Adventists host dental clinic

MOSES LAKE — The truth is, every dentist should have massage while you wait.

“Almost every job I’ve had has involved helping people,” said Jeff Wendt, a family therapist here in Moses Lake, as he worked on my shoulders and back.

If you are nervous waiting to get your teeth worked on, or still trying to feel your face because you’ve just had that molar filled or removed, this is not a bad way to lose the tension and relax.

Wendt, who said he originally went to school to become a massage therapist, was rubbing backs and shoulders and even hands and arms as part of the Moses Lake Seventh-day Adventist Church’s free dental clinic on Friday and Sunday.

Held at Crestview Christian School, the clinic involved more than simply getting teeth cleaned, filled, or pulled. There were massage therapists, beauticians and barbers, clinicians doing basic health screening, and a host of cheerful Seventh-day Adventists just being present during what, for many, could be a difficult or even humiliating experience.

This is a first for the Moses Lake Adventists, who held the clinic because the equipment was available.

“We’re looking for ways to serve the community, to be a blessing,” said Pastor Clinton Meharry, adding he hopes to be able to stage the clinic again.

But that’s not up to church. It’s up to Caring Hands Worldwide, which organizes these clinics and provided the equipment.

“I actually grew up in a family of five dentists,” said Randy-Marta Meyer, a social worker and coordinator of the free clinic for Caring Hands Worldwide.

The Eugene, Ore.-based organization organizes free dental clinics across the Western United States, Meyer said, from California to Idaho, as well as in far flung countries such as Zambia and Mongolia.

An Adventist himself, Meyer believes in both the call to heal the sick as part of the call to follow Jesus.

“Medical evangelism is as important as preaching,” he said. “Christ healed more than he preached.”

Meyer said that by noon, they already had enough people signed up for dental work to keep all their dentists busy until 5 p.m., when the clinic was scheduled to close.

The clinic was also a multi-confessional effort, as dentist Kasey Coulson — as member of the LDS Church in Moses Lake — arrived to join a number of other dentists already at work.

“I saw a flyer, and I’d love to give back,” said Coulson, who has been a dentist in Moses Lake for five years but has just opened his own private practice. “We’ll do a few free fillings here and there, but this is a part of the community we don’t see.”

“This is an opportunity to be a true Christian. I try to do this when I can,” Coulson added.

As his daughter Valesha was getting a filling put in, Durwood Norman sat and waited. He himself had a wisdom tooth pulled and a filling put in, and was still a bit numb from the experience.

“I found out about this because my wife got a flyer,” he said. “I’m very pleased, I think this was a great idea.”

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached via email at countygvt@columbiabasinherald.com.