Smiling faces and shouts of joy greet a white-coated man as he stoops to enter the rough corrugated-metal shack. Wall to wall students are seated on the dirt floor as he gingerly makes his way to the front of the classroom and launches into a story. He deftly weaves a message of hygiene and obedience to mother into the story. The students listen intently, drinking in every word. Without this school, without this man, most would not be getting an education.

The man in the white coat is Dr. Milan Moskala, a dentist. He heads the Adventist Dental Clinic in Bangladesh.

More than Dentistry

In the late 1990s, Dr. Moskala was operating from a mobile dental clinic in Bosnia fulfilling his childhood dream. “It was my desire to be a missionary since childhood,” he says. “I wanted to work for God full time, to be His servant, and be used by Him for salvation. I wanted to unite health, medical and gospel ministry.”

In Bosnia, Dr. Moskala traveled from village to village and refugee camp to refugee camp with the mobile dental clinic providing dental care to returning refugees. Although the war was over, there was sporadic shooting in the area and people still lived with fear. “God protected us,” he says of that time. He distributed toothpaste and toothbrushes, but also food and medicine.

One day, he recalls people stopping the dental van and asking for help. “They used exactly the same words Paul heard in his vision from Macedonia,” he recalls. Even though he wasn’t scheduled to visit their village, Dr. Moskala prayed, “Please Lord, show us how to work in this place.” Before long he started work there.

Dr. Moskala saw needs that went far beyond dental care. He began writing home about the needs and soon churches in the Czech Republic started sending help. Soon he was holding stop smoking seminars and classes on coping with stress. He also started holding evangelistic meetings. After one of his early meetings, a teacher came to him and said bitterly, “It’s impossible for us to forgive our neighbors because they killed our family members.” When the series ended, this same woman came to him and asked, “Do you see changes in me?”He responded, “I see in your face you are thinking differently.” She replied, “I see now it is possible to find peace.”

For many children, their short lives had been filled with fear and violence. Dr. Moskala started camps for children with races and prizes, games, singing and stories. His first camp for children made such an impact, the community begged for something similar for older youth. Dr. Moskala ran three camps before leaving Bosnia.

Mission Bangladesh

Dr. Moskala came to Bangladesh in 1998. He was joined by his wife, Eva, a registered nurse who assists at the dental clinic, and 13-year-old daughter Gabriela. Dr. Moskala studied at Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic. This part of the world was very different from his home country.

Once known as East Pakistan, Bangladesh is home to some 174 million people. Eighty-three percent of the population is Muslim. Some 16 percent are Hindu. Less than 1 percent are Christians.

The Adventist Dental Clinic is a modern facility with five dental chairs, x-ray capabilities and a dental lab. The clinic’s patients include business people, foreign embassy staff, and government workers. Each day the staff of seven sees some 20 patients. A satellite dental clinic with a second dentist and one chair operates in Mirpur. The two dentists also have a portable dental chair that allows them to visit neighborhoods.

Operating this dental clinic is more than a full-time job. But Dr. Moskala still finds time to do more. In 2001, he and his wife started holding English language church services in the dental clinic waiting room. And he started schools for children in the poorer districts of the city. He coordinated with various volunteers, Global Mission pioneers, Gospel Outreach workers, and 1000 Missionary movement workers.

One day after preaching at an Adventist church, Dr. Moskala was talking with a group of church members. Two young men, recent graduates of the Adventist school were looking for work.

“God inspired me,” Dr. Moskala says. “I had never before thought like this.

I said, ‘you have a building empty during the week. There are so many children who have no education. You don’t have to sit home doing nothing. Use your education.”

Dr. Moskala was expecting to start the school in a few months, but the two young men had caught his vision.

Within a week, the two young men had started a small school for neighborhood children. On the first day, 30 children showed up for school. Dr. Moskala paid the teachers’ salaries out of his own pocket. The children started learning reading, writing and basic math skills. They charged nothing for the children to attend the school.

With Dr. Moskala’s encouragement, some 10 schools were opened this way. Most of the schools have more than 50 students.

“Dr. Milan Moskala is not only a good professional dentist here in Bangladesh, but also a committed and people-oriented missionary,” says Siegfried Mayr, president of the 17,000-member Bangladesh Union Mission. “He can mingle with individuals from a high-level of society, but at the same time, he has a rare sensitivity and a special sympathy for needy people including the outcasts of society.He naturally blends health and spiritual ministry as part of his lifestyle.”

Dr. Moskala’s love of mission is also known back in his homeland. “We are really grateful to God for brother Milan Moskala and his important mission in Bangladesh,” says Pavel Simek, president of the Czecho-Slovakian Union. “We are enormously interested in his work and experiences. His work is an encouragement for our churches in our Czecho-Slovak Union. His work as well as the work of other missionary workers and pastors in mission work makes us connected with the whole world Adventist movement.”

Dr. Moskala is one of the nearly 800 Seventh-day Adventists around the world supported by your mission offerings. Thank you!