tangible way that then may lead to opportunities to share the gospel was something that I wanted to participate in.  As the time drew nearer, however, I began to have second thoughts.  How could I drill a cavity and fill it with so little training??  And with no electricity!  Would I loose all courage the first time I saw a mouth full of cavities?  I was starting to get a bit skeptical about the whole thing but I was still excited to try.  

My Dad arrived to take care of our kids (Thank You Dad!!) and on Monday morning I headed off to class with Josh.  Our instructor put us in teams of two so that we could have an operator and an assistant working together.  We learned how do an exam to assess if the patient needs treatment, how to drill cavities, scoop out decay and how to fill cavities- on model teeth.  On the last day of training in the class room we did exams on partners.  My partner, Josh, had no cavities :)   

The hand tools we used.

Josh filling a cavity on a model.

Me working on a "cavity".

On Wednesday morning we loaded up two suburbans and headed south.

Our accommodations in village M.

The blue building is the clinic.  

When we arrived several hours later we split up into two groups to hand out invitations to the dental clinic.  It was exciting for me to see the village and meet some of the people.  Josh has told me so much about the village, but to see it for myself was invaluable.  I have not been out of the US since the summer of 2009 and it was once again eye opening to see people living in poverty.  

The next day was Thursday and we waited for patients to arrive.  I was chosen to do the first exam for our team.  I think Josh said something like "It's okay, you can go first."  Gulp!  After we identified what we thought were cavities, (they were really hard to miss!) Dr. Gerry came, did a quick exam and gave us instructions.  Our first patient had eight cavities in his four upper front teeth, two in his lower molars and needed two or three extractions.  We worked for a while and called the doctor over to check our work often.   Hand tools are much slower than the equipment a normal dentist uses.  The really cool part is that because of the slow process with no vibrating a cavity can be drilled, cleaned out, and filled with no pain.  Quite a few people came to the clinic because they wanted Dr. Gerry to extract one or more teeth (One 32 year old woman needed eight extracted!).  He did use anesthetic for the extractions.  There is just no way to make that painless.  Both of us were able to watch an extraction which was very educational!

 Josh doing an exam.

 Me checking the progress I was making on a cavity.

One patient brought her pet pig along for her visit.  She was reaching down and petting the pig for most of the time she was on the table.  The pig didn't like any of it and was loud the whole time.

We were able to see about 35 people over the three day clinic.  On the last day of our clinic while one of our teammates was waiting for a patient he was able to share the gospel with several of the villagers.  

While the dental work that was done to relieve pain and prevent future problems was wonderful, there were even better things that went on during our time in the village.  Relationships were built between our team and the people from village M.  The gospel was shared and we are praying that the clinic will lead to more opportunities to share the truth with those who need to hear it.  

We also had some wonderful times with the family of believers.  Even with the language barrier there is a bond between brothers and sisters in Christ.  It was encouraging to them and to us to study God's word together.  

R and A never smile in pictures :)

Thank you so much for praying for us while we were in Mexico!  We are so thankful that we have such wonderful partners!   

Christmas Break Photos

We had a really great time as a family over Christmas break.  Here are a few of the things we did...

 Josh was able to try his hand at body work on the dent we got last July.  You can read about how we got it here.

And lastly our lot near Harrison, Montana sold after being on the market for quite a few months.

Brita's First Trip to Mexico

Well, to be completely honest it was my second trip.  My first trip was in May 2000, but that was  our honeymoon ages ago!  This was my first trip to Tamaulipas, Mexico.  It was so fun to finally go across the border and to top it off we were able to do some Christmas shopping.  I enjoyed all of it- the walk across the international bridge, the vendors, the tacos, the sweet bread, and getting to spend time with Josh and our friends from To Every Tribe.  It was a wonderful day!  I'm going to post some pictures below but, all the northerners reading this have to promise not to laugh at how wimpy we southerners are.  It was windy and in the low 40's... I know, pitiful compared to 20 below zero or colder!  But you can come down and visit us in the south arctic.... just saying :)

Brita

 On the bridge over the Rio Grande

Rio Grande River

In Mexico!

We found a Mexican Costco.  That's a big bag of peanuts!

Lunch from a street vendor.  It was so good!

Sweet bread and coffee on our way out.  

It was a good day!

Without Hindrance?

We have been studying Acts and the light bulb went on as our week ended with our assigned biblical text exposition, which for me was the last 8 verses of Acts.  Do you know what the last two words of Acts are?  Without hindrance.  That may not seem crazy to you or me but look at the context.  Paul the great Apostle is in jail, under house arrest. The writer, Luke, ends the book with "proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance." Acts 28:31.  How can Luke end the book that way?  Paul WAS hindered!  Imprisonment and house arrest is a big hindrance in my book.  This would ring in the mind of the reader.  But...  

Luke was writing to Theophilus and the church.  The beginning of Acts opens with the "all that Jesus began to do and teach" and a promise that the few remaining disciples will be witnesses to the ends of the earth.  This seems like an absurd impossibility at the beginning of Acts.  But over and over again in Acts, God is advancing His kingdom through the preaching and teaching of the Word of God.  We see that they preached, taught, repented, believed, and the Lord added to their number, 2,000, 5,000, many, and so on.  In the midst of all of this, there is a constant theme of persecution.  But this persecution is used by God to spread the good news of Jesus to the known world.  So yes, we see Luke is encouraging the church that is facing persecution that this gospel will advance.

It will also advance by the work of Jesus, not by any person.  Paul, by the time Acts was written, may have been dead.  This would have been alarming to the early Christians and make them question what will happen next.  Luke is forceful with these words of "without hindrance" because he is showing God working all through Acts to expand His kingdom from the disciples to many churches all over the Roman empire (see the major markers in Acts 6:7, 9:31, 12:24, 16:5, and 19:20).  But Luke wanted to make very plain that it isn't by one gifted person that this good news will spread and people will be saved.   That is clear with Paul's imprisonment   The point is that Jesus is continuing the work He began to do through the body of believers in the Church.  This should be SO ENCOURAGING to us!  It isn't about me doing everything right.  It isn't about everything going according to my plan (which seems impossible in Mexico).  It doesn't mean that there will be no opposition to this work.   Most of all it isn't based on me at all, but on Jesus and His work.  We get to be little fingers doing His work and we stand amazed at what He does despite our huge weaknesses.

So when I feel so incompetent, when I am bombarded with the things of this life and feel that there is no way this gospel work can be accomplished when there is so much life going on, I can take encouragement that Jesus is working to accomplish His purposes.  What a joy to know we all can be missional wherever we are, in our weaknesses, and the kingdom of God will advance without hindrance!      

DAN'S TRIP TO MEXICO - By Dan McKenzie

 This week I was able to go to Mexico with my dad.   I was expecting heat, but it was cold, it went down to 53 degrees at 8 am!

The dirt road was full of holes.  The first day wasn’t too cold though, that day we went to   “R” and “A” ‘s   house for dinner,

Dan, R, and Dale

We were so excited to have warm drinks!

since I live way up north I had no idea what a Mexican taco tastes like until now, and I would say they are really good!  I have never tasted such good fish!!!!   And their enchiladas are amazing!   What’s really strange is that when we are eating at someone’s house the people who live there won’t eat with us, they would rather eat after.  But  at “R” and “A”’s house they will eat with us. After dinner we had a bible study with “R” and “A”. 

After one of the bible studies with R and family.

The next day we went to people’s houses and asked them if they want to come to a bible study the next day.  One person had a pet wild hog!   

Feeding a wild hog

Still hungry

Most of the houses had chickens and a dog or a cat, many houses had shells, crab pinchers, or fish scales strewn about from fishing, some of those shells were really cool!    One thing I like about going to people’s houses in Mexico is speaking Spanish to people, I don’t know very much Spanish, but I know a bit.  My favorite Spanish word is “frio”, which means, “cold.  Josiah and Elijah Lynam came on the trip with their dad too.   Josiah loved the hammock that was outside. That night we played some card games called “Uno” and “Monopoly deal”.  

Late-night game of hangman

The next day we did the bible study, Mr. Lynam told a bible story to the people.  After that we went to some people’s house and ate dinner there, after dinner Josiah and I played a marble game with some Mexican boys, It is really hard to learn a marble game if the people who are teaching you can only speak Spanish and say “one, two, three and four” in English.  So after that we went back to our house and went to sleep.  In the morning we drove home to Los Fresnos.  I really enjoyed going to Mexico and I would like to do it again!

   

THE LAST MONTH IN PICTURES!

Cornelius's vision in Acts 10

Peter comes to Cornelius

A class period outside!

The gym?

Our team leader showing us how it's done.

Paul "teaching" before chapel starts.

              

Clara preparing for the bush!

Pumpkin Carving! 

Paul gets to use a sharp object! Best ever!

Saw strange sights during lunch break!

Thank you for partnering with us for the advancement of the gospel!