An Update Of Our Time Over The Last Three Months In South Africa

Greetings!  By the time that you read this, Beth and I will have just completed another excellent season in South Africa. We arrived in early January.  Our first mission team of the year was from St. Francis of Assisi Church in West Des Moines, IA, and we celebrated Fr. Ray McHenry’s 10th annual mission trip with us. We were blessed with Bishop William Joensen joining this team. The main task was to construct an entire new set of Stations of the Cross ascending a one mile trail up the side of a mountain to the Mater Dei Pastoral Centre. The seven-foot-high wooden crosses were designed by Iowa artist Steve Howard with the assistance of his wife DeAnne, and our son Dustin. The weighty, beautiful bronze plaques depict fourteen images of Christ’s key events as He journeyed to Calvary and His crucifixion. Each station offers space for reflection and prayer. There was a considerable amount of heavy physical work involved in the project and everyone on the team participated.  Construction expert Chris Brault and his wife Rita provided the plan and materials for securely and attractively affixing the plaques for both security and weather protection. Mater Dei has been served by Fr. Sunny Vattapparayil for the past 15 years who teaches Bible studies and hosts retreats and camps. He built Mater Dei Pastoral Centre from the ground up and will be transferring to another post at the end of this year.  He has a vision of completing the construction of a large chapel on this property as part of his legacy, and I am praying that we at Blessman International and many of our friends in America will help make this a reality.   

My 80th birthday was on February 4th.  We were blessed to have our daughter Kelsey and granddaughter Juni join us for some wonderful family time. In addition, 300 children at our Del Cramer Children’s campus had a big party for me with cake and singing. I was quite moved and shed many tears of joy as they sang “Happy Birthday”. On February 16th the celebration continued with the dedication of our new Global Methodist Church building, Mountain View Hope Christian Church. This is a beautiful brick facility with stained glass windows and hardwood pews to see 450. Already, the church is nearly full each Friday evening and Sunday morning after just one month!  Our congregation is mostly high school youth, and they enjoy the state-of-the-art audio-visual equipment that we were able to include.  The church is full of the joy of the Lord at every service with worship, singing, dancing, praising the Lord, and solid Biblical teaching. 

My birthday celebration continued into March when our son Dustin drilled our 80th well in honor of my 80 years on this earth.  Never in my life have I felt so loved, appreciated, and blessed.  An expertly built church dedicated, a well drilled in my honor, and the unique gift of a donkey cart to transport our children to church at Del Cramer!  I am so thankful.  I hope you enjoy the pictures. 

Finally, on the 28th of April, our 13th annual gala, “Legacy of Love”, will be a fabulous evening as we gather to celebrate God’s blessing all these wonderful years, a loving family, great friends, and the opportunity to be His Ambassador of love.  Our devoted staff has been working to gather names, but if by chance, we missed yours, and you would like to attend, please go to our website, and under the “Get Involved” tab, there is a link to Gala tickets. 

Going forward, we are expanding our training and research farm. Our goat herd has grown to 60 meat goats, and we hope to have 150 within the next year. Our flock of layers is doing well, and we hope to grow that to 4,000 birds.  We have started an exciting new project of adding a chicken coop to provide fresh eggs to each of our water projects that we have drilled near the preschools.  Each water project includes feeding children with Meals from the Heartland food packets, a garden with drip irrigation, and, where funding permits, new toilets. Our goal is to drill 100 wells by the end of this year. 

While there are no plans to retire, we have been enjoying our new home on the Legend Golf and Safari Resort.  We are not golfers, but it is a beautiful, peaceful place for us to live and keep strong. Dustin and Alex are in our former home on the campus where the Lodge of Dreams is located. 

Urgent prayer request: Please continue to pray that our shipping containers full of food would be released by the health department of South Africa.  Also, please pray that we have a well-attended Gala where every guest is inspired and honored to know they are vital partners of Blessman International.   

We love and appreciate each of you.  Thank you for reading my blog this month.