Former Member Devotes Retirement to Missionary Efforts
Friday, October 29, 2010

 


Since 2008, Dennis Welch and his wife, Sharon, have been living in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, undergoing the difficult and courageous task of learning a new language and sharing their deep Christian faith. Now, two years later, this Texas-native couple has taken on their next calling – facilitating a Nutritional Feeding Program aimed to provide nutritional supplements to Cambodia’s malnourished children. 

The Welch’s have always been devoted to missionary work; this being the prime reason for Dennis’s retirement from the FAA in 2006, after 29 years as an air traffic controller. “I have known Dennis for over 17 years and this is what he and his wife have devoted their life to doing,” shares D10 FacRep Ed Rivas of his union brother.

Dennis had begun his FAA career at Love Field following the PATCO strike. In 1984, he transferred to DFW Tower where he remained for the next six years before finishing his career at DFW Approach (D10). Having discovered his call to mission		    
 
 
work in 2005, Dennis was already attending Sunset International Bible Institute when his retirement eligibility date came around. It was soon off to Lubbock, Texas for the couple, where Dennis was to acquire the Bible training necessary for the work that he has come to achieve today.

And achievement it has been for the Welch family, as well as for those their lives continue to touch.


   		 
The Nutritional Feeding Program, recently taken over by Dennis and Sharon from previous facilitators, has evolved and grown since its start in 2005 by Partners In Progress physicians.
 
When the program began, the founders placed the numbers at as high as 63 percent for children under age 12 affected by malnourishment in the areas studied. At that time, the amount of malnourished children nationwide totaled more than 7 million.

Now, three trucks travel the Cambodia countryside each weekday to feed about 1600 children in 12 villages -- a rotation that allows for the children to be fed about four times a week, with food produced both locally and of specific familiarity to the taste buds of Cambodians. In addition, a Back-to-School Program, a Book Club, and both weekly communal hygiene and Bible lessons continue to be administered to these children, contributing to the increased quality of life among these villages. 

“Thank you God, NATCA, and the FAA,” shares Dennis  all the way from Cambodia, “for providing the pension  funding necessary to spend our retirement years as volunteers serving others in this distant land.”


Dennis would love to hear from his NATCA brothers and sisters who might like to help the children of Cambodia. Contact him at JesusServant4U@yahoo.com.


Click here to read the Christian Chronicle article featuring the efforts.