Today, I am thankful for my extended family. We normally do a "dirty Santa" exchange at Brian's mom's side of the family. Our limit is $10 and we each bring a gift that is gender specific. Last year we decided to collect the $10 per person and give it to a family. I think it was a family that needed the money due to their house burning down. I was so excited about my $10 or really our $20, counting Brian's $10, going to something that would matter. Instead of taking home a present that we may or may not use and really didn't need, we helped a family have Christmas and start to rebuild their lives after a tragedy.
This year as I read one of the blogs I read daily I saw the Heifer International link on their site. They were encouraging others to give to families so they could be released from the bondage of poverty. It touched my heart and also made me feel foolish for forgetting about such a wonderful organization. After reading this information which is not new to me but just forgotten or filed in the unimportant file of my brain, I could not stop thinking about helping a family and ultimately a community to be freed from poverty. Brian and I had discussed buying a flock of chickens for a family which is $20, but God kept laying on my heart that we needed to buy a goat. I knew that financially we could not afford $120 so God gave me the idea to ask our extended family to do the same thing we did last year but to do it for Heifer International this year. All the family members where excited about this project and that is why I am thankful for a wonderful extended family today.
The picture above will link you to the gift catalog for Heifer International. I know that you all can spare $20 to help a family get a flock of chickens, ducks, or geese. This is a very small price to pay for someone who has far less than we do in this country. A flock consist of 10-50 chickens. A hen can lay up to 200 eggs a year. That is enough to eat, sell and share. One of the rules of Heifer is that you have to promise to share your gift. If a family receives animals from Heifer they have to share what they have. This in turn can make a community who was once dying, alive, well and able to make a living for their families. How exciting is that!!!!!!
Please consider buying an animal for a family for Christmas. If you can't buy an animal then buy a share of an animal, some are as low as $10.
5 comments:
That is awesome! Makes me sad to think about the 4 parties we've been invited to so far this Christmas and all are having "Dirty Santa" gift games and how we could be benefiting someone that truly needs our $10.
I'm so excited. Will they send us a picture of the family that gets the goat?
I don't know about getting a picture of the family. I would love to know where and who it went to. I will check that out and see what I can find.
Unfortunately they don't provide pictures of the families or the animals. It would cost more money to hire people for these positions and they choose to use the money we give towards giving more animals to families.
Aw, shucks (to use an Arkansas phrase). Oh, well.
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