Dardie Robinson has been volunteering in the dental area at Compassion Clinics since 2008. She coordinates the dental area for Tigard, Tualatin, and Beaverton Clinics and has served at 36 total Clinics over the years! We caught up with her at a recent Clinic to chat about stepping out in faith to lead, caring for people, and what keeps her coming back to serve.
I originally got involved because I was asked by Cindy Kirk to help with the Beaverton Clinic in 2008. I did that for several years and in 2012 I was asked to lead dental. My response was, “I don’t know anything about dental,” but I learned quickly (sometimes). I’ve been leading dental ever since, sometimes two or three or four times a year.
It Takes Only a Willing Heart to Serve
I would never have been leading at a Clinic if somebody hadn’t told me they thought I would be good at it because it never occurred to me because I have no experience in dental (other than opening my mouth and saying, “ahhh”).
But once I jumped in, I had this wonderful dental student who agreed to be my dental translator. I did need a dental translator because I didn’t know what everything was. I called everything tools, and I guess you’re supposed to call them instruments.
But what I do know how to do is talk to people. I do know how to make the ask. You may say no to me, but I am going to keep asking. That is my strength. I know how to make the ask. I know how to love people. I know how to care for them. And I try to care for them well.
To Love and Believe In Them
One of the things I believe in is that I don’t just love the guest. I love my volunteers. I love my professionals. Probably 50 percent of my team are not people that you would ever find in a church. But I love them and they love me back and they keep coming.
These people come clinic after clinic and have spent long, long hours. Some of them came all the way to India with us [for the Compassion India Clinics]. And one of the ladies who worked the hardest in India is not a Christian. She is a Buddhist. And that woman was working 12 hour days, standing on her feet, cleaning people’s teeth. People do unbelievable things if you love them and believe in them.
“You have to realize that many of the people we care for at these Clinics, both volunteers and guests, may never walk in the door of a church. Their only option to see that kind of love and to see what Jesus means is through us during that period of time.”
Patience to Walk Alongside Another
The last clinic that I did was three or four months ago and it was in Tigard. I had a guest who was absolutely freaking out and she had a really, really tough life. And I just took her hands and held them so that she couldn’t keep reaching up and grabbing things out of the dentist’s hands.
And I just started talking to her and loving on her and telling her how lucky she was to have Dr. Mori working on her. That he was one of the kindest, gentlest men I know and that everyone there at the Clinic was there to take care of her and to love her and help her through this.
I stayed with her for over an hour because she had multiple procedures that were fairly in-depth. And it’s that kind of love and care that they get here that they may not get somewhere else. You have to realize that many of the people we care for at these clinics, both volunteers and guests, may never walk in the door of a church. Their only option to see that kind of love and to see what Jesus means is through us during that period of time.
Related Post- A Space that Makes Room For Everyone: Compassion Clinic Stories
Opening the Doors to Meet People Where they Are
The clinics give people an opportunity. They give churches an opportunity to see the need that is actually right outside their door. I see churches all the time who absolutely have no idea what is going on in the lives of the people on the same block as their church.
And so we open up our doors and we go where they are, not necessarily inside of a church, but we go to their school. We go to their stadium. We go to where they are. And we say to them, “let us help you in tangible ways.”
And I have said for years and I will continue to say, no one can hear you tell them Jesus loves them if their teeth hurt. You take away the pain in their tooth and then they’ll be able to hear what you’re saying because then they feel what you’re saying. And so we have to walk out of the doors of those churches and take care of the people that are hurting and that are in desperate circumstances right inside our neighborhoods.
I know that on the day of the Clinic, I can’t meet everyone’s needs. But for the people that I can, I make a difference. And for the people that I have to turn away, they know that they were turned away with love, that they were given options and that I really care about what they need and what is happening to them.
“No one can hear you tell them Jesus loves them if their teeth hurt. You take away the pain in their tooth and then they’ll be able to hear what you’re saying because then they feel what you’re saying. And so we have to walk out of the doors of those churches and take care of the people that are hurting and that are in desperate circumstances right inside our neighborhoods.”
Building a House of Love
I always look at it as I’m only one person, but when there’s multiple of me…when we all get together, when we all band together it’s amazing what we can do together. It’s just like when I was building my own house literally from the ground up. I would build a wall laying down and then my neighbors would come and help me push that wall up into place. I can’t push that wall up into place by myself. It’s too heavy. But if I have half a dozen people, we can push a whole wall of a house up into position. It’s the same way with the Clinic by myself. What good would I be?
Nobody’s going to let me do an extraction (not if they’re sensible). Nobody’s going to let me do a restoration. Lord knows I’ve tried. They won’t! They’ve taught me how to do sterilization so I can at least do that and pretend like I’m useful. But my thing is I bring them all together and then I love on them and I get them what they need to the best of my ability. I help and encourage them. They’re the ones doing the work. I’m just the ringleader.
Related Post- Jesus’ Hands and Feet: My Compassion Clinic Experience
Leading by Faith
I still don’t feel like I have the skills. I didn’t choose to lead, I was asked to lead and I stepped into a breach. I just keep doing it because my volunteers keep coming back to help me. And as long as they’re willing to come back and serve with me, I’m willing to come back and serve. But all I am, all I do, really is make the ask. I make a lot of asks!
I have very limited time because I have a very busy, hectic work schedule with a lot of travel. I live my life in what I call point one. Point one is six minutes. That’s how you live your life when you’re in my line of work. I can make a phone call. I can send a text, I can send an email, and I do those during the little bits and corners of my day.
And so through those media and through those little microseconds, whatever it is you’re doing–you’ve come home and you’re exhausted, you’ve thrown yourself down on the couch, you can still do those little teeny tiny things.
You can still do those little, teeny, tiny things that bring it all together because you just have to get everybody together on the day of the event. And I will tell you, I never know for sure who’s going to come on the day of the event. There’s all these things that happen, but I have learned it doesn’t matter. It’s going to go off. It’s going to be wonderful. My job is just to not get stressed, not get excited. Even when the hoses are left in Arizona and the dental clinic is happening in Oregon, it still works out. People go to Home Depot, they MacGyver things together. It works. My job is just to be the encourager and to be the asker.
I have no technical knowledge. I have no technical experience. I am a disaster mechanically. But, yeah, I can make the ask. I’m a mom who just adopts 110 children in my dental team and then I adopt all the patients too.
Dardie and her signature propeller hat at a recent Compassion Clinic
Together We Rise
Even if we as humans make a mistake, God uses it. God uses everything. And we just have to trust him that he will take my humanness and make something beautiful out of it.
I always think of myself as a small child with loads of dandelions that I picked outside running to God and showing him what I’ve brought him. And then he takes it just like a good mother would and he trims it up and puts it in a vase and makes it beautiful. That’s what God does. God takes all of my ineptness. But he somehow uses it because people all realize they have to rescue me because otherwise I’m going to fail miserably and they make it a success.
I am not a health professional. My job is to make connections. I have a paralegal who leads dental registration. I have a former attorney from Mexico who leads dental translation. I have the OHSU army, all of the dental students. I have an insurance salesman who always helps out and volunteers for me. We have housewives, we have dental brokers who don’t know how to do dental things, but they can bring me dental toothpaste and everybody all bands together, and there is something for everyone to do.
“I was carrying stuff out to my car at the end of a very long day, I think it was like 16 hours at that point. And this lady drove up in her car who I had seen earlier that day and she jumped out of her car and hugged me and wanted me to see her smile. And she says “this is the first time in nearly 50 years that I could smile.””
The Moments that Make It All Worth It
I want to say it was 2016 and it was the Compassion Clinic at Tigard High School. It was the end of the day and I was exhausted and spent and I’d had to turn away people, which is always very emotional for me. And I was wondering (I always wonder this), I was wondering “why I do this?” So frequently when you’re tired and you’re spent you wonder.
I was carrying stuff out to my car at the end of a very long day, I think it was like 16 hours at that point. And this lady drove up in her car who I had seen earlier that day and she jumped out of her car and hugged me and wanted me to see her smile.
And she says “this is the first time in nearly 50 years that I could smile.” Bridget had added her to her workload and made her a flipper (partial denture) even though we really didn’t have room for her. That is one of those things that keeps me going.
Related Post- A Life Transformed by Love: Larry’s Story
Making a Difference By Making Relationships
You know, there are lots of people out there who will tell you you did a bad job. There’s lots of people out there who will tell you how you can do the job better. There’s not a lot of people out there who just say, “wow, you did such a great job. It was so exciting. I was so glad to be part of it. I want to do it with you again.”
That’s what keeps me going. Somebody told me I did a good job. This is something where I can make a difference–and I can make a difference not only for my guests, but for my doctors and my assistants and my hygienists. I can let them know how valuable they are and how deeply we appreciate them.
A Safety Net for Our Neighbors
We are a safety net for those people who don’t have one in any government program. There are a lot of people out there who aren’t covered under the various federal and state programs. We are their safety net.
We get them past that crucial abscess. We get them past that big cavity in their head that’s throbbing every day. We get them that pair of glasses so that they can drive their car again safely. We get them past those things that they cannot afford to do for themselves.
There was a time many years ago when I ended up a single mom with six kids and I was sleeping on the floor of a two bedroom house because that’s what I had to do at that point in time to survive. I had the resources and the ability to get past that untoward event. But many people don’t have that.
“I know that on the day of the Clinic, I can’t meet everyone’s needs. But for the people that I can, I make a difference.”
I often think of my middle son who had some limitations intellectually. Before he died, whenever he needed somebody to help him with this or that or an appeal with the insurance company’s denial of his coverage or whatever, he had me.
When I’m taking care of these guests, I’m taking care of the guests who don’t have a mom who can step in and bridge that gap for them. So I’m in a sense, taking the place that their mom would if she could.
Many people just don’t have the ability, the knowledge, or the resources. And so we are an important safety net for the people in our community.
-Dardie Robinson
