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My Story
I have always loved God’s creation. I studied Marine Biology, Geology and Entomology in college and always assumed that would be my career path. My wife, Katy, and I moved to Virginia after college where she joined her father in practicing dentistry and I veered off my intended path of science to join the family business on the managerial side. We met Bradley Edmondson at a missions conference in our home church, Heritage Baptist, and shortly after we attended our first Medical Missions Outreach trip in 2014. This was something we knew we would be doing again before we returned home. I was immediately impressed by how so many individuals were using their gifts and career training for God’s glory and I looked forward to being more of a part of it myself.
We traveled with MMO a few more times and started collaborating with other dental professionals that were attending trips and aided in resupplying materials for future trips. During this time, I was convicted through preaching that God had a use for me and my skill set as well, and I prayed for a long time that He would show me that path. In my mind, this was going to have to do with my love for science, but through a course of events it became very clear to me that God had put me in a profession that I did not intend to follow in order to use me for His greater work. I began officially working on staff with MMO in 2019 as the dental coordinator.
Our teams resumed mission trips as soon as we could following the world-wide pandemic and the dental field of MMO has grown. What I initially was able to accomplish as a volunteer has grown into a larger position and our capacity of providing dental care around the world has increased as well, both requiring funding and support. During one of our trips to the Dominican Republic in 2022 I was convicted to step into a part-time missionary role and to seek support for a growing dental field that we want to see expand to much greater proportions.
The need for dental care around the world is astounding. There is a lack of access to care due to limited (or no) availability of dental professionals or simply a lack of resources to obtain that care for much of the world. The World Health Organization estimates that nearly half of the world’s population suffers from some type of oral disease (including cavities, periodontal disease, etc.) which is far more people than the combination of the five other major non communicable diseases. The potential to reach these people with dental care while also sharing the gospel is equally as astounding. The missionaries and host churches we work with have seen this need and are aching to meet it. Over and over we are asked, “Are you bringing a dental team?” They understand how reaching their communities with the gospel through dentistry is a powerful way to care for the lost.
God has given me a background in the dental field to prepare me for this role! I will travel with MMO dental teams around the world to mobilize teams of dental professionals, oversee clinics, manage equipment and supplies, and do whatever else I can to ensure the highest quality of dental care while enabling local churches to share with each patient about Jesus Christ. I plan on actively recruiting more dental professionals in the United States so that we can increase the number of teams that travel and the number of patients seen, while also maintaining supplies and equipment and planning logistics for future mission trips. I hope to partner with as many churches as I can in order to complete this assignment and in order to receive the prayer support that is vital to the success of MMO dentistry.
I would like to invite you to partner with my family and me as we tell others of the Great Physician. We need prayer and provision to complete the work God has called us to do. Would you partner with us?
If you are able to help financially, you can give online by using the form below, or by mailing in checks to:
Medical Missions Outreach
Account #114
289 Jonesboro Rd, Suite 364
McDonough, GA 30253
Thank you, and God bless.
Tom Smith Family
