In the News

Brenda Starr and I went for a walk on Saturday. We didn’t know that we’d end up amidst farm animals and a squash arbor. Heifer International was there, showcasing cow poop and insect cookies.

I was with several parents over the weekend and they began sharing great ideas for kicking off the holiday season that include a dose of giving back. I was startled to learn that in the United States, some reports say that more than 70 percent of holiday gifts end up in a landfill within 6 months.

sierra-madre-united-methodist-church-annual-alternative-gift-fair-on-december-1

I am a weirdo. I like Christmas & all of that, but I’m someone who really doesn’t need anything – so it’s awfully hard for me to come up with things I want. I’m sure it’s frustrating for my Husband because it took him a looooooooooooong time to figure out that I really mean it when I say I don’t want anything for myself.

Heifer International encourages you to gift different this holiday season by looking into an alternative giving option. Heifer International provides living gifts of area-appropriate livestock and training in environmentally sound agricultural practices so that families in need can lift themselves out of poverty and become self-reliant. Join us in the effort to help spread awareness about the joy of giving an alternative gift.

A week after Super Typhoon Haiyan killed 4,460 people and displaced over 1.8 million in the Philippines, American Christian groups working with their local partners are calling for prayers and financial support amid tragic stories of loss and a severe scarcity of food, water and medicine.

I recently experienced a day and night as a Zambian refugee. My company sent a small group of us to Heifer International Ranch to consider our obligation as leaders to those in need. It worked. I

The outstanding charity Heifer International gives livestock to people in need in various locations around the world. When it was first founded, the idea was that animals would be raised at a big ranch in Arkansas and then shipped around the world to where they were needed. But the charity soon found out it could have much more impact by buying the live animals in or near the area where they were to be used.

One of my favorite gift-giving ideas is a program called “Gifts from the Heart” or “Alternative Christmas.” This is a program that has been going on at First Presbyterian Church for a number of years that the Missions Committee of the congregation makes available for people in the community.

In the year of 2000, I worked on an organic farm – through the Heifer International in Perryville, Arkansas during both spring break of my junior year in university as well as during that summer. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Heifer, its focus is sustainability and it gifts out livestock, seeds, and trees to those in need worldwide.