Covenant News
Funeral Service Wednesday for Vernon Dennis
EDMONTON, AB (August 4, 2003) - A funeral service will be held at 11 a.m. Wednesday, August 6, for Vernon Dennis, a retired missionary of the Evangelical Covenant Church who died Friday, August 1.The service will be held at the Evangelical Covenant Church, 8503 82nd Avenue, Edmonton. Internment will be at the Malmo Covenant Church cemetery about 60 miles south of Edmonton.
Dennis and his wife, Vangie, were called in 1954 for medical service in Congo, according to records in the Department of World Mission. "Their first term was spent at Karawa where Vern was very busy - one record day he did 13 surgeries!" recalls staff member Eileen Thorpe. "Besides this, he was a very good handyman and cared for the station vehicles, radios, etc. After Independence in 1960, he returned alone (wives were not permitted back) with wife and children joining nine months later, being stationed at the Wasolo hospital temporarily, then Karawa again." They returned to Chicago where he was in private practice at Swedish Covenant Hospital from 1965 until his retirement. The couple moved to Canada in 1997.
"He had a reputation for being very kind and generous," Thorpe said. "And he had the very first electric car that I can recall ever seeing," she added. "He was quite a tinkerer."
"On behalf of the Evangelical Covenant Church and our world mission department, I want to thank our Lord and Savior for this gifted colleague who shared his life with so many on two continents," said John C. Notehelfer, interim executive minister of the Department of World Mission. "I know that our African brothers and sisters who remember the 1960s have loved ones who have tasted of Vern and Vangie's love and healing touch."
The couple were members of North Park Church in Chicago for more than 20 years. It is suggested that those desiring to send memorial gifts directed them to the Covenant's Department of World Mission, the Cross Cancer Institute or to a charity of choice.
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