Serving the world
By Ruth Schenk | .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Evangelists in Sierra Leone were thrown out of some villages before they were trained by mPower, a Louisville-based nonprofit organization that teaches basic health care and dentistry to national pastors and church leaders.
In six days, Illinois dentist Brian Evans taught them how to care for abscessed teeth and relieve suffering.
After training, the dental health workers went back to one of the villages.
“Does anyone have a toothache?” the dental health workers asked.
Villagers lined up. Many had been suffering for years. As these dental health workers worked on teeth, they prayed with villagers and told them about Jesus.
After a few visits, leaders in the village offered free land for a church. In the last two years, the church they planted has started seven additional churches in the
area.
And ministry continues—not only in Sierra Leone, but also in Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Myanmar, Uganda, Haiti, Kenya, India and Ecuador. Next year, mPower
will train dental health workers in Indonesia. And last year, Southeast member Dr. Tom McKechnie developed health training modules that have been used in
South Sudan and Haiti.
Each year, mPower sends between 30 and 40 medical professionals on teaching mission trips. They train about 100 nationals in the countries they serve.
That’s success according to mPower Executive Director Linda Webster.
“God is using this model around the world,” she said. “When we give pastors and evangelists these basic medical and dental skills, it’s like a light goes on
in their eyes,” she said. “They now have something to give their own people. Many were not welcomed into villages they wanted to evangelize, but dental and
medical training gives them skills that are valuable in villages, and they open doors to share the Gospel.”
mPower reaches people who have little or no access to medical or dental care.
“The people we treat really are the ‘least of these,’" Webster said. “They are so grateful for help. Then they hear from health workers that they don’t come from
the government or even an organization. They come in the name of Christ.”
mPower was founded in 2007 by Southeast member Charlie Vittitow, who now serves as director of International Missions for Southeast.
He established mPower with Steve Saint, who grew up in Ecuador and provides medical and dental equipment for national churches. Saint's nonprofit
organization, ITEC, invented the lightweight, solar-powered dental chair that mPower uses to equip nationals. Because the chair can be folded into a
backpack, dental health workers are reaching remote villages.
mPower trainers go into countries with a three-year plan that includes an exit strategy.
On a first dental trip, mPower dentists train nationals in basic dental skills, test and graduate students. The second and third years, they check on skill sets
and add additional skills. After the third trip, they are independent and self-sustaining, setting their own fees, purchasing their own supplies and setting their
own schedules for outreach.
In Ghana, it costs about 10 cents for dental work. In Uganda, it is about $1. No one charges for widows or orphans.
In Haiti, a former construction worker, a pastor and a hotel worker were trained by Dr. Steve Cherry, an oral surgeon and Southeast member. He recently
returned from Liberia, where there is only one dentist in the entire country.
“People in these countries have nowhere to turn,” Cherry said. “They live with pain. We’re there to relieve pain and suffering by training nationals, but the real
goal is for them to use dentistry as a platform to spread the Gospel. That will last long after we are gone.”
On a typical dental mission trip, an American dentist will extract about 300 teeth in six grueling days, packing up to leave even as long lines remain of people
seeking help. On an mPower trip, that same dentist trains six nationals to extract teeth that cannot be saved. If those students work in villages just two days a
week, more than 7,000 people are helped. Cherry said graduation day is memorable.
“These students are so thrilled to have the skills to help people,” he said. “They are elevated in the eyes of the community and that skill opens doors to share
the Gospel.”
Webster hears stories long after mPower teams leave.
In Uganda, an mPower team trained Pastor Peter Okello. Word that he helped people with dental pain circulated through the community. When a government
dentist broke a tooth while doing an extraction, causing further pain, people said, "I’ve heard of a man who cares for this kind of pain. His name is Peter.”
They found Peter, and in about 10 minutes, he was able to relieve the patient’s pain.
“How can we repay you?” the patient and his friends asked.
“You don’t have to repay me,” Peter said. “Let me tell you about the group of Americans who trained me so I can take the name of Jesus to every village.”
mPower’s goal is to spread Jesus’ name to the nations.
It’s working in Nigeria, where community health workers relieve suffering in Muslim villages while telling patients about Jesus. In India, pastors were beaten,
harassed and even killed before learning to be lay dental health workers, who were able to extract abscessed teeth, insert fillings and teach oral hygiene.
“They’re not killing us now,” one pastor said.
Pastors in Ghana who have been trained to be dental health workers reach out in Muslim villages, sharing faith as they relieve suffering. Kingspride
Hammond, founder of Alabaster Ministries in Ghana, said using the mPower model has changed outreach in the predominantly Muslim country.
“When people open their mouth for help with pain, it opens the door to their heart,” he said.
One afternoon during training, a local witch doctor brought her son to the clinic with a deep leg wound. Doctors on the team and students found that it was
packed with dog hair. They learned that according to local custom, the witch doctor packed the wound with dog hair because it was a dog bite.
The witch doctor and her son left the clinic wearing handmade crosses fashioned by prisoners at Luther Luckett Correctional Institution in LaGrange, Ky.,
given to them by mPower missionaries.
In India, national pastors trained in mPower dental ministry set up a clinic in a Christian church. Hindus with toothaches came for help. One high-caste Hindu
watched the clinic and saw how pastors cared for his own neighbors and friends.
“I don’t like you Christians,” he said. “But I see what you are doing in the name of Jesus. I will sell you some land so you can be here for the people.”
Local churches benefit from each outreach. In Uganda, before dental training, Peter Okello struggled to feed his family.
“Training Peter as a dental health worker has given him a way to support his family and tithe to local churches in the villages he visits,” Webster said. “It also
gives him a way to take the Gospel everywhere."
In the end, it’s not just about dentistry or health. Every patient is prayed for and every patient has the opportunity to invite Jesus into their hearts.
For more information on mPower, visit www.mpowerapproach.org.