It will soon be the month of October, and for many of us it will just be another month naturally coming by, but for Christopher Jen Kin of Salinas, California he says, “I’m expecting [Vietnam] to be a life-changing trip.”
Jen Kin, 31, is a dental graduate of University of the Pacific in San Francisco. He divides his time between his dental practice and teaching dental students fixed prosthodontics. Kin had always wanted to go to Vietnam, but felt unprepared for the journey until now;
“Ever since my dad mentioned going along to Vietnam, I’ve wanted to do it, but mentally, I was not prepared [but] my dad has prepared me.”
He is excited and anticipates that this will be an experience unlike any other if not life changing itself. Kin feels ready and eager for a new journey beyond the comfortable walls of his dental suite and will be joined by many others from a church in Los Angelos. The mission team will begin at Ho Chi Minh City and they will then travel to a remote village 8 hours away. Kin expects that he will witness many individuals who are unable to afford dental care and therefore will see periodontal diseases in levels hes never seen before.
“The remote reaches of Vietnam, after all, sit worlds removed from his daily comfort zone — in terms of the heat and oppressive humidity, in terms the primitive working conditions, the quality of dental equipment and the universal severity of dental problems [1].”
Christopher Jen Kin sends a clear message to all when is says, “You have people in many parts of the world with zero access to dental care and my family always stressed that we have certain gifts and that we should not waste those.”
“Help people, in other words. It would be a slap in the face [of providence] not to do anything.”
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