by Dr. Jack Mitchell

Venturing into the Unkown

“I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help” (Psalm 121:1).

We always find it fascinating to see how the Lord 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 Southeast Asia. Initially, we were hesitant to go because our evangelism efforts had been so restricted during the first trip. We had already seen God working as the officials chose a house church pastor’s son (who had some medical training) to assist Jack in the clinic when Jennifer became ill. We had secretly supplied him with a large stack of gospel tracts in the local language to distribute. We were also glad for an opportunity Jack had to share his salvation testimony with one of the young officials. Even so, covert missions was unfamiliar to us, and we were unsure if it was the Lord’s will to spend considerable amounts of money, time, and hard work if there were so few opportunities to make Christ known. Following abundant prayer, however, we felt certain we should go. After all, a restricted access country had requested us to come and serve—knowing we are missionaries! More importantly, our service supported Sam, our host missionary, to stay in this difficult country and share the Gospel discreetly. We went, trusting the Lord to somehow make it possible for us to have more freedom to evangelize.

We journeyed to the mountainous area where we’d worked on our first trip. We expected to treat school children with abscessed teeth again. We hated removing so many teeth, especially on the very young ones, but it was necessary, for the sake of their health. At least, we were able to do it gently and with effective anesthesia.

On our first day traveling, our official driver received an urgent phone call. Someone instructed him to bring us to another location to treat the relative of a very important person. This person had a serious dental problem and had been refused dental treatment in several government clinics. The caller insisted that Jack would fix this relative’s problem. We were uneasy about this. We had only our portable dental equipment with us, and we didn’t have all the advantages of a fully equipped dental operatory. If this patient’s problem was so severe that treatment had been denied several times, would we be able to do this? What kinds of ramifications would there be for us and for Sam if we weren’t able to do what was needed? These were the questions going through our minds as we traveled to our new destination. We prayed, of course, for God’s help and wisdom in treating this distinguished patient.

Upon our arrival, we were escorted into a spacious room. The person who had called was there, unsmiling, and severe. We observed that our driver was nervous and intimidated. This person was definitely powerful. We set up our chair and equipment, and the middle-aged patient was brought in. Jack thought a stroke, or some sort of brain damage had occurred to handicap this patient so that he was not able to take care of basic needs, like tooth brushing. 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 nor anyone else had brushed these teeth for many years. Some of the teeth appeared to be great fangs like something out of a horror movie. To Jack’s great relief, this appeared to be the extent of the problem. The condition was something that he could probably relieve.

Jack explained, through Sam, that he thought he could help with this, but it was going to take a long time. He hoped the 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 flew through the air bringing all of the onlookers rushing to the chair in alarm. They probably thought the large pieces were actual teeth we were sending airborne! We worked for over an hour, scraping and rinsing, rinsing and scraping. Gradually, the large fangs disappeared, and the patient began to look more normal. We marveled at our very compliant patient who quietly tolerated the 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—even the severe one! Jack clarified that there was still more to be done, but the patient’s mouth first needed to rest and heal for a few weeks. He recommended scheduling a regular cleaning to remove whatever was left, but that we would be back in the U.S. by then.

We had almost refused when our missionary host had written his request for us to come again to help him in this very restrictive country. We prayed for more freedom to evangelize, and it was about to be given to us through this difficult procedure we had performed. It seemed that our care for this special patient gave us favor in the eyes of the severe one.

From that point on, we were allowed to work in the schools without supervision. Sam jumped at the opportunity to share tracts with the parents and teachers of the students we were treating. Never would we have guessed that treating a handicapped patient would lead to an open door for the Gospel to go forth, but isn’t it just like the Lord to do the unexpected?