Our ministry
Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others,
as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.
- 1 Peter 4:10
In 2020, after losing my job due to COVID, we started a GoFundMe to raise money to purchase and equip a mobile dental van. Our friends and family selflessly raised just over $3,000. While the dream didn’t completely die, it was another four years before we decided what to do with the money. Once we both agreed on a plan modeled around the initial idea, we started purchasing portable dental equipment. We were then gifted another $10,000, which allowed us to finish purchasing the needed equipment, and the initial set of inventory and supplies.
“Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much,
and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.”
- Luke 16:10
We started seeing patients at free screening events, and invited some people into our home to offer treatment. I was still working part-time, which allowed us to pay bills, and set some aside to build up our ministry funds. Before leaving Missouri, we had saved enough to pay for six months of living expenses. We also had a few thousand dollars remaining in our ministry fund to allow us to refill our inventory when we arrived.
Paul continued homeschooling our children as his full-time job, and I worked on running the ministry (which was a volunteer position). Additionally, Paul put in at least a few hours every week to help with the parts of the ministry that I couldn’t do alone. Since we were limited with our space and still very new in getting established, more of my time was spent doing paperwork than doing dentistry. In time, with the availability of more funding and a larger space, we hoped to see that shift.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.
- Proverbs 3:5-6
Before arriving in California, we also started having conversations with each other about what it would look like for our family to become full-time missionaries. Never having even been on a short-term missions trip, neither of us really knew where to get started, but the Lord provided many wonderful people to guide us with every step. Praying for several months that the Lord would show us the path He desired us to walk, we decided to pursue missions and stop work with our ministry.
Although it felt like failure, I know we learned a great deal through Equihua Faith Dental. Our mantra throughout the two years of ministry became, “Even if we only help one person, it is worth it.” I am grateful for the Lord using our desire to serve Him to point us to missions. And after many hours of praying and waiting, we found out we were approved to serve with the Church of the Nazarene in Kudjip, Papua New Guinea!
I will praise God’s name in song
and glorify him with thanksgiving.
-Psalm 69:30
