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6. S O U T H A F R I C A :
"UGLY" PATIENT LEARNS ABOUT TRUE BEAUTY FROM MISSIONARY DENTISTS
AN UNLIKELY REQUEST to dental missionaries gave them the chance to share the gospel with a teenage girl during an outreach to one of the country's townships.
Usually busy filling and extracting decayed teeth during their free surgeries, members of the dental team with the Anastasis, flagship of the Mercy Ships fleet, were approached by a 13-year-old who asked them to remove her perfectly healthy upper and lower front teeth.
They discovered that missing front teeth was a sign of beauty to some of the locals, and their would-be patient tearfully told them that she was called ugly by the other girls who would not make friends with her.
"They were able to spend some time talking with her about 'real' friendship and 'real' beauty," said ship's spokesperson Lorraine McDonald. "Seeming to understand and able to accept herself more, the girl later returned with her sisters to show them the people who said they liked her the way she was."
As many as 50 people a day have been turning up at the dental clinic being run in Duncan Village, a large settlement outside East London, during the ship's three-month visit, which began last month.
In addition to the dental clinic, eye and facial surgeries are being performed in the ship's on-board operating rooms, while relief and development staff are helping build a creche in Duncan Village to enable working mothers to better support their families.
Founded in 1978 as the maritime division of Youth With A Mission, Mercy Ships has a four-strong fleet which annually takes around US$3 million of free health care and aid to the developing world.
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