Many of you know that for the past 8 years that each May DCF has served the dental needs in Burundi. This is a country with only a few graduate dentists and many suffer with unattended dental diseases. Several thousand patients have been served in previous years. Unfortunately, because of current political unrest, the trip for 2015 was not scheduled.
As our Lord often does, when one door is closed, another opens. This was the case when we were asked to partner with the medical school ministry at MUSC called Medical Campus Outreach on their yearly mission outreach, this year to an area two hours from Phuket in Thailand. This region suffered when a tsunami hit in 2004.. Many of the people currently living in this area are low wage earners who are refugees from Burma. The goal of the team was to support the ministry of a wonderful Christian missionary from Singapore who has worked in Thailand for the past 14 years.
The team was composed of undergraduate medical, dental pharmacy, nursing and physical therapy students, totaling 90 when wives, graduate docs and helpers were included. From a dental standpoint we were able to offer preventive and restorative care as well as extractions. In addition, oral hygiene instruction and fluoride treatments were given to a couple hundred school children.
More importantly, the love of Christ was evident as the patients were served. Most were Buddhist and are unaware of how much God loves them and that His desire is that all nationals worship His Son.
It is a sincere privilege for DCF teams to serve multiple mission sites each year. This was our first visit to Thailand in over 10 years. We pray that our Lord will continue the work which He has begun in this part of the world and that the seeds sown on this trip will bear fruit for the Kingdom in the lives of our patients, team members and the whole community.
Sincere thanks for your interest and support of DCF.