Christ First Forum

August 15, 2011

It’s hard to smile without top teeth. It’s hard to eat, it’s hard to talk, it’s hard to get a job and it’s hard to feel good about yourself.

So when Kamloops Evangelical-free Church youth pastor met a man whose dentures had been stolen at a soup kitchen, he felt compelled to do something.

Shawn Wagner said he met Terry McLean last November, when he started showing up at the coffee cart the church’s youth group runs Wednesday nights on Tranquille Road.

“He’s just very personable. He’s very open about his life. Some people, it takes two, three times to get comfortable, get to know us. Terry was comfortable immediately,” he said.

“He was just Terry.”

McLean is 46, has no criminal record or addictions in his past, but openly talks about his difficulties with depression, said Wagner. He collects bottles to make some money because he can’t get a job.

Well, like the old shampoo commercial where someone tells two friends, and they tell two friends, and so on, and so on, Wagner told some family and friends about McLean and his hard life.

One of Wagner’s friends who works at a YM/YWCA branch in Vancouver started a Help Me Smile Again fund for Terry’s teeth. Two of his nephews on Vancouver Island held a guy’s night, playing cards and hanging out, and gathered donations from those who attended.

Between the scattered fundraising and the generosity of a dentist and denturist, McLean is now smiling again.

He got his new upper dentures a week ago.

“I was just talking to him today (Thursday). He sent me a picture of his first smile with the new teeth,” said Wagner.

Wagner and McLean text each other several times a week, even if they don’t see each other. The youth pastor said McLean knows where he’s coming from.

“He’s become a friend. He knows what I’m about. He’s got a lot of questions about god. We have an open dialogue about things. He knows I care about him genuinely.”
http://www.kamloopsnews.ca/article/2011 ... ing-friend