June 5, 2026

I have to admit, I am a bit jealous of the Wisconsin guys. We loved camping on the plains of Africa back in the 1960’s and I have begged Michael for just one more night sleeping under the stars! When Kim was four months old we camped out for a few weeks on the Usangu plains with not a single electric light bulb, or cell phone or paved road anywhere. I washed her diapers in the river water, while Michael showed Jule Miller film strips in the villages close by.

But when all the families came out and the tents were gathered in a circle around the fire and you could hear the zebra barking in the distance, while the lions huffed just outside the fire light, the families would gather around and discuss the work and deep truths of scripture and talk of hope for this beautiful land, and then… then we would begin to sing. Ron and Maxine Huddleson, Bob and Betty Gibson, Jack and Sylvia Pape, Dale and Elnora Dennis, Wayne and Flo Smalling and the drivers and camp guys, what fun it all was!

I didn’t get my one more night but these five guys along with Water Well director Scott Lockett got to have five nights camping in Africa on their recent trip to Neema Village this year.

They went to five different villages in a week showing the Jesus films in Maasai at night with a portable generator. They camped, slept in tents, ate goat cooked on a fire pit and used the bushes for a latrine.

They said the food was delicious. I was a bit worried about Scott and his c-pap but being an engineer he got it figured out with the car battery pretty quickly .

It is amazing how so much of that culture has not changed in 60 years! The people are the same, they may not have much but they always welcome you into their homes, and with beautiful smiles will cook their only chicken for you if you don’t stop them.

And the guys made friends and became Maasai warriors…

And the people came. Three hundred and fifty one of them and since we are immersion people they all wanted to be baptized in the river.

The guys had cut an inlet in the river and made a pond to baptize in. They just had one little problem. There were not enough dala dalas and motorcycles to get that many people to the river!! They baptized 61 and promised to come back in a week for the rest.

And they had a blast! Like us, they made memories that will last a life time and we pray their lives have been forever changed just as ours were all those many years ago.

An Update on my Safari Guy: the chemo doctor says we are through with chemo. It was not working. We are still doing lots of healthy and exotic foods, specialty teas, fruit powders from the Amazon, growing my own broccoli sprouts, juicing and supplements plus Ivermectin, Fenbendazole and Vitamin C infusions. He gave us a scare when he had to have a potassium infusion this week but he is trooper. Keep praying everyone.

“When we come to the end of ourselves, we come to the beginning of God.” We are counting on it.

Love you all so much,

Dorris