Dental Outreaches in Bolivia

This summer, Hospitals of Hope volunteers did a number of dental outreaches in the communities around the hospital. Here's a report from one of the volunteers:

As I was getting ready for dental clinic this morning, Iris told me that we might not be able to have the outreach as our trufi driver (Manuel) was not able to get to us due to the road blockade. [Road blockades are common in Bolivia.] Then half an hour later, we got word that we had patients waiting for us already in Comunidad Oachaca Grande. Monica, a local missionary, volunteered to come to pick us up in groups so we could still have the dental clinic, as patients were already waiting for us to show up. That is exactly what God had in mind as He knew we needed all the volunteers to do the dental clinic. We had planned to have a small dental team go to Comunidad Oachaca Grande, with the rest going to an orphanage to minister through hair cutting and seed planting. The hair cutting and seed planting will have to wait until God opens that door.

We arrived at about 11 am after driving through fields and nowhere. The place where we set up clinic is an actual medical/dental room with a manual dental chair. We set up another 5 stations for the volunteers to do cleanings and fluoride treatment in that small room. When the second team showed up later, they set up clinic in an unfinished room. So we had about 15 chairs going at one time. We did mainly cleaning and fluoride (as all team members are experts at that by now), and extractions when the patients request or agree to the extractions. Almost 90% of the patients we see needed extractions, but most do not want the extractions as their teeth do not hurt them anymore, but the infection is still there.

During lunch time, Jonathan shared the gospel with the patients. Tomas, our house dad, was there to interpret (again God's plan) because he could not go to work due to the road blockade. It is amazing to see how the day unfolds as we commit our days to our Lord. Since this was a last minute change of plan, we were not prepared to pack lunch, so all we had to bring was bread to make PBJ. Again God had better plans, and while we worked in the dental clinic, Monica cooked a delicious Bolivian meal for us. We saw probably about 70 - 80 patients today. We ended our day @ 6.30 pm and Monica drove us back to the guest house. We experienced the perimeter of the road blockade, but were able to turn around and get back to the hospital - Praise God!

After dinner, we had a campfire and everyone shared their experiences, and it was good to hear how each one has grown in the Lord, or learned something about themselves and about living together as a family in such a short time. God's love really binds everyone together.

The Trouble with Missions

I just read an article called “Short-Term Missions Can Create a Long-Term Mess” from the Chalmers Center (full text available online). In this article, the author writes about the problem when mission teams “do things to the people instead of with the people,” making people feel disenfranchised, rather than empowered. It’s a thought-provoking article, especially for those of us who are deeply involved in mission work. How do we make sure that we’re not hurting those we’re trying to help?

The author of this post argues that mission groups need to join with the people they are trying to serve, working with them instead of simply for them. That is an approach we are trying to take at Hospitals of Hope, in order to make our work truly beneficial and sustainable.

In Bolivia, nearly all of our staff members are Bolivians, with only a couple of American missionaries involved in the administration. Our volunteers work with our Bolivian staff, as well as with other organizations in the area, run both by Bolivians and Americans. We are training local police and firemen, as well as hospital staff, in emergency medicine, trying to ensure that we help them meet local needs in the long term. We are working to involve the local church in the coffee shop we plan to open, hoping eventually to turn over most of the control to Bolivian Christians.

In Liberia, we are working with the primary government hospital in the country to help improve care in their Emergency Department. Having lost a great deal of equipment in the decades-long civil war, the Emergency Department was in need of basic equipment, such as patient monitors. Having discussed the need with the hospital, we sent a container full of equipment earlier this year. A team from Hospitals of Hope is there right now, installing the equipment and working with the staff to ensure that they know how to use and care for it, while other members of the team treat patients. Our goal is to not only provide short-term relief, but to help the hospital to become self-sustaining in the long-term.

It’s often difficult to know the best way to work in an international context, how to truly help those we’re trying to serve. Ultimately, we have to just do our best and trust that God will use it. Fortunately for us, we serve a God whose “power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9)—and that’s a promise that we can count on, whether we’re working in Bolivia, Liberia, or here at home.

HOH Team Brings Hope in Liberia

Imagine never having been to the dentist. I, for one, think it sounds great-- or, at least, it would until I needed to have a tooth pulled.

Even worse, imagine having to go to the emergency room, wait in line for hours, and then find that the hospital didn’t have the equipment necessary to treat your illness.

This, unfortunately, is the situation facing many in Liberia, West Africa.

Hospitals of Hope sent a team to Liberia last summer, and now, after much prayer, hard work, and a few unexpected challenges, a Hospitals of Hope team has returned. The team, made up of volunteers from the US and Britain, is treating medical and dental patients—an incredibly important task in this country with only 1 doctor per 28,000 residents and even fewer dentists. Many of those they see will probably never have visited a dentist before, and any doctors’ visits will have been few and far between.

The team is also planning to supervise the installation of the equipment in the container that we shipped to Liberia in May, which is due to be delivered at the hospital either today or tomorrow. This equipment, containing everything from patient monitors to hospital beds, will greatly improve patient care in the ER at John F. Kennedy Medical Center, the referral center for the entire country.

The team has very limited internet access, due to their busy schedule and the unpredictability of the power supply in Liberia, but I will post further news from the trip when it is available. In the meantime, please keep praying with us for the team members and their work in Liberia.

Ways to pray for the Liberia trip:

- that God will use the medical and dental team to meet many needs—both physical and spiritual
- for the quick, safe, and successful unloading and installation of equipment in the hospital
- for encouragement, health, & safety for the team members
- for the continued stabilization and re-development of the country in the wake of its civil war

Report from Thailand & Laos

One part of what we do at Hospitals of Hope is supporting short-term trips sent by other organizations and churches. Earlier this year, we donated medical and dental equipment to a team sent to Thailand and Laos by the Mennonite Church, USA & Canada.

During their trip, the team served approximately 900 patients, using a cosmetologist's chair in place of a dental chair and performing dental extractions under local anesthetic-- extractions necessary due to the local habit of chewing on sugar cane. Here's an excerpt from a report on the trip written by Wendell Wiens, a general surgeon who went along:

The language barrier and newness of our clinic gave us no way to use the usual mental preparation and magic a dentist and parent might use here. One 6 year old himself wanted his abscessed and carious lower premolars on each side out so badly that he cooperated amazingly well on each step of the process. It was amazing to me to see a child so young be so determined to get rid of what hurt him during eating, and even during sleep. He bravely tolerated the dental extractions of all four just to get relief....

In the end it is amazing that the right instruments and dental supplies were donated in time for the trip.... God did provide in an amazing way. Acknowledging the unpredictability of human life, I would be willing to do it again if the situation arrived. Versatility in the end must be a characteristic of general RNs, general family physicians, general surgeons, and general Christians.

At Hospitals of Hope, we welcome the opportunity to support teams serving around the world. As Wendell wrote, "To be 'one in Christ' has special significance when we work together for others' benefit."