Pictured at Left: Dr. Reg Lankford from Olympia Washington, next to him assistant Linda Linton, and translator Sylvia. Dr. Lankford led a 4 person dental team through our partner, Medical Teams International, to serve at the Turnu Rosu Special Education Placement Center. This extremely hard working 4 member team, because of a flight change, arrived extremely late Sunday night and began work bright and early Monday morning and continued at a fever pace until Friday! I am sure they returned home exhausted, but with a satisfied exhaustion! In their week of service the Lankford team treated 103 patients, providing 48 cleanings, 72 sealants, 40 extractions, 3 pulpotomies, and 99 fillings! Each patient also received dental hygiene instruction and special coloring pages, stickers, and treats for being ‘good patients’!

 

Pictured at far Right: Dr. Carmen Onaca from Bucharest first volunteered with the Heringer team last November. She had not served in a Placement Center before. She graciously volunteered again with the Lankford team for two days and brought two of her colleagues with her! We also had two other Romanian volunteer’s from Dent Estet Clinic in Bucharest. We are encouraged to see these young Romanian nationals reaching out to those in need and eager to learn technique from our American volunteers! Thanks to all who provided services to these dear children!

 

Seeing Clearly!

At Left: Dr. Michael McQuillan from Camarillo, CA made his 4 th trip to provide optometry services to those in need in Romania. In his week of service he and volunteer’s Hope Baugher and Bernadette Brown provided 127 exams and over 90 pairs of free glasses! Dr. McQuillan was able to order this Romanian look-alike license plate from the internet with the play on words of “Irish Eye Doctor”…it was a big hit with the kids! Not only were the optometry services provided but each child was also given an age appropriate Romanian Christian book and treats. Thank you Dr. McQuillan for using your talent so generously for those in need!

Below: I am surrounded by boys from the Agarbiciu Placement Center with their new glasses! Everywhere I visited this spring children asked me “when is our week of camp”? I am used to that question because I know how dearly children look forward to the respite that is camp…but this time I received a most interesting question from the boy standing directly in front of me in the photo. Sergio is 13, but small for his age due to malnutrition in his early years. Sergio called me aside and had me bend down so he could whisper in my ear, “I heard there’s a crisis in America, do you think we will still have camp?” I was amazed that this little boy had put those pieces together! I told him that already the Lord has provided volunteer teams and I have faith He will provide for all to come to camp. He hugged me and smiled with a sense of relief and then I told him the exact dates of camp, which he repeated back to me two or three times! Thank you to all who will consider providing for Sergio and all those that so look forward to Camp of the Good Shepherd.

Yours in Partnership, Debbie and Your HHMI Board