God's Provision, Partnerships, and Celebrations

April 1, 2022

We are nearing the end of our 90 day stay here in South Africa.  Our time here has flown by so fast, life is like a roll of toilet paper, when it is new time goes by so slowly but toward the end of the roll it starts spinning faster and faster.  As I reflect on what has been accomplished so far in 2022, I am reminded that when we look to God for our provision, we should expect big things to happen.

Last month I put out an urgent request for funding to purchase food from an Africa food processing mill, and our churches and donors responded beyond my wildest imagination. We thank all of you who gave and/or prayed for this emergency situation.

Convoy of Hope, our longest and largest partner in ministry, sent a representative to do a site visit to see what God is doing with our ministry here in South Africa.  They are hoping to deepen their partnership with us by increasing our food allotment from Meals from the Heartland from 12 containers per year to 16 containers this year and 21 containers next year!  Praise God!  They are also hoping to help us purchase significant quantities of food from the new food processing mill that we found in Polokwane and possibly send teams.  As many of you faithfully pray for our ministry please also remember to pray for Convoy of Hope and Meals from the Heartland.  Together, we are able to do great things and feed thousands of African children.

The school garden project that we started 3 years ago is helping us to feed 7500 children. We are expanding that project the first week in April by teaching an additional 15 ladies to plant a garden at the Mokopane Hospital.  The training will be hosted at Mountain View Farm.  These ladies will then assist us to add additional community and school gardens.  The Mokopane Hospital and Department of Health was so impressed with the last garden that we helped them with that they are looking for funding to help us expand this program and do additional trainings every month.

The most exciting thing that happened this last month was the wedding of our son Dustin to Alexandra Mourtzios!  I was honored to be the pastor for their wedding, and our youngest daughter and her family came over from America.  We enjoyed some great family time with them.

Next month we will be celebrating our annual spring gala on April 26th at the Holiday Inn across from the airport.  If you do not have tickets yet, please call our office right away and arrange for them.  (515 343 5920)

My prayer request this month is near and dear to my heart.  Our son Dustin has been suffering from severe long-standing pain in his neck and will likely soon be having a cervical fusion.  Please pray that God will heal him soon and completely.

I am looking forward to seeing many of you back in America this month and getting back out on our beautiful Iowa bike trails.

Doc