May 2023 – Gala Update Gala Update: We just completed our 11th annual gala- it was a great night. We were so blessed that Dustin and Alex were able to make it back to the United States to help present at our gala. We were also blessed to have representatives from Convoy of Hope traveling all the way from Cleveland,…
April 2023 – Feeding Children We are preparing to head back to the States after a productive three-month season here in South Africa. This month I would like to focus on our child feeding program. We first started feeding children 13 years ago with a generous grant from one our ministry partners. The grant was $250,000, and it made it…
March 2023 – Building New Relationships February has been a good month for us here in South Africa. We hosted a team from First Family Church in Ankeny. Everyone seemed to have a good experience, and we accomplished a lot. They assisted us in enlarging our garden at Del Cramer and now we are able to use the garden to…
Venda Pit Toilet Drowning On December 6th another child drowned in a pit toilet in South Africa. This time it occurred in the Venda tribal area of Limpopo. A 3-year-old handicapped child, Bonginkosi Modike, died in the toilet located at his home. When the parents realized that he was missing they notified the police and it was 24 hours later…
February 2023 – Feeding African Children with African Food Next week I will have completed 78 trips around the sun. I can testify that it is a lot of miles. There have certainly been a few hiccups along the road but for the most part, my life gets better every year. Just 2 months ago I was facing serious open-heart…
January 2023 – God Hears Our Prayers I do not know about all of you but I am ecstatic to put 2022 in the rearview mirror. There certainly were many good things about last year, as our ministry continued to grow every year for the past 20 years. Health issues were, however, a whole other issue. Dustin, Alex, Beth, and…
December 2022 – A Year in Review 2022 has been an amazing year for Blessman International. The year has been full of challenges and blessings. Dustin, Alexandra, Beth, and I all faced significant health challenges that have been good for our prayer lives. We learned to depend upon our God who is always faithful and helps us through troubled waters….
I am traveling back to South Africa to finish off this year by hosting a team from the Lutheran Church of Hope in Ankeny and also a group of African missionaries from Convoy of Hope.
This season in Africa has been one of the more difficult times that I have experienced due to the fact that…
I can count on one hand the number of people who have had an impact on me and my world like that Bob Vermeer. He was a great mentor, a great leader, an encourager, and an overall wonderful friend. I loved him like my own father.