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Buoyed by faith, couple become medical missionaries
By A.J. Renner

Jay and Donna Maxfield’s first mission could have been their last. The United Methodist couple went to Haiti with a group from a church about 13 years ago. They were to build a wharf for a small island village.

In the island village, the Maxfields became desperately ill, with pounding hearts and fevers of 103 degrees, and had to return to the main island. On the way back to the village, winds nearly capsized the boat Donna Maxfield was in. Though they made it through, all the passengers became terribly seasick.

It would have been easy to abandon missions after that. But the couple found themselves drawn outside the United States by their belief in God, again and again—to Costa Rica, Kenya, Uganda, India, Peru, Ecuador, and Paraguay.

“When you finally make a commitment to go out of your comfort zone—that’s a commitment,” said Jay Maxfield, a dentist.

Two years ago, Maxfield sold his practice in order to devote himself full time to missions. His wife, a former teacher, accompanies him.

Why?

“Just to serve the Lord,” said Maxfield.

Holistic ministry
Maxfield is the vice president of dental ministries for MEDICS International, or “Ministry, Evangelism and Discipleship In Christ’s Service,” a nondenominational Christian ministry based in Oklahoma. Donna Maxfield is the vice president of women’s ministry.

Maxfield describes the ministry as “holistic.” “We’re interested in caring for the physical body and the spiritual aspect of each person,” he said. “We use dentistry as a bridge into a community of unreached people.”

Missionaries from the host country travel with the dental staff. Patients are not required to attend classes or church services to receive care, Maxfield said.

But “we find that most people are interested. They stick around,” he said. “Just the fact that we’ve given up the comforts of home gets their attention. They say ‘Hmmm...wonder why they’re over here?’”

Maxfield operates and educates, both in dental procedure and Bible doctrine. Donna Maxfield divides her time among assisting her husband, teaching English as a second language, community health evangelism, and the women’s ministry.

The couple recently ministered in Ecuador. They made the trip on their own rather than with MEDICS International.

The Mission Aviation Fellowship, a California-based Christian mission, delivered the Maxfields to a remote location in the Amazon basin. It will require two airplanes to deliver their equipment, including a generator and an air compressor.

The Maxfield’s schedule calls for them to spend a week in a village, rest a weekend in a small town on the edge of the jungle, then spend another week in a village.

The lifestyle is hard for Americans to envision.

“Try to imagine living without running water, without electricity, no newspaper, no cell phone, no microwave,” he said. “Eliminate everything. You cook over an open fire. You have one or two pots and pans, maybe two sets of clothing, and you live off the land.”

Maxfield’s dental operatory is usually a hut. The dentist’s chair can be a school desk or a bench, or a teacher’s desk. “Put a blanket down and a roll of paper towels for a pillow and away we go,” he said.

Mostly he does extractions, sometimes easing years of toothaches. Occasionally, he can reconstruct a tooth.

In areas without dentists, he teaches nurses to administer anesthesia, and to pull teeth in a way that causes less pain.

A higher calling
Despite the relief they bring with the dental ministry, it is the evangelism that attracts both.

“If we just fix a tooth, that’s good,” said Maxfield. “If we can share the gospel with them, and they have a certainty of going to heaven, then we’ve done something for their eternal position.”

In Ecuador, Donna Maxfield hopes to teach English as a second language, and classes on mime and puppeteering. But on other missions, it is the women’s ministry and the community health evangelism that really stir her spirit.

“The impact on the family is the greatest when you can reach the women, the mothers,” she said. “They’re the ones who are raising the future of the country.”

In many cultures, women’s self-esteem is “just zero,” she added. She tries to raise that self-esteem, using a biblical perspective.

Still, she is careful not to overstep the bounds. “We’re not there to get into the politics of the country.”

Some groups believe Christianity and the Bible subjugate women. Donna Maxfield disputes that.

“Paul,  Jesus, and God are not against women, in fact they elevated them more than their society at that time tolerated. It’s been misunderstood.”

Through community health evangelism, she trains nationals to be community activists.

“That’s one area where we can help the women realize their potential,” she said.

Once trained, these men and women meet with a community and help it identify and solve its problems. For example, they might dig latrines so children don’t get parasites.

Home ministry
The Maxfields, who have three adult sons, spend about six months of the year abroad.

When at home, they work on their 130-acre property, participate in their church, Dueber UM Church in Canton, Ohio, and round up support for their ministry.

Last year, the Maxfields helped raise $1 million for a MEDICS International project called the Fire Line, working with “The Prayer of Jabez” author Bruce Wilkinson. It aims to educate and equip 1,000 pastors by 2004, and 2,000 pastors by 2010, deploying them in a line across Africa.

Maxfield also works at the Canton Community Clinic. His salary goes directly to MEDICS International to pay for his airfare and living expenses while on the missions.

Last week, the husband-wife team shipped 150 pounds of donated medications —some nearing or just past their expiration date—to MEDICS International’s medication repository. From there, it will go to nations in need.

Maxfield and the clinic are looking for a truck and driver to pick up about 13 dentist’s chairs, donated to the clinic by dentists who retired or upgraded their offices. The chairs must be taken to an agency in Texas, which will send them abroad.

Dangers abroad
Though they have not gone to the countries flagged as most dangerous by the State Department to date, the Maxfields have encountered hostility to Christianity. Their first night in India in 2001, Indian missionaries moved them away from their hotel when they were told Muslims began a protest across the street.

On a different occasion in India, Maxfield and other missionaries were summoned to the police department for performing public baptisms. Hindus had protested, and the missionaries were reprimanded for not registering with the district.

Still, they place their faith in God.

“The best place to be is in the middle of God’s will, right in the center of the middle of God’s will. When you’re there, you’re safe,” said Jay Maxfield.

“I could be killed up on the highway tomorrow, just as easily as I could in a little plane over the jungle, and I would much rather be in that little plane, doing what I am called to do,” his wife added.

A.J. Renner is a staff writer with the Canton (Ohio) Repository. This article is reprinted by permission of the Repository.



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