This is a newspaper article about Dennis from 2007…….
A quiet crop and hog farmer, Dennis Goetz discovered in his mid-40s that international mission trips fed his soul.
The African country of Zambia particularly captured his heart. He made three trips there in five years to spread the word of God while working on projects with the people there.
During his final trip to the country in 2002, Goetz contracted malaria despite taking all of the precautions he was told about: anti-malaria pills, mosquito nets and bug repellent. He fell ill when he returned home. He died a month later, leaving behind his wife, children, hundreds of friends and the work he started.
“It was something he was passionate about,” said Laura Goetz, his wife of 25 years. “When you do missions work, you always think about what you are going to do for that other person, be it overseas or right in the Quad-Cities. But it’s really always what you learn and bring home.”
Dennis and Laura Goetz, members of Heritage Wesleyan Church in Rock Island, attended a meeting in 1997 about a mission trip to Russia.
When he raised his hand to volunteer to go, “I fell off my chair,” she said.
The trip to Russia led to trips to India and Zambia.
When the Goetzes returned home Sept. 25, 2002, after a 13-day trip to Zambia, he began feeling sick. He began shaking at the end of church services Oct. 6. He went to the doctor, but was not diagnosed with malaria and came home to harvest soybeans.
On Oct. 10, he was admitted to a hospital and diagnosed with the most severe of the four strains of malaria, known as black water fever.
He died a week after entering the hospital.
In October, she will mark the fifth anniversary of his death with a return trip to Zambia. She will be checking on the work completed there with the money from his memorial fund.
The village of Chabbeboma, where the Goetzes developed “wonderful relationships,” will have electricity and water in her husband’s name. The first light installed is at the church there. “How powerful that would be for the first time to see light to have it be in the church,” she said.
Other projects are in the works, including the training of two pastors per year in Africa.
Goetz hopes the work will inspire others.
“I hope people will realize what a huge difference they can make in the world,” she said. “I pray every day, ‘God let me get out of myself so I can get into others.’ If you never plant the seed, you will never reap the harvest.”
