God
has blessed Uganda with great weather. Some nights the temperature dips to 58
degrees and days are usually less than 80° F. We have been experiencing rain
the past two weeks, & everyone is very grateful. This is the rainy season,
but it started late and many people were very concerned.
We
appreciate all the love, prayers, support & encouragement from our friends
& family back in the U.S. God has really given us much more strength &
wisdom than humanly was possible, and we praise Him!
We
have a very important new person in our family! Selah Evelyn was born to our
son Terry & his wife Allison on July 8th. This is the only picture we have
with her eyes open. We cannot wait to see her & hold her!!! Many of you
already know that Dennis’ mom’s name was Evelyn. We don't have an option to rotate the picture.
On
May 15th Dennis became the Interim Director here and our lives and home have been an arena of
activity ever since. We appreciate our dear friends, Andy & Cami Flege who
pioneered as directors here & who were very helpful in passing the baton.
Dennis has done very well, and God’s grace has been sufficient for every need.
However, we have really not had an opportunity to blog since then. Our update
follows.
We
took Andy & Cami to Kampala on July 2, which is our wedding anniversary.
The picture of them is taken in their backyard right before we left. They took
us to dinner at the Cassia Lodge in Kampala with this wonderful view. The photo
does not do it justice! The food was also fantastic! Andy and Cami flew out late
on July 3rd and we came back to Lira on July 4th. They
will return on September 25th, we will meet them in Kampala for a couple of
days & then fly out on September 28th. We plan to arrive in Tulsa on
September 29th.
Dennis
is now a “Father Figure” for the girls in one house at Calo Me Lare. The
Ugandan Ministry would like houses at an orphanage to be as much like a home as
possible. So some of the men on staff have taken responsibility to pay special
attention to the children in a certain house & see how they are doing. The
girls were so happy when they were told Dennis will be their “Father Figure”.
Below is his picture with the girls and mom in front of their house.
Pastor Fred has been visiting people in the community & doing a great work. Several people have been saved as he has visited them in their homes. This is a picture of Santa being baptized. Her son is pretty special to us, so we were so excited to hear that she was saved. And now she is baptized. She is a young widow who walks a couple of kilometers to church every week. Pastor Fred is on the right.
Dennis & I taught at a Marriage Seminar for the church at Calo Me Lare on August 19-20. It was a lot of fun and about 40 people attended each day, even though it is the season to dig. The staff also could not attend with Friday being a work day, so we praise God for the good attendance. We were amused that husbands came without their wives and wives came without their husbands...but they came! Pastor Fred thought we must have some experience to share since we just reached our 48th wedding anniversary. A couple of other pastors shared on Saturday. We had many questions to answer. Again, we thank God for what He did!
We
have a new Interim Director, Alyela Denis, from Kampala. He comes with a lot of
experience & we think he will be a great asset to Project Hope Worldwide. Please
pray for him & his family.
These are some of the morning glories that Dennis planted on the fences at Calo Me Lare a few short months ago. They are covering the fences so quickly! They make a beautiful backdrop behind the red cannas he planted last year. The staff at CML will have good memories of his labor of love.
We
thank the Lord every day for the opportunity to serve Him here. Words cannot
express what a blessing it has been in our lives. We look forward to being home
in September with family, friends & our wonderful Discovery Family. We
appreciate your prayers that God will continue to lead us. We know His plan is
always best!
Love
in Christ,
Dennis
& Margie
