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Terry Lowe, a Hattiesburg family practice physician, sews up a patient outdoors with the help of his daughter, Amanda, and interpreter, Ethel, during a mission trip to Honduras with Baptist Medical and Dental Mission International.

HATTIESBURG--When Petal dentist Chuck Harrell made his first mission trip to Honduras, he thought he was just going to use his knowledge and skills to help poor people. He didn't realize how much the trip would help him.

"It made me appreciate what I have more. I don't gripe and complain about things so much. I realize how blessed we are, not only as Americans," said Harrell, who will make his fifth trip in January. He's one of hundreds of dentists and physicians from across the U.S. who have taken mission trips to Honduras and Nicaragua through Hattiesburg-based Baptist Medical and Dental Mission International, which sent more than 50 teams to the Central American countries in 2008. The teams usually stay for a week, providing medical and dental services to people in rural areas who don't often have access to healthcare. Some teams also do construction work, building churches, schools or health clinics. The teams also do evangelism, hosting backyard Bible clubs and church services with the hope of leading others to Christ.

It's not all work, though. The teams often put on soccer camps for the children, and one team even took along a juggler who performed for the people.

Lee Stauter, communications director for BMDMI, said that on one of the trips he went on this year, the team provided a little pampering for the women they met. "They set up a tent where the women and girls would come and have their nails done and feel pretty," he said.

BMDMI was founded in 1974 by career missionaries Charlie and Carolyn Herrington in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Although they were successful in starting churches, they were saddened and troubled that so many of the poor had no medical or dental care. They once came across a woman suffering through the last stages of cancer without even an aspirin to ease the pain. They had a vision for a mission-based ministry that would bring heathcare professionals, as well as anyone else who wanted to help, to Honduras and Nicaragua to provide services for free in remote areas. Since 1974, the organization has planted more than 120 indigenous churches, witnessed more than 100,000 people accept Christ as their Savior, and treated more than 1 million people free of charge. "We see a lot of skin infections, eye infections and stomach issues," Stauter said. "We end up pulling an average of two teeth for every person that comes into the dental tent." People are often desperate for treatment.

"You hear these stories about people walking seven or eight miles to have dental or medical work," said Harrell, who learned about BMDMI through one of his patients, Dwight Carr, who is president of the organization.

Stauter said he heard a story from one team about a woman they had treated. "She said she had walked about three hours because she had a pain in her knee she wanted to get checked out."

Terry Lowe, a Hattiesburg family practice physician, said Stephen Beam, MD, invited him to join one of his teams.

"I've been going every year since 2000," Lowe said. "Most of the trips have been in very rural areas of southern Honduras. While there, we see about 1,000 patients a day in a screening setting. We give vitamins, Tylenol, treat asthma attacks, treat parasites and some minor surgeries as well. We also have an evangelical team, veterinarian, pharmacy team, construction team, dental team and eye glasses team that goes with us."

Lowe is now a team captain and often recruits other physicians for the mission trips, as well as medical students.

"Sometimes we docs have to be reminded why we went into medicine in the first place," he said.

Team captains are not all physicians, but they always make sure they have physicians on their teams, Stauter said, adding that it takes about a year to put together a mission trip. Everyone who plans to go has to be licensed and certified so they can get permits to work in Honduras or Nicaragua, and equipment and supplies have to be shipped ahead. "There's a lot of preparation and planning," Stauter said. "It takes a while."

BMDMI's first mission team consisted of seven people, but now, there is an average of 35-60 volunteers on each team.

Despite Charlie Herrington's death in 1986, the work has continued, and the ministry has expanded. In addition to the short-term mission teams, BMDMI has also opened Christian schools, children's homes, permanent mental-dental clinics and vocational training center. To oversee the work of these ministries, BMDMI supports full-time missionaries. In addition to the career missionaries, who develop and sustain their ministry on the foreign field, there are affiliates who work in support roles and are under the guidance of an established career missionary. There is also a sojourner program that allows those interested in foreign missionary work to serve for eight months to a year under the guidance of a career missionary.

"I encourage anybody in the medical field to participate," Harrell said. "I've even taken my kids and my wife. My son is even thinking about doing full-time missions work." Lowe said the trips make him appreciate his blessings more.

"We are so very wealthy here in the USA and never really have to worry a whole lot about the necessities of life. In Honduras, the poverty is so striking. Going out with BMDMI has been a wonderful experience for me and my entire family. I've taken my kids and have seen them really mature by leaps and bounds in only a week. I would recommend this type of trip for anyone."

Charity Navigator, an organization that reviews and rates organizations to determine their efficiency, has given BMDMI its 4-Star rating for six consecutive years. "Only 2 percent of the charities we've rated have received at least six consecutive 4-Star evaluations, indicating that BMDMI outperforms most charities in America in its efforts to operate in the most fiscally responsible way possible," Michael Smith, interim president and chief operating officer of Charity Navigator, wrote in a letter to BMDMI. Lowe said while he appreciates being able to provide medical treatment to those who need it and there's an even greater benefit he derives from participating in the trips. "For me, the most moving times are when a patient comes to the clinic expecting some Tylenol and walks out with a newfound eternal life in Christ."

Harrell concurs. "You go down thinking you're blessing them, but you come back blessed tenfold. It's what we're supposed to do as Christians."

Tags:

Baptist Medical and Dental Mission International, Chuck Harrell, Lee Stauter, Terry Lowe

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