What an Honor!!!

I have the honor and privilege on Wednesday, February 27th, to preach at my home church - First Baptist Church of Bossier City.


I was member there from 1979 to 1990. I am where I am today because of the godly influence that many people from that church had on my life. Ultimately, I give God all the glory because of what he was able to do through those people and what He has accomplished through me.


If you are in the area, I would love to see you there. The service starts at 6:00 pm.

Not Much has Happened

Well, it's Saturday afternoon, I've checked the mail, and I am still waiting. I was told that something should happen in 4-5 business days. I guess, this is the 4th day, but not a business day.

I did get some good news in that I should be able to take my 'civics' test and oath all on one day. What day that is, I should find out early next week some time.

I would ask you to continue to pray for Jody as she is handling things ok, but there are several things that has dealt with that I usually take care of. First, our internet service was down until Tuesday. We've got painters at the house. The water started to back up into the house. The lawn mower is not working - its summertime in South Africa.

So, I am ready to go home and be home and take care of the stuff that I need to take care of.

Thanks for your continued prayers.

They have my fingerprints

I went to my appointment in Dallas today to have my fingerprints taken. Boy, was that fun. I drove 2 hours to only be finished in 20 minutes. I walked in the door at 11 am, filled out a form, waited for 10 minutes, got my prints taken and processed, filled out a 'customer service' form and walked out at 11:20. Can't beat that, if only the whole process would be that efficient.

Now, I just have to wait for the mail to tell me when I need to come back to take the test. I am not sure if I will take the test and then have to come back to take the oath or if they do it all in the same day. Just continue to pray that this process will not keep me here much longer. It is not much fun without my family here. I don't have Jody here to protect me from my mother-in-law!

I will keep you informed as I find out. Again, thanks for your prayers.

Back in the USA

Unbelieveable!!! I am a back in America. "I" is Dennis.

Less than a month back on the field, I get notification from Immigration that my appointment for fingerprints and the FBI is set for 19 February. So, through several days of scurrying around, email, telephone conversations with the Legal Department of the IMB (for which I a thankful), I arrived in Shreveport at noon on Sunday.

I will travel to Dallas on Tuesday morning and hopefully receive notification on Friday or next Monday for a Test and Oath ceremony appointment in a couple of days. After that, comes expedited service for a US Passport. I am here through 5 March which hopefully is a large enough window to get everything accomplished. The IMB has been in contact with my Representative's office and Immigration trying to get everything expedited.

I would ask you to pray for Jody as she is by herself with all the children in Mmabatho.
Pray for this process that it would be quicker than we are expecting and I can get home sooner than planned. It would cost me to change my ticket, but it would be worth it to get back sooner. It's not as fun to be here by yourself without your family.

I do praise the Lord that we found a ticket that was as cheap as any ticket I found online and that I purchased 24 hours before my trip. It was a non-stop trip from Jo-burg to Atlanta to Shreveport - about 25 hours. It was incomparable to our 35 hour trip a month ago through Frankfurt.

I will keep you posted to my progress. Again, thanks for all your prayers.

Here's the Latest

It seems like several months that we were rushing through the airport on the 16th trying not to be late to our flight. It was delayed about an hour, so we had time to catch our breath and prepare ourselves for the next 32 hours. Picture 2 adults, 3 sons, and 2 daughters carrying, pulling, and pushing 14 ‘carry-ons’ and 2 strollers. Andy showed that he was becoming a young man, by pushing a stroller, carrying a backpack and pulling 2 carry-ons latched together. I am not sure how we did it all. But, incredibly, we made it, our luggage made it and we are now mostly unpacked, settling in and the boys have started school.


The boys started school the Tuesday after we arrived back in Mmabatho. Their classmates and friends were happy to see them again after an almost 7 month absence.


We arrived back at the house Saturday afternoon and just kind of walked through with a sense of not knowing what to do. The house wasn’t in the condition that we left it and neither was the yard, so that was kind of disappointing. The phone wasn’t working, so we couldn’t call anyone. We cleaned a little, unloaded everything and the house was a disaster for about 5 days with suitcases everywhere. We went to church the next morning and it was good just to worship.
One minor miracle is that we now have ADSL – I was thinking it would take 3-4 weeks to get it, but here we are. Another event that brought tension to our lives was the power shortages that South Africa is experiencing right now – rolling blackouts. The first week that we were back, the power would be out 2-3 times a day for 2-3 hours – no schedule, no warning no nothing. It brings nothing but frustration because you can’t plan anything – you don’t know when the power will be on or off. Now, we don’t have it as bad as others, but it just wasn’t good to experience right after come back – to a foreign country, you’re jet-lagged, your house is dirty, and there are no missionaries 2 doors down that we had the luxury of in the previous term. Fortunately, the electricity has been on for the last 5 days.


As I contemplated this electricity situation – they said it will 5 years to fix – the thought came to me to use these power outages as a reminder to pray. I thought that when the power was out that it would cause me just to have a concerted time of prayer – for the people, their spiritual darkness and for me to be able to see what God is doing and what He wants me to do.
God is good and he is blessing us. The temperatures have 10-15 degrees cooler than it was last year. It has not touched 90 degrees since we have been here. I believe we’ve had more rain in the last week than we did in the last term. Everyone is healthy and we getting back into a routine.


Thanks for your prayers over these last 2 weeks – we definitely have felt them. God is good. Please continue to pray as we just seek God’s direction in our ministries.

...and we are here

It is unbelieveable how long 32 hours can be - but we found out!!

All of us made it - safe and sound - all luggage - 10 pieces at 50lbs, 4 pieces at 70lbs, 14 carry-ons, 2 strollers and a partridge in a pair tree.

We spent night in Jo-burg and are heading to Mmabatho today - Saturday.

Thanks for your prayers and we'll talk later.

And away we go.....

Well, we are about 45 minutes from leaving to drive to DFW. We board the flight at 4:15 pm - fly for 10 hours - play around in the airport in Germany for 12 hours and then get on another flight for 10 hours to Johannesburg. We arrive in J-burg at 10:00 am Friday morning (2:00 am CST). So, about 32 hours of fun.

Please pray.

See you on the other side!!!!!

Hello 2008

Well, this post was started on the 1st and now I am just now getting a chance to finish it. I am finding out that with 5 children, things are getting a little harder to complete. I guess it doesn’t help with other extended family members in visiting.

I trust that you had a great Christmas time and a happy New Year. Ours was definitely busy. All of Jody’s family was in – that means a total of 2 parents, 4 children, 4 sons and daughters-in-laws, and 13 grandchildren. It was a houseful to say the least. We were up at 4:45 to open presents. There were some who weren’t too happy that it was so early. I won’t say who!

We were scheduled to return to South Africa tomorrow – the 4th. Unfortunately, tickets were not available until 16th – so we are delayed until then. That is a point of prayer for us because we have a 12 hour layover in Frankfurt, Germany. Some people are saying that we should go and sightsee – yeah, that sounds fun with 5 children – 2 strollers and 14 carryon’s – I guess we could rent 3 taxi’s!! I just checked the forecast and it looks to be in the high 30’s – boy, that sounds like a lot of fun. So, just pray.

We leave DFW on January 16th at 4:15 pm and we arrive in Jo-burg on the 18th at 10:00 am. So you are talking about 34 hours of traveling. Then we’ll drive to Mmabatho on Saturday and then school for Josiah and Caleb starts that next Tuesday.

Jody’s dad is doing really well. He has been out of the hospital for about a month and is working on regaining his strength and weight. (and hair) The doctors are encouraged by his progress and feel that his stem-cell transplant was a success.

Since the end of July, I have been in the naturalization process to become an American citizen. My forms were finally entered into the computer on the 10th of December. The official receipt said that I would get a call for an appointment in the next 240 day – so unless something happens in the next 10 days or so, I will be returning here to complete this process. You can pray that I will get an appointment before we leave and I can be naturalized before we leave.

A special thanks to all our new friends, prayer partners, and the churches that we had an opportunity to speak in these last 6 months. What a joy it was to meet you and spend time with many of you. We certainly appreciate your prayers. You make our job possible by your support. We would not want to return to the field without your prayer support. Thanks, also for your support of the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering - I have heard many encouraging reports of goals being met.

Christmas Greetings

Have a great Christmas season - laugh a lot!!!

Follow the links for a personal greeting to you.

This holiday greeting is from Dennis, Jody and the Girls: http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1294795800

This holiday greeting is from the boys: http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1295022485

October's and November's Events

October came in a hurry and left just as fast. We have been busy with school, athletics, church and Missions Events.

I went a Missions Celebration in Hot Springs, Arkansas, by myself because Jody was unable to go with me. We had originally planned at attend together with the girls, but because of Jody's father's cancer treatments, they were unable to keep the boys as planned.

I had a good time in Hot Springs - the church was wonderful and the people I stayed with were great hosts. A friend from Botswana was there also - Paul Cline. We had a good time together as we had not seen each other in the last 16 or so months. Paul and Sally retired from Botswana after 28 years on the field, but now they are doing some consulting work with the IMB and the True Love Waits sexual abstinence program as it relates to Southern Africa. The HIV/Aids infection rate in South Africa stands at 25% and Botswana is at 40%.

We left for Muskogee, Oklahoma, after school on Thursday, October 25th. We wanted to spend a long weekend with Jody's grandma. We also had an opportunity to talk to the WMU at a Friday luncheon and then we were able to share in Sunday School and in the morning service. It was nice to be a grandma's for the first time in 4 years. I think that everytime that I have visited grandma's house, there was something different about her house - either on the inside or outside - so you can imagine all the changes that have taken place over the last 4 years. Everything looked nice. That Saturday evening was the family "Fall-Fest" (halloween) Party. Grandma went as a church mouse with Groucho glasses, nose, and moustache.

The first Sunday in November, I spoke in the morning service at FBC, Ore City. They are a small church about 25 minutes from Longview. We are scheduled to go back on the first Sunday night in December for their evening service. We'll show our pictures, share, and answer questions. For a church that run 45 in Sunday School, they exceeded the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering goal of $5000. That is fantastic for a church that size.

This last weekend, Nov 8-12, we drove to Chicago for a On-Mission Celebration. We left at 2:00 am Thursday morning where we spent the afternoon and night in Marion, Illinois -with my brother (AutoTuner1) He has a son that is 3 days older than Caleb named Jacob. The cousins had a good time playing together. It was good to spend some time with my brother and his wife. We hadn't seen them since we watched a Mudbug's hockey game in Bossier City in 2004.

While in Chicago, Jody and I had the privelage to speak in 4 different churches; Saturday night, Sunday morning and night. Jody's sister lives in Rockford and we stayed with them. It was a full house with her 6 and our 4 - Andy didn't make the trip - chosing to stay in school - he didn't want to miss a party they were having!! We left Monday evening at 7:00 pm and drove straight through, arriving home and 11:00 am Tuesday morning. It was a long drive!!