Heifer International
New Heifer Purchased!
Our Sunday School children donate money each week and when we have accumulated enough, Mediator purchases an animal for a family in a developing country. This summer we will buy a heifer and perhaps another animal before the summer is out. Do you know the history of Heifer International?
A Midwestern farmer named Dan West was ladling out rations of milk to hungry children during the Spanish Civil War when it hit him. "These children don't need a cup, they need a cow." West, who was serving as a Church of the Brethren relief worker, was forced to decide who would receive the limited rations and who wouldn't - literally, who would live and who would die. This kind of aid, he knew, would never be enough.
So West returned home to form Heifers for Relief, dedicated to ending hunger permanently by providing families with livestock and training so that they "could be spared the indignity of depending on others to feed their children."
In 1944, the first shipment of 17 heifers left York, Pennsylvania, for Puerto Rico, going to families whose malnourished children had never even tasted milk.
Why heifers? These are young cows that haven't yet given birth - making them perfect not only for supplying a continued source of milk, but also for supplying a continued source of support. That's because each family receiving a heifer agrees to "pass on the gift" and donate the female offspring to another family, so that the gift of food is never-ending.
This simple idea of giving families a source of food rather than short-term relief caught on and has continued for almost 60 years. As a result, millions of families in 115 countries are experiencing better health, more income and the joy of helping others.
If you would like more information about this program, please talk to George H. He can be reached through the church office.