Dentist Lee Bridgeman and his wife, Michelle, embarked on a medical-dental mission trip to North Africa with Global Aid Network in 2008.
During the week of outreach which included cleaning teeth, teaching children how to practice dental hygiene and assembling eye glasses, the Bridgemans saw the heart of God at work.
Surrounded by hundreds of children desperate for life’s basic necessities and wanting to do more to demonstrate the love of Christ in the predominantly non-Christian community they were serving, Lee had the idea of returning in 2009 with his extended family and co-workers.
One year later, the idea became a reality for Lee and his extended family. Returning with his wife, father, mother, brother, sister-in-law, nieces and a couple of co-workers from his dental practice in Texas, Lee and his family were prepared to make a difference in North Africa. For one week, children were bussed to the clinic from surrounding areas.
The Bridgeman family and their team assisted 2,000 children through the vision clinic, gave 600 children vision exams and 584 dental procedures including extractions, fillings and cleanings.
After returning home, Lee’s outreach has continued. Lee, and his brother, Brett, share a dental practice and as Lee shares, “Dentistry is a platform to connect with people and share spiritual truth.”
Since the mission trip, the Bridgemans have set up a slideshow in their office as a means to share with their patients how their faith is lived out on a daily basis.
“The mission trip is as much about changing the person going, as it is about changing the recipients,” explained Lee.
Lee and his family participated together in an experience that unified them and they were changed in the process.
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