In 2008, my wife, daughter and I went on our first mission trip to Uganda. Upon returning, my Aunt Marge thought I would like to read some of the letters that Dr. Jerry Galloway had written during his 27 years in the Congo. She gave me all the letters she had. The letters were from the years 1997-2007.
During the next year, I would take the letters with me to lunch and read them. As I read the letters, I was amazed to learn about Jerry’s life work with the pygmies. Waiters and waitresses would ask me about the letters, and I would tell them the stories. Everyone that I shared the stories with told me that I needed to put them in to a book.
I began to inquire about how I could get the letters from 1980-1996. I knew how the story ended, and now I had to know how it all began. In late 2009, I connected with my cousin, Cindy (Galloway) Haverstick. I learned that Jerry had written a letter home every week and that Jerry’s mom, Rita, would decipher the handwritten letters. Then she typed, copied and mailed them to family, friends and supporters.
When Rita was no longer able to do this, Jerry’s sister, Sister Mary Blaise took over the task. Sister Blaise had saved all the letters and placed them in sheet protectors in large binders. Cindy had been working for months to scan all the letters and put them on a CD. She told me she would send me a copy once she was done. I anxiously awaited receiving the CD.
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