Robert Sanders might be called a dentist/pastor or a pastor/dentist. He's both. He thinks of it as being bi-vocational.
Both dentistry and the life of the missionary pastor keep him busy.
Traveling the 10 miles to the Bethsaida 'Y' Baptist Church to be a shepherd of the flock isn't difficult. He once served a church and as tribal dentist for the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe on its reservation in upper New York state, an area five miles from Canada that receives 150 inches of snow fall annually.
To Sanders, wife Gail, and their family, this was their mission. And dental care was a way to help make that possible.
Robert is a native of Northeast Texas. Ore City to be exact. And Gail is the daughter of Ore City Baptist minister Bobby Phillips. She has a master's degree in allied health education. He's a dentist who describes himself as a part-time pastor but a full-time Christian.
When he went into private practice in Rusk, Texas, after graduating from the Baylor School of Dentistry in Dallas, Sanders kept attending prayer groups, especially a small one with several of his friends.
"I kept feeling that being a Christian is more than going to church," he said. "I was involved in discipleship training and especially one weekend course on 'Experiencing God' by Henry Blackaby, which was influential all across the country. That experience opened up the Bible for me, and I accepted the call to ministry."
Before long, he got the chance with a small prayer group to go on a mission trip to New York. There, the mission church heard Sanders and asked him to come back. Sanders said his wife Gail also felt the call, and off the family went with their three children-Aaron, Julie and Alex-to New York.
"We moved there in 1992 for four years, but at first it wasn't easy. When we left Rusk, we believed a guy in New York had a dental practice to sell. But when we got there, he changed his mind and we were left with little to live on. The missionary association could support us a little and the missionary church there could give us housing. But that was it. I had to find a way to work."
A dentist there said he know of no openings but said he himself had once worked for St. Regis Mohawk Tribe on its reservation.
"I went up to ask, and the tribe said they only had an opening for a dental hygienist. I said I'd take it. I needed to earn money."
But within a week, Sanders found the Mohawks were not happy with their regular tribal dentist and asked him if he would take the position.
"God had moved in a mysterious way for us," Sanders said. "The Mohawks were great to work for. A proud people who, like myself, enjoyed humor and kidding. We worked it out so that I would have four 10-hour days at the reservation and then three days off to be the missionary pastor. That lasted for three years."
Sanders also spent one year as a dentist for a prison system, and then the family came back to Texas, first in Bonham where he was employed with a state prison.
Then Sanders came to Atlanta in 1999, when he found Dr. Steve Karbowski was leaving his practice. His experience here led to another dental and missionary-like trip.
"I had been in military reserve for eight years with a dental company and in 2003 we were activated to Kuwait in the Iraqi Freedom operation. They were firing missiles when we came into Kuwait, but we didn't have to stay except for three months because there weren't many casualties.
"The best part of the story is that when I went over, some of the local dentists got together and said they needed to help take care of my practice while I was gone. They each would go to my office one day a week and take care of my patients"
Those doctors were James Stanley, Michael Giesler, Steve Pratt, Tim Hogan, Jim Bartlett and Danny Addington, Sanders said.
"This is how God provides. I could never repay them. It showed me what kind of people we have in Atlanta."
Dr. Sanders would be a visiting lay speaker in area churches and for 14 years taught Bible a Sunday School class here. Two years ago, he accepted the call to be the Bethsaida 'Y's pastor.
Dr. Sanders is a sole proprietor in his dental office. It is, like he said of his Mohawk friends, an office with a lot of smiles.
"We try to keep it lighthearted, so many come in and are nervous. Although the Bible is serious, there was a lot of joy to be around Jesus as well," said the pastor/dentist or dentist/pastor.