December 2018 – Holiday Activities and End of Year
I pray that all of you had a nice Thanksgiving. Since Beth and our son in law were both recovering from surgery, we had HyVee roast our turkey. It was not very traditional, but we had a nice day with friends and family. Beth is coming along well recovering from her foot surgery.
We had a nice appreciation event at Terrace Hill and enjoyed the evening with 80 of our close friends. This has become a Thanksgiving tradition for our ministry. Unfortunately, our Governor was not able to join us this year. We are still hopeful that she will be able to join us in South Africa again in the next year or two.
Right after Thanksgiving, Beth and I flew to Phoenix to spend a couple of weeks enjoying family time with two of her sisters who live there, as well as many of our friends who live in this area. I will be speaking at a couple of Rotary Clubs and a few churches while in Phoenix. Two of our Blessman International board members live in the Phoenix area, so it has become a little satellite center for us.
There is not much news coming from South Africa this time of year, as nearly all of our staff take their leave time in December to spend with their own families, and we have no scheduled service or mission teams arriving until January. Dustin is making arrangements to drill our last five wells for this year and building an additional 25 toilets. We are praying for funding to help us get our own well drilling rig to make our water and sanitation projects even more efficient. At Mountain View Farm we are building an outdoor thatched classroom for our Teach a Child to Fish program. We will soon have photos of this for you. Our layer production at Mountain View Farm is going well and has been giving us nearly 300 eggs per day. We would like to double the size of our current operation and also add 10 cows and a bull to livestock operation. We are trusting the Lord for funding for all of this.
Our mission and service teams are filling up fast for next year and we are anticipating over 130 people serving with us in South Africa in 2019. Our staff in Iowa is busy with year-end fundraising activities and so far we are on track to meet out budgeted goals thanks to all of our great friends who love and support the work we are doing in South Africa.