Mercy Trucks Ukraine

We were outside Mukachevo in Western Ukraine, working along side YWAM Ternopil and a local Ukrainian church to reach the families of this Gypsy camp. I first visited with Gypsies in the village of Sabatano two years ago. I was moved by their plight and was thrilled to be serving this particular people group of Ukraine where such a big part of my heart is.

"So, WHY are we here?" we asked through our translator. "You are here to give me a tooth," he said, smiling to reveal a gap where one front tooth had rotted to the root. Then he told us he was getting married in less than a month! Dr. Richard and I just looked at each other with knowing glances. This year I have learned enough about dentistry and what we can and can not do, to know we did not have the tools or a lab to produce a false tooth. I've seen God perform miracles and our dentists do amazing things, but create a tooth? I think Dr. Richard was thinking the same thing! But, we also knew this young man who leads worship in his church, writes and performs his own songs of worship to God, had been praying and asking God for that tooth for his wedding day. We don't always know the ways of God, but I do know that we operate on His direction and leading and that we were there because God wanted us to be. It is possible that this was His plan and purpose. He could simply be answering the prayer of one of His own. The Marine Reach/Mercy Trucks motto is "Our Hands, God's Heart". It was God?s heart; all we had to do was be His hands?. Easier said than done!

We have chosen to not display all the photos of this dental procedure because they are very graphic. If you would like to view them, please follow the link at the end of this post.

Where to start? With prayer of course! And pray we did, that God would guide us and show Richard the very things he would need to know to build the tooth. Next was to find what parts we had lying around the Truck that could be used to build a tooth. I was reminded of the movie, Apollo 13, when the scientists at NASA had to build a CO2 filter out of spare parts floating around inside the Apollo spacecraft. We considered everything we could lay our hands on, even the contents of the truck tool box! It was agreed that a root post (support base) could be made out of a burr (a dental drill bit), kind of like rebar in the building of a foundation. To build the tooth we would use a photopolymer material used for fillings. Dr. Richard used the dental drill with diamond filling bits to cut and shape the burr into a root post to build the tooth on. Over the next couple hours, adding layer upon layer, the tooth emerged where there was none before. After shaping, sanding and polishing, the tooth was indistinguishable from its neighbor. With His creativity and leading and our hands, God answered a prayer. We knew this was not a long term solution. We told Sergey not to open Coke bottles with his new tooth, and he agreed. It may last months or even years...we just don't know. But we know Sergey will be smiling a on his wedding day!

Through this procedure God was glorified that day. He revealed himself to be a God who loves us so very much that not only did He give His one and only son, but He hears and answers our prayers and still performs miracles, even in 2007 in Mukachevo Ukraine!