June 18, 2012 – Spanish Town, Jamaica…Kemar T. J. Douglas/CJC/IAD

Residents from the adjoining communities Sydenham in St. Catherine and Mandeville in Central Jamaica are smiling a lot in recent days. Thanks to the free dental care they have received from a team of volunteers dentists from the Loma Linda University (LLU) School of Dentistry located in Southern California, United States. This follows a missionary trip to the island last year where hundreds of adults and students benefitted.

“It was important to me and Loma Linda University that we honor the promise that we made last year to return as we were unable to see everyone,” said Dr. Lincoln Edwards, assistant professor for the School of Dentistry and Medicine at LLU and head of the missionary team. “This missionary trip is two-fold as it provides the students with the experience of being missionaries and brightens the smile of my fellow Jamaicans.”

The team’s two-week trip is divided into two locations, the Hiram S. Walters Health and Outreach Centre in Sydenham, St. Catherine, and the Northern Caribbean University (NCU) in Mandeville. The outreach project, which started on June 10, will end on June 24.

The Central Jamaica Conference of Seventh-day Adventists (CJC), which owns and operates the Hiram S. Walters Health and Outreach Center has invested thousands of dollars to facilitate the visit of the team that includes six doctors and seventeen students.

“Wholistic community evangelism is the goal and vision for our conference, that is why we have repositioned this H. S. Walters Clinic as a health and outreach centre,” said Pastor Levi Johnson, president for the church in Central Jamaica. “The mandate of the Church is touching and transforming lives, and I am grateful that Loma Linda University has chosen to partner with us once again.”

“The health center has been overwhelmed with a number of persons who turned out for the dental services daily,” said Mary Cole, health and women’s ministries director for the church in Central Jamaica. “The doctors and students are offering services such as cleaning, filling and extraction, along with dental hygiene education.”

“I am here to get my teeth clean and I am so happy for this service,” said Jacqueline Turner, as she waited eagerly for her number to be called. “This programme is a good thing and shows that the Adventist Church is interested in the well-being of the communities it serves.”

Loma Linda University (LLU) is a Seventh-day Adventist educational health-sciences institution with eight schools and more than 4,000 students. More than 55 programs are offered by the schools of allied health professions, dentistry, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, public health, religion and behavioural health.

Image by Image by ANN. Jeria Levy

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