Dr. Grace Smart sold her pediatric dental practice in 2014 and set out to help as many people as possible through full-time mission work. She was already accustomed to the work, having been on many mission trips on a part-time basis, but felt that God was calling her to make a full-time commitment. Work was difficult in the countries she visited. Facilities, equipment and supplies were scarce. Her Garland office experience had not quite prepared her for the 
shock.
On her first trip, the dental chair was a plastic chair placed in the corner and the light was one that clipped to her glasses. Instead of suction, she had gauze.
“I knew it was going to be hard. I didn’t do complicated extractions in my office so I wasn’t used to that. And, I wouldn’t be exclusively seeing children during my mission trips,” she said. “I started praying that God would give me simpler cases, easier teeth to take out. But He got me through it with lots of prayer. I knew then that I could help people. The anxiety was less after that first trip.”
Smart talked about a lady that she treated in Kenya. The patient had three badly abscessed teeth that needed to be removed and God got Smart through the difficult procedure. After the patient recovered, she went to the mission church because she wanted to know more about the God that had brought this dentist to her country.
“She came to know the Lord,” Smart said. “She got involved in the church and later two of her sisters also got involved. “Doing this work is an incredible privilege. It has deepened my relationship with the Lord.”
Smart now feels called to provide much needed help to underserved local residents at a nonprofit dental center.
“My goal is to have volunteer dentists and hygienists,” Smart said. “I’ve already had several local dentists, dental hygienists and dental assistants say that they want to help.”
She also hopes to have a volunteer optometrist.
It will take a lot of help to get the center going. Cash donations and grants are needed as well as dental and vision equipment, office furniture and equipment, etc. Volunteers with various skills such as carpentry, painting, plumbing and electrical will be needed as well. Architect Tom Huch has generously donated his design services.
Construction on the new facility, The Grace Center, should begin by the end of the year. The center will provide general dentistry as a faith-based ministry.
In the interim, Lavon Drive Baptist Church will provide space so that Smart can begin helping folks in a couple of months. During that time, she will have one dental chair and an optometrist one day per week. This facility should be open this summer.
In addition to Smart’s mission trips she made a generous donation in 1998 when she gave the land where the Achievement Center of Texas is and served on the ACT board for five years. She said that she knew what to do with the land through a series of “God-prompted” conversations and events.
Smart has been on 28 mission trips in 10 years and has one scheduled for this summer. She has been to Cambodia, Greece, Philippines, Vietnam, Dominican Republic, Haitii, Romania, Egypt, Panama, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Ivory Coast and Kenya.
The name of her nonprofit is Grace in Healing Hands.