Greetings From Cool Uganda!!!

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 3^rd and we came back to Lira on July 4^th. 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