The Medical Dental Unit (MDU) has been making people smile since 2013. The “40-foot evangelism tool” is a mobile unit customized to provide free, limited medical and dental care to those in need. However, MDU is more than a traveling dentist or minute-clinic. It’s a ministry, whose core longing is to have gospel conversations in hopes of spiritual transformation.
MDU is overseen by Amy Fairchild, MDU Coordinator and Family Nurse Practitioner, and operates because of our faithful, hard-working team of volunteers. When asked about working with MDU, Fairchild mentioned,
“TennCare (Tennessee’s Medicaid program) doesn’t cover dental for adults, so there is a great need for dental services in our area. We partner with local churches, whether it’s our eight campuses or another local church. The reason we do that is because we want to see disciples making disciples. We don’t want to just pull someone’s tooth or even share Jesus and then leave them. We want to get them plugged into a local church.”
Debbie Breeden, wife to the Senior Executive Pastor of Brentwood Baptist, enjoys volunteering with the MDU team and supports all of its efforts. She shared,
“The Medical Dental Unit is such a great resource that our church has because we get to go out into the community. When people come in the unit, we get to love on them and share Jesus with them. We get to meet medical needs, but more than anything, we get to share Jesus.
In 2019 alone, the MDU team had 29 outreach events. Through those events, 757 patients were cared for and 47 people gave their lives to Christ. By caring for the physical needs of our community, God gets all the glory as His name is made known. Fairchild mentioned,
“There are those moments where you just stand amazed that God’s at work. Just the other week, we had someone that was in a spiritual search. It was the tooth pain that brought them in, but they got to hear the gospel. We can clearly see that God is at work in our community and bringing gospel transformation to people’s lives. I am excited to see what is to come and the awesome things that God does in the coming year, as well as see the lives that we get to serve through MDU.”
When asked about how our church can help, Breeden answered,
“We need all sorts of volunteers. We need dentists and hygienists, as well as nurses and assistants. We also need people to do registration. We need people to have gospel conversations. We need people who are willing to walk around and love on others where they are at.”
Last year, 371 volunteers served with the MDU team. Maybe it’s time for you to join us in serving our community in a beautiful way. Put a smile on someone’s face by signing up today to be a part of what God is doing right here in Middle Tennessee.