A Gift for a family

I  got a catalogue from a neighbor a few days ago.  She asked me to toss it in the dumpster.  I glanced at the cover and wanted to see what it was. The catalogue was from Heifer International.  They are asking people to gift a goat, rabbits, chickens, a heifer, an ox, etc to help a family or a village in a undeveloped country.  It would provide more food and more livelihood for the group.

The idea intrigued me, and I thought that it's an idea I can and want to buy into.  Most of my family live in Germany, and sending gifts is not easy, due to questions of size, color, would they like it?, etc.  My family members are quite mission minded, and I liked this idea because the gift is really needed, and many people everywhere need help. My niece Miriam served as a missionary lab tech on a medical ship in west Africa, and she served as a missionary lab tech for six months in Afghanistan.  Her Husband, Jost served on a missionary ship in West Africa and worked on a building crew which worked in terrible heat building a medical building.  When I was a young lady, I served as a missionary nurse at a refugee hospital in Hong Kong.

When I still lived in Texas, I had a neighbor named Becky.  One day she commented that there is no limit to the good one can do if one is not worried about who gets the credit.  I had never thought of it like that, and it influenced me a lot.  

 "The poor you always have with you" 

That statement is true now as before. But also there is never a shortage of people who have much.  If we want to help, we can, and there are many ways to help.  We can find a way to help if we will only think about it.

So...I decided to gift a flock of chickens to each of two villages.  Heifer teaches them how to care for the birds, and gets them started.  The villagers can then have eggs to eat, eggs to sell, chickens to eat, chickens to sell, and chicken manure to put in the gardens.  One gift makes many gifts.