Welcome back to our column,
Wow. Our days of clinic have come to an end. We truly cannot believe how fast the week has come and gone. We’ve been so blessed to apply our knowledge throughout the week and physically help these people of the DR. Today proved our growing confidence this week as all of the students started faithfully making decisions and doing precise injections, exquisite extractions, and peaceful cleanings. The special story from today is just the cohesiveness and calmness of the clinic today with everyone working in unity and selflessness. Over the week it has been incredible to watch this special group of people not only grow closer together, but also grow in their faith. It’s a beautiful thing to see so many people care for each other and come together to care for other communities. Today’s clinic was short, and we ended the afternoon early. This gave us the opportunity to pray over the pastor and his family of the church we were in today. It was evident that God has been moving in that community, and we prayed for continued blessings upon them. We are so grateful for this week, these people, these opportunities, and mainly for the Lord providing in so many ways and remaining faithful throughout many circumstances. We hope you’ve enjoyed the day-by-day details, but wanted to use today’s blog to speak about the way God has changed us this week. We are hopeful for a continuation of this faith when we get back to Birmingham. Now, for some comedic relief…we feel like we’ve only been mentioning Catch Phrase, which feels discriminatory towards the other games that have been a hit, including the legendary Qwirkle and Nertz. These games can get pretty heated (maybe not as much as a monopoly game), but we still try to keep it friendly when we Qwirkle. Alas, tomorrow we are headed to Catalina Island: BEACH DAY. After an entire week of tough work, we are being rewarded by a relaxing field trip to the bluest waters you could ever imagine. Stay tuned for the many, many pictures of resort-like beaches and specifically delicious pineapple drinks. Over and out for today, Halle and Sarah Jordan
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Hola amigos, we’re back again for another update! Another day, another stellar breakfast, what more is there to say? Just kidding, we’ll give you the full update you’ve been yearning for. After our morning worship and quiet time, we headed to eat some delicious pancakes to energize us for the activities of the day. After a short travel, we arrived at another village and set up in a small church with a pretty blue cross on the front. The town was known as the “green village” because most of the houses are painted green. There were many great stories from the morning and afternoon, we wish we could include all of them. Some of us have a touch of PTSD from encounters with crying children today, and might even be more scared of the children than they are of us:-) A boy from yesterday who we were unable to treat completely was able to come back to the clinic today, and our amazing Dr. Claire (who will never stop receiving shoutouts) was able to get that tooth out!! We had some other kids who also came into the clinic today who Claire and some students were able to comfort and get treated so compassionately. Also, Griffin got his first extraction today, yay!! Optometry station was especially special today, as Natalie and Malia both got a chance to step away and get a turn at the evangelism station. Shoutout to Jennifer and Hannah to getting out of their comfort zones so selflessly, and stepping in for the Optometry students so they could get that chance. Speaking of evangelism, Bobby and Dr. McClenny and their teams today were able to lead an 80-year-old man to the Lord which was incredible to hear about. A very interesting update from today was the exciting power outage that occurred near the end of the afternoon due to heavy rainfall. Doing dentistry in the dark was a new venture. Who knew you could take out a few teeth with only loupes lights? The rainfall was a unique experience, and honestly a peaceful and refreshing way to end day 4. Now we are reenergized enough for some Catch Phrase tonight and our last day tomorrow!! Overall, it was a great day with the people in the village. It was truly amazing seeing the Lord move in ways that we will never forget. ` Over and out for today, Sarah Jordan and Halle Thank you for staying tuned to our channel…
In case you were wondering, we did in fact choose sleep last night. Anywho, another wonderful day in the beautiful Dominican has come and gone. We had a great start to the morning with worship and then delicious empanadas for breakfast. We then ventured on over in our handy travel buses to a village school where we did a speedy setup for the day. The morning shift was rocky as we had many difficult cases. There were a few defeated students and dentists, but as always, the Lord provides. We were blessed to have an Oral Surgeon, Zach, to truly be so helpful. Cleanings and simple extractions also came and went throughout the day, with Hunter and Jennifer getting their first ever extractions completed!!! One special aspect that we have found on this trip is that helping these people can be as simple as holding their hand during an extraction. The trust that you can give to a child who is shaking with fear or even an adult with tears in their eyes is something not to be taken lightly. It may seem like we are just taking out a tooth in that moment, but to them it’s much more than that. We are thankful for the words of encouragement from each other as we go through these moments with patients together. It can be difficult to keep emotions in check when your emotions are hit high in some of the more difficult procedures. One patient today asked if he could pray over his dentists that had helped clean his teeth for him, and that was special to see the Lord working to bring his act of faith to us. It is humbling to see people who have so little be thankful for such simple acts such as a cleaning. Another shout out to our two wonderful optometry students, who we found out saw 53 patients yesterday…the dental students (with 9 chairs) saw 55, if that tells you anything! We are so grateful for another day of being vessels for the Lord’s work and cannot wait to see what tomorrow brings!! Over and out for today, Halle and Sarah Jordan Hello again to our fans, We are truly so sorry for the lack of humor and creativity yesterday, because we were very much lacking energy. But, have no fear – we are readier than ever to make you laugh. Day 2 here in the Dominican Republic started out with none other than coffee, worship music, pancakes, and devotional time. We loaded up again on the buses at 7:55 and headed to our next clinic destination. As returnees, we can confidently say this was the nicest clinic we have experienced so far: very spacious with lots of airflow. The morning consisted of LOTS of cleanings, a few extractions and restorations, and no mishaps, fortunately for us. The optometry students had an amazing morning, too. After helping a patient and praying for her, the patient wanted to pray for them, showing yet again the powerful move of faith in our clinics. After another lunch of sandwiches and the iconic Queso Lays chips, the afternoon was a lot of hard work. The second operative chair had to be shut off after the machines weren’t able to generate the burs or suction, but Dr. Claire Walker was being so incredibly supportive of the students. She also worked until the very last minute of clinic closing in order to remove a mesial root for the last patient. Another HUGE shout out to Christina for pulling her first tooth today! Led step-by-step by Tyler, she was able to grab a hold of the lower anterior and finally feel the adrenaline rush that comes with getting a non-restorable tooth out and giving immediate relief to a patient. Once we loaded up the trucks and made our way back home, we had another amazing dinner, then gathered in the upper room of SCORE to hear tonight’s speaker: Dr. McClenny. Normally being taught by him in dental school, it was especially sweet to be able to hear the way God moves through him and his advice to us about living the Great Commission through our careers. Now, we are lounging around trying to decide if 8:00 pm is too early to go to sleep, or if we have enough in us to ignite a game of Catch Phrase. Stay tuned!! Over and out for today, Sarah Jordan and Halle Welcome back avid readers,
We have officially completed our first day of our mission trip in the Dominican Republic. Juan Dolio has welcomed us back with open arms, as we immediately had a line of patients when we arrived to set up the clinic this morning. We started the morning off with a delicious breakfast, of course, then headed to worship and our quiet times. It is always great to start the day in prayer so that our hearts will be set on seeking and sharing the Lord throughout the day. We then hopped on our cute little buses and drove 45 minutes to a small village, where we began setting up in a quaint church. The first day brought its challenges, but we were able to pull off an efficient day in clinic and took care of quite a few patients. This included some really hefty third molars that gave our dentists a good challenge. We were able to give the people cleanings, extractions, and even some cavity removals and fillings. Along with our successes in clinic, we had amazing opportunities in evangelism with Bobby and Dr. McClenny sharing the gospel and leading many of our patients back to Christ. One special lady, Mrs. Margarita, has been away from the church for three years and was moved by the encouraging words of our evangelism team, proven by her spoken desire to go back to church on Sunday. This is just one of the many incredible stories shared today. The optometrists were able to supply glasses to many people struggling to see near or far. One little girl brought her Bible so that she could make sure her glasses gave her the ability to read the small text. We had beautiful weather today and are praying for a continued successful week that will bring the joy of the Lord to our patients as well as the care that they need. On a final note, we are especially proud of our D1 girlies who really jumped in today with injections and extractions even when they were nervous, and they did amazing!!! Although hot, sticky, and tired, all of us had great attitudes and are excited for what day 2 has to bring! Thanks to everyone for following along on the blog and for your continued prayers as we travel to different towns throughout the week. The 2023 Dental Team has made it safely to the DR with all their luggage.
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