Matthew 12 states, “Now when the unclean spirit goes out of a man, and passes through dry places seeking rest, and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came,’ and when it comes, it finds it unoccupied, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and takes along with it seven other spirits more powerful than itself, and they go in and live there, and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first.” I had once again given the evil spirits a foothold in my life and they were happy to come and party at my expense. I had sins in my life that kept smoldering me and my prayer life became ineffective.

As I went to Chuuk and started ministering to these people, I felt an overwhelming feeling of uselessness. I felt like I couldn’t really do anything helpful as far as dentistry for these people. I immediately noticed a pattern of children under 8 having every single tooth bombed out beyond repair. All I could do was ask which one hurt, and then proceed to pull whichever one was causing pain. The youth, between the ages of 12 to 18, had the best teeth. They had lost all of their broken down baby teeth, and just recently erupted their adult teeth, which didn’t have enough time to grow large cavities. During the last days, I was running out of precious anesthetics and needles. I was desperately running around looking specifically for youth, hand picking them and rejecting the children, as I felt I could be of a better service to the youth if I could just prolong the inevitable tooth loss by giving them silver fillings. The third group of people in their 30s had most of their back teeth completely missing, and all I could do was pull more broken down teeth. The final group of people in their 50s only had there front teeth remaining. I didn’t have the heart to pull any more teeth on them as I would be removing the only functional teeth they had left. Although I didn’t have any root canal material available, I was impressed to do something very radical, something I would never do in America. I did a makeshift root canal by drilling a hole into their tooth, pulling out the nerve, filling it with therapeutic medicaments and closing it back up with a silver filling. I would then take my team and lay our hands on them and pray for their hearts and the miracle of healing. That was when it dawned on me that prayer was the only truly useful ministering that I could give them. It wouldn’t have mattered if I never showed up in Micronesia as to whether or not they would go on living their lives like any other day with or without a dentist. But having the ability to pray for them was truly the only worthwhile thing I could offer. However, here I was my prayer life was ineffective because of the sins in my life. I was ashamed. Literally, I cannot speak this testimony in person as I will be brought to tears. But as I write this I am reminded that God is good.

Before we went on this trip, I was told that we would not have electricity or running water. I thought I was prepared. I took ½ a pound of baby wipes, tons of mosquito repellant, sunscreen, ramen, Korean red pepper paste, a small pharmaceutical of sleeping pills, anti diarrhea pills, Motrin, anti allergy pills, antibiotics and a water filter with chlorine tabs. I was ready. But God proved to me in His own way, that I was selfish and needlessly worrying about how to take care of myself. I never ended up needing any of those things I had brought. God is so good. He knew my inability to cope with heat. He provided air conditioning during the evenings. He knew I was a picky eater and was expecting to lose weight, but again He provided fresh fish and delicious pineapple and fruit. I actually gained weight. God also provided a painted landscape so beautiful, that I wouldn’t have traded 10 days of television just to sit out and look over the beautiful ocean for just one day. So calm and so serene, the clouds floating close to the water as far as the eye could see. Blue and green waters with so many shades of blue that you couldn’t tell where the sky ended and where the water started. The majesty of creation marred only by humanity and the destruction of war as pieces of World War II wreckage littered the impeccably beautiful lagoon. Micronesia was Japans equivalent of Pearl Harbor. They were heavily attacked and many of the Japanese ships and airplanes are just a few feet below the waters surface. We actually had the opportunity to scuba dive one day, and to see the wrecks under the water was an incredible sight. Amidst the wreckage and the consequence of sin, we are reminded of God’s forgiveness as the abundant coral began to grow on top of the twisted metal once again and began to cover what man had polluted. I was humbled.