Dentistry Again

Once again we have a dentist working in our clinic. A longtime friend of the Nelsen's has been here for the last week taking care of some of the many rotten teeth that need to be pulled in our patients. Since 1998, Dr. Davis and his family have come to the Philippines and worked in our clinic 7 times. He was actually supposed to be teaching at a CMDA(Christian Medical Dental Association) conference in Kenya, but due to political unrest it was canceled. While we grieve with the turmoil currently continuing in Kenya, we are thankful to have Jim and his daughter Bethany here with us. Last Wednesday over 125 people showed up for dental care. We will try to take care as many as possible during the rest of this week. Tomorrow, Jim will be teaching some basic dentistry to our current Health Training Class. (our new class began last week. I am sure a blog about them is coming) Maybe one of them will be able to take care of some minor dentistry in the coming weeks.

Here is a quote from an email Jim sent out last week. I thought it was a good glimpse into our patients mouths....... "Today (Wed) we had a busy day at clinic. I set up both chairs and had them both going at the same time with Edna as translator and assistant. Bethany and one of the students helped keep up with the sterilization of instruments. We saw about 30 pts and took out a lot of really bad teeth, some of the worse I have seen. Had a number of repeat customers who remembered me from past trips. Ling had not told anyone we were coming, and hadn't made out a "schedule" because of the last minute plans we made, yet we had a steady stream of pts and had to tell a lot of folks to come back next week. Some of the extractions were very tough, but all went well and the pts were wonderful to work with. Much more tolerant than pts I see in the states. Thanks for your prayers, they made a big difference. They were very appreciative of the care, especially being numb for the extractions. Inspite of a full clinic, we were able to pray with each pt and show them Christ's love thought the dental care."

I love the second picture above. For those of you who haven't seen her, the lady in the middle is our nurse Ling Ling. She is the one who keeps everything running for us here. Without her our life would be a lot tougher. The masked lady next to her is Edna. She is a Filipina midwife who volunteers in our clinic once a week. She is such a blessing to our ministry.