Blessing nations for 40 years.
Mission
Heal the hurting.
Our mission is to heal the hurting, build healthy communities, and transform lives. We accomplish this by equipping medical outreaches locally and globally, serving as a reliable source of pharmaceuticals, vitamins, and medical supplies for mission teams, clinics, and hospitals.
History
Beginnings and growth
In 1980, an early morning men’s prayer group at a church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, was planning a mission outreach to Guatemala. A member of that group, Harold Harder, a PhD pharmacologist and medical school professor, joined the team as its acting pharmacist after sensing a desire to minister to the physical and spiritual needs of Mayans. His role was to solicit donated medicines. At the time, Guatemala was in the midst of civil war. Despite the apparent danger, Harold and his wife, Linda, knew they had to be obedient to God.
After returning from the trip to Guatemala and after much prayer, the Harders were able to successfully obtain donated pharmaceuticals to help other teams going on similar short-term medical mission trips. In July of 1981, Blessings International was incorporated as a non-profit and opened its doors to a world in need of its service.
The ministry was originally created to serve as a source for donated and low-cost pharmaceuticals to mission trips. Today, Blessings International provides pharmaceuticals and medical supplies to clinics and hospitals in developing countries and to some in the United States. Blessings International has expanded its territory to work with churches, non-governmental organizations, universities, and medical institutions.
Today, Blessings International maintains a growing staff of over fifteen full-time employees and operates a 14,000-square-foot warehouse and repackaging facility, all for the sake of providing medicines and medical supplies to teams, clinics, and hospitals which are healing the hurting, building healthy communities, and transforming lives with the love of Christ.
Impact Statement
Blessings International has provided pharmaceuticals to thousands of traveling medical teams going to more than 140 different nations since the ministry was created in 1981. In recent years, we've shipped an average of 250,000 lbs of medicines a year.
In a typical year, Blessings equips upward of 3,000 teams traveling around the world. Among those teams equipped are those that are the first to arrive, assess, and bring care to victims of such events as earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, famines, and even wars. Through the donations that Blessings receives, we are also able to help subsidize the medical costs for these emergency teams working in disaster zones as well as for teams working in indigent medical clinics in the USA.
Countless lives have been saved because of medicines that Blessings has made available at low or subsidized costs. Additionally, the medical personnel—including teams of doctors, nurses, dentists, and non-medically trained individuals, including clergy, volunteer, and professional aid workers—have carried to remote locales Blessings’ medicines and the love and good news of Christ.
Core Values
Our guiding principles
Christ Centered
We desire to share the love and compassion of Jesus Christ with all those we serve whether serving our customers, co-workers, vendors, or donors.
Customer Focused
We desire for our customers to have an excellent experience working with our ministry through each and every encounter.
Quality Driven
We aim to provide high quality products to the right customer at the right time, every time.
Transparent Integrity
From our finances to our communication, we will be open and honest in our operations, transactions, and dealings.
Donor Appreciation
We are grateful to those who support our ministry and will use all gifts in a responsible manner to benefit persons around the world in need.
Celebrate Success
We will celebrate the successes and milestones of our ministry, each other, and our lives.
Our Beliefs
Our statement of faith
The Scriptures
The Bible is the inspired word of God to men, the infallible, all-sufficient, final authority in all matters of faith and conduct (2 Timothy 3:15-17; 1 Thessalonians 2:13; 2 Peter 1:21).
The One True God
The one true God has revealed himself as eternally existent in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. (Deuteronomy 6:4; Luke 3:22; John 14:12, 16, 28; 1 Corinthians 15:24-28).
The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ
In Christ, all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being (Colossians 2:9; Hebrews 1:3).
- Jesus is the eternal Son of God who was with God and was God in the beginning (John 1:1-3).
- He was conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary (Matthew 1:23; Luke 1:35).
- He went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil (Acts 10:38).
- He lived a sinless life – holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners (Hebrews 7:26).
- He died for our sins according to the Scriptures, was buried, and was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:1-4).
- He has now been exalted to the right hand of God (Acts 2:33; Hebrews 1:3).
- This same Jesus who has been taken into heaven will come back in the same way (Acts 1:11).
The Fall of Man
There is no one righteous before God. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:10, 23; Isaiah 64:6).
God’s Plan of Redemption
Salvation is found in no one else but the Lord Jesus Christ, for there is no other name under heaven given by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12). Man is saved by grace, through faith, not by his own efforts but as a gift from God (Ephesians 2:8). God saves us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs, having the hope of eternal life (Titus 3:5-7).
Water Baptism
All who repent and believe on Christ Jesus as Savior and Lord are commanded in Scripture to be baptized in water (Matthew 28:19; Mark 16:16).
Present Work of the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is at work in the earth today: to convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment (John 16:8), empowering men to witness and confirming the word with signs that accompany it (Mark 16:17-20; Acts 1:8; 4:29-31; Hebrews 2:3, 4), producing the fruit of the Spirit in men’s lives. (Galatians 5:22-26), giving various gifts to men for the common good (1 Corinthians 12:4-11). In response, believers are commanded to eagerly desire the greater gifts and to try to excel in gifts that build up the church (1 Corinthians 12:31; 14:12).
Future Events
- There is a coming resurrection; those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned (John 5:29; 2 Corinthians 5:10).
- There is a coming judgment where any whose name is not found written in the book of life will be thrown into the lake of fire, which is the second death (Revelation 20:14, 15).
The Unity of All Believers
In Christ, we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body (Romans 12:5; 1 Corinthians 12:12).