Alumni provide dental care in Romania
Three Texas A&M School of Dentistry alumni recently took their dental expertise – and heart for others – to Romania. Dr. Kevin Seidler ’78, Dr. Gene Lamberth ’63 and ’68 and dental hygienist Lana Crawford, ’68 traveled with ServingHIM, an international health care nonprofit, in June to provide dental care and other ministry services.
“There’s great need in Romania,” Crawford said. “Dental hygiene is not a profession in Romania. If you can imagine a country without dental hygiene … well, they need it. I’m 10 years into retirement, but my heart was touched by this great need.”
The dental school alumni were part of a team of 30, working in Braila, in southeast Romania, and the surrounding villages. Seidler, who founded ServingHIM, said the city is large with a population of about 250,000, but it’s one of the poorest regions of Europe.
Crawford said many of the people they treated had never had their teeth cleaned before. She also had the opportunity to teach Romanian dental students about dental hygiene.
“On a personal note, I was thrilled to be able to share with young Romanian dental students who came to observe,” she said. “I left them with some video and website links for scaling and the dental hygiene curriculum. I feel like that was a very important impact.”
In addition to offering dental care and deep cleanings, they also organized a community health fair, and visted schools and an orphanage and offered dental education. They even delivered goats and food to families in need.
Seidler explained that ServingHIM’s animal ministry gives female goats to families providing them a means to not only feed their own families, but also have goods to sell to others. The goats are usually close to delivering kids when the families receive them.
“We teach the family how to care for them, give them medications, teach them how to milk the goats and make cheese and then we give them a food basket that can feed a family of five for a month,” said Seidler. “It’s a very effective ministry; we’ve been doing this for about 18 years now. After a period of time, they’ll basically have a herd of goats. It provides families milk to drink, cheese to eat and goods to sell.”
Lamberth has been involved in ServingHIM missions for over 20 years, and it’s become something of a family tradition. His granddaughter, second-year dental student Morgan Lamberth, has also participated in these mission trips. “It feels good to offer help to those in need and to share our beliefs,” Lamberth said.
“It was a good trip, and it was a wonderful experience,” he said. “Just being with the team and getting to know them. Not everyone is professionally in health care. The team is made up of different streams and areas of life, but we’re connected by a centrality in Christ and our reason for being there. It’s a wonderful experience, it really is. You get to see how other people in other parts of the world live and how we live compared to them. It’s an eye opener.”
ServingHIM is based in Plano, Texas, and operates in Eastern Europe and Central America. They are currently working to build a new hospital in Romania.
