St Faustina new church building blessed and opened in Polokwane

by Admin · Published March 14, 2024 · Updated March 14, 2024

Bishop Jeremiah Masela of the Diocese of Polokwane blessed the new church building of St Faustina situated at Rebone village in Steilloop, Limpopo together with parishioners, friends and parish priests from Mokopane.

The church building project was the result of the faithful contribution of St Francis Church in West Des Moines, Iowa, USA, arranged by Fr Ray McHenry. He has led a mission team of parishioners to South Africa to serve with Blessman Ministries for the past 9 years. The idea to construct the church as part of his legacy came from one of his parishioners who travelled with him on multiple trips.

The current circumstances in Limpopo were just right: Blessman Ministries have been carrying out numerous Christian projects and ministries in Limpopo and in particular the region of Mokopane. Fr Noah Kgwale, Mokopane Parochial vicar, made an appeal that church buildings should be erected within the parish and Blessman International heeded the call.

Dr Jim Blessman, founder, and Fr Ray McHenry consulted Bishop Jeremiah Masela to obtain his blessing and also consulted with Bishop William Joensen of Des Moines Diocese, to ensure that he would have no objection to them raising money from Iowa parishioners to construct a church in Limpopo.

Bishop Joensen is presently planning to join Fr Ray and Dr Jim Blessman on a mission trip to Limpopo next year in January.

“Initially two growing Parishes qualified for consideration, however when considering the land rights of both Parishes it was clear that as a Diocese, we could only consider a Parish on land with real rights where such right was secured with a title deed. We are forever grateful to the previous leaders of our Diocese who had the foresight to secure this land in 1942 for what is happening today” said Mr Grant Daly of the Diocesan Finance Council.

A good policy when setting up a grant is that the beneficiary also contributes to the project. For this very reason both the Diocese and Mokopane parish of Saint Peter and Paul were asked to financially support this project.

Dr Jim Blessman then started calling some of the parishioners who had travelled to South Africa with Fr Ray over the past 9 years. In just over 2 weeks they raised approximately R3 million over and above the local contributions.

Dr Jim and Beth Blessman’s son Dustin headed up the entire project and successfully completed the building, which had an aggressive timeline for completion. In addition to this beautiful church building, Blessman International was able to also drill a borehole and construct new enviro loo toilets.

Mr Grant Daly concluded by saying: “As a community and Diocese, we give thanks to all who contributed in blessing this community. May this church building and its facilities act as a catalyst in growing the Rebone Village community through prayer and service to God.”

www. polokwanediocese.org.za