'Blessed beyond measure'

LLU alumni and students contribute decades of service at Seoul Adventist Dental Hospital

Dr. and Mrs. J. Raymond Wahlen Pose for a portrait in 1994.

He saw a need for dental care in Seoul, Korea, and spent his life filling that need. What started in 1960 as one dental operatory with cobbled-together equipment has now grown into an impressive new dental hospital with inpatient wards and up to 40 dentists.

Being a pioneer was nothing new to J. Raymond Wahlen, DDS, MS. He was in the first School of Dentistry graduating class (1957); he was the first dental alumnus to serve as a missionary (1960); and he was the first to complete the oral surgery graduate program at Loma Linda (1966).

Dr. Wahlen learned firsthand of the need for dentists in Korea. In one life-changing day, he graduated from LLU and was inducted into the Army. The next month he married his sweetheart, Vicky Miller, and the Army sent him to Korea. Mrs. Wahlen stayed at Loma Linda to complete her nursing degree in 1958, then joined him in Korea, teaching in the School of Nursing at Seoul Adventist Hospital.

On weekends, Adventist servicemen would come to the mission to spend Sabbath. The Wahlens joined small groups going to nearby villages, teaching and telling stories to the children, while the dentists pulled teeth. "We'd do that for hours because some folks had such poor dental care that their teeth had rotted to the gum line," says Mrs. Wahlen. "The idea of helping people who had such a desperate need for dental care versus coming home and taking care of people whose needs weren't as acute really appealed to Ray. He just fell in love with the people and felt he could make a bigger difference there."

Following his military service, the couple applied to the Adventist Church to be missionaries in Korea and were accepted.

"Our first ten months there were spent in language school," says Mrs. Wahlen.

Dr. Wahlen cares for a Korean patient while her young child watches.

"While in school, Ray helped with putting an extension onto an existing building to be a dental clinic. This was soon after the war, and there was no equipment available. In an old storage area, Ray found an old dental chair that he and a man in the motor pool took apart, cleaned off the rust, re-covered, and put back together again. A #10 can and a piece of pipe became a cuspidor, and his sink was an old light fixture, turned upside down."

The Wahlens continued their village outreach, holding dental clinics and Bible schools. "We followed that up with an evangelistic series in a tent in the bitterly cold winter," says Mrs. Wahlen. "One of the first five who were baptized from that original series is now an officer of the Korean Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. Ray also served as the dental secretary for the Far Eastern Division, and started continuing dental education meetings."

"I had the privilege of working in the Far Eastern Division under Ray's leadership," says James Crawford, DDS, a 1960 School of Dentistry alumnus and executive associate dean of the School. "He was a tall man with a winning personality and a warm smile. Ray had a positive spirit and always sought to be part of an ongoing project. He was a man dedicated to his family and his God, and spent a good part of his too-brief life serving his community and his church."

Dr. Wahlen lost the fight with cancer in 1995. His progressive spirit--with a passion for service--lives on, however, in the ever-expanding work of dental missions. The new clinic in Seoul is a monument to this pioneer.

The Wahlens had three children. Steven Wahlen, MD, graduated from LLU in 1989 and is a radiation oncologist in Grass Valley. Judy Wahlen Rich, RN, MSN, graduated from the School of Nursing in 1988 and is married to Brian Rich, MD, a School of Medicine alumnus from 1989; they live in Walla Walla, Washington. Ray Wahlen II is vice president for finance for the Washington Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.

The new dental hospital is a valued destination for service learning among LLU students--as was the previous smaller clinic. As a little boy, Young Lee remembers being taken to the Seoul dental clinic. "A doctor from the States made me an appliance for my underbite," he says, "but I kept losing it. He remade it for me four times, without complaint."

Young Lee and his family moved to the United States 15 years ago, and he is now a senior in the School of Dentistry. Last summer, he spent a month of service learning at the Seoul Adventist Dental Hospital.

"I did a lot of surgical extractions there; as students, we don't get many at LLU," he remembers. "Also, to show their respect, people bring gifts, like cakes and sodas."

Herman Q. L. Montgomery, DDS, graduated from LLU in 1962 and went to Seoul in 1980 as a dental missionary. His son, Monté E. Montgomery, DDS, a 1992 School of Dentistry graduate, says, "My parents put four boys through school, and when they put me in college they decided to go to the mission field. They spent 15 years in Seoul. During my sophomore year in college, they invited me to spend a year with them. Some of my most memorable times were going out in the countryside as a family and doing free clinics."

He met his future wife, Bhang Chun ("Snow"), during that year. They spent six years in Seoul as dental missionaries. "Probably 90 to 95 percent of my patients were Korean nationals," he says. "I also treated a lot of individuals from Seoul embassies." He is now in private practice in Roseburg, Oregon. "We'd still be in Seoul if it weren't for schooling the kids," he says. "Christiana is 15 and Austin is 8."

When asked if she would recommend mission service to others, Mrs. Wahlen replies, "Only if it's something that God lays on their hearts; then they will be blessed beyond measure."

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