Babies, Gloves, and Answered Prayers

GUYS I GOT TO HOLD A BABY!!!!!

Okay, I know I'm here on a medical mission, so my favorite part should be participating in the medical healing of someone, but honestly, playing with kids is always the highlight of my trip from the super simple "happiness" aspect of the trip. God works in incredible ways through hard situations, which is humbling and exciting to see, but there's just something about playing with kids that just heals my soul.

So today, we saw a lot of moms who needed extractions, and since it was mom, there were often a bunch of little kids clinging onto mom's hand while she got things done. Which was stressful for the dentists because they didn't want to traumatize the kids and didn't want mom to feel like she had to do two things at once. So a new job formed: babysitting :)

So first, I got to hold this happy little baby, probably about six months old, who had the biggest, gummiest smile ever and giggled (and drooled) at everything. I got to hold him pretty early in the day, and I knew it was going to be a good day. Then there was a little girl who was very very shy, and it took a lot to get her to stop looking at mom and start looking at me, but we got there eventually.

And then the fun began. I blew up a glove and tied it (the dental team nicknamed him Wilson) (and sadly, he popped before I got a picture, but he had a big smile with perfect teeth drawn by the pediatric dentist on our team) we played around with him for a long time, just silly things like hitting him back and forth or pushing one of the fingers down and watching it pop back up after letting go.

(Photo of Wilson version six or so from later on in the week 😆)

There was this one little boy who wanted to play tag around a pillar in the room and so we took turns peeking out behind it and trying to touch each other, which came with a lot of excited screams — a super nice change from the normal screams coming out of our room.

And then my favorite kid of the day — this sweet little boy with the biggest, bluest eyes ever! And they sparkled with joy at everything! We played with Wilson until he popped, and then played other silly games, making it up as we go. Tapping patterns into chairs, pointing at surprising things and making silly noises and faces, playing with my pen light (which was definitely the favorite activity after we lost Wilson)

His brother and sister were the ones getting teeth pulled, and I caught mom out of the corner of my eye videoing us playing, which was special. And since it was multiple siblings with multiple teeth, we were there a while. This meant that he started getting antsy and so we played airplane and zoomed around the room, looking out the windows and flying upside down.

There were also the three Indian girls who knew some hand games and had a phone with snapchat. So we took some selfies XD. They had the funniest filters, but the one they liked the most was one of those beauty ones that makes your eyes huge and your skin lighter (which means that your favorite gringo was suuuuuper pale haha)

I think I was having too much fun! I know a lot of teeth got pulled, and there were some really challenging cases, but every child that I interacted with today left smiling, which was a welcome change of pace.

This is going to be a long post, I think. Got a snack? Good :)

One of the coolest things to me about this area is how receptive they are to Christianity and the gospel. I did not expect that in a Muslim context, but they are willing to be served by Christians, and they are willing to be prayed for. I heard one story from our national partner today that leaves me in awe. Her Muslim neighbor's son has cancer, and they have been struggling through chemo for several months, and our partner prays regularly with this woman for her son. The other day she said that her son was going in for a biopsy and actually asked for prayer because, "I know your God will answer your prayers."

How amazing is our God? How powerfully is He working in the lives of the people here in the Middle East? It blows me away constantly!

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I had an interesting moment today when one of the doctors came in to get some sterile scissors. We asked what she needed them for and she said she was going to perform a frenulectomy (cutting a tongue tie.) A tongue tie is when the frenulum, or that little tendon underneath your tongue, is connected too far forward. This can make it difficult for babies to eat or kids to speak properly.

Many of you know this already, but I also have a tongue tie, which my parents chose not to cut when I was a baby. I have no problems eating or speaking, and no, I don't want to hear any comments on that ;) so I was very interested in this case.

I was expecting a baby to come in, maybe one who was a bit malnourished because they were unable to latch well to mom, but in walks this nine year old kid with a pretty upset mother. The dentist really did not want to cut the tongue tie, because surgery without the proper support of therapy afterwards is rendered ineffective. And this boy was just having trouble with a couple of letters. So we strongly suggested that they take him to a speech therapist instead of cutting the tongue tie today.

There was a lot of discussion back and forth, and again, mom seemed very upset and frustrated. But the translator and the dentist communicated that they don't want surgery if it's at all possible and explained the benefit of speech therapy. And it was quite sudden — the mom (and kid) seemed super relieved and started joking with us about other things and laughing and smiling. We prayed with them and then the mom rattled off something very fast in Arabic and the translators seemed touched and then she gave us all cheek kisses and bowed before leaving.

We asked the translators what happened and they explained that she has been to many doctors in the area about this issue and was treated like a second class citizen because of her refugee status. She felt that no one cared and no one listened. And then she came here and we all listened to her and cared about what's best for her son. She said that she felt the love as soon as she walked into our building.

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This evening's devotional was on "Ahava" or "love in action." This idea of active love and showing love through the things we do was something I was really aware of today. I heard from several people that the refugees and Muslims here really do know Christians by their love. I wish where I lived I could say the same, and I hope someday we can get there.

One final thought: at dinner, I was reflecting with a teammate about our roles on this trip. She is a family doctor and so she spends her clinic days very much involved with an individual family, talking with them about all their issues including spiritual ones. And I was expressing my disappointment that I have not had a lot of chances to evangelize or pray with my patients, just due to the nature of what we do in dentistry. (It's kind of hard to ask someone about their faith with your hands in their mouth)

I found myself coming around to the point that what we do is twofold: one, we are remaining faithful to our goal of alleviating a little bit of their physical suffering. When they came in to our clinic, we told them that we wanted to help heal their hurts and by removing teeth or filling cavities we are doing that. But more so, we are continuing to show them the love of Christ. If every single person they encounter in clinic shows them love and helps their hurts, it sends a message.

If they were telling the truth about healing my body, and they all had the same love and care that I know Christians have, maybe they are right about the spiritual piece too.

With this new understanding, I am going to sleep tonight energized by the Lord and the work He is accomplishing and I am honored that I get to be a part of it, even if it is in a way where I cannot ever see the benefit or the growth. In times like these, I get excited to get to heaven and meet all the people that are there who God let me be a part of their story. I really hope that I get to see all of these faces in their perfected form, free from their earthly pain someday.