Published: April 02, 2008 03:24 am         

Royse City pair set sights on Uganda

By David Wilfong

Herald-Banner Staff



Dianne Stone and Cheryl Dennis have been friends for eight years, and with children in school together have often found themselves teaming up for various activities. The pair will team up again for a journey that will take them thousands of miles from home and comfort.

Members of Faith Bible Church in Caddo Mills, the Royse City residents have signed up with Your Turn Ministries of Greenville to make a mission trip to Uganda. Their journey will take 10 days from June 16 to 25. Their part of the mission team will focus on ministering to women.

“Pretty much Dianne and I do a lot of double-teaming ministry,” Dennis said. “We do lots of women’s ministry at Faith Bible Church. Whenever she told me that she was going to Africa I was like, ‘I want to go to Africa.’ Last year I wanted to go to Peru but I couldn’t find really anybody to go with me. I don’t know why I wanted to go, I just really had an urge to go somewhere where the gospel needed to be told.”

Dennis is an elementary school teacher in the Greenville ISD.

Stone, an office manager for a construction company during her regular employment, is not new to foreign ministry.

“Ever since I went to Cuba on a mission trip nine years ago, I have had a passion and desire to continue in foreign missions, Stone wrote in a letter to supporters. “Ugandan women suffer from difficulties and oppression that American women do not have to deal with on a daily basis. I have been told that kidnapping, infidelity and death are common occurrences to the women of Uganda.

“It is my goal and challenge to these women to offer encouragement and hope through the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

Dennis and Stone will be working with “small groups” for 200-300 women in addition to the events scheduled by the mission group as a whole that are expected to be attended by thousands.

In addition, the mission team will be broadcasting over Ugandan radio that reaches up to 15 million listeners.

The local pair received a helping hand from the First Baptist Church of Royse City last Friday night as the church donated its facilities (at the old Royse City Middle School) as a venue for a concert to help raise the $3,200 needed by each for the journey.

The concerts featured THEOS and Overcast, two local music groups that pitched in to support the effort.

THEOS features RCHS coach Chad Hodges, and Overcast is made up of RCISD students Josey Duke and Kendal, Kolton and Kelsie Rogers. The event raised approximately $2,500 toward the total $6,400 needed for the trip.

Anyone interested in assisting with the Ugandan mission trip is encouraged to contact Whites Texas Stone at 972-636-7625.