We love follow up stories of how a gift actually helped! This story is about a goat.
This is so cool!
In December 2013, a sponsor named Melanie rode on the back of a motorcycle carrying a goat to give to a single mother with 5 children who lived in a mud hut in rural Rwanda who had nothing.
We JUST received an update from that family! And guess what! That same goat is alive and well and is reproducing and helping this family still! What an amazing gift that was 7 years ago for this family!
The family is very involved with serving at the local feeding program. Jacqueline says "Thanks to God for His mercy and provision!"
Here is a snippit of Melanie's "diary" of the events of delivering the goat in 2013. I highly recommend you go to the original post and read more.
"When we made our first stop, they told me the bikes couldn’t go the rest of the way so I had to carry the goat up the hill. Half way up, the goat freaked out and took a bite of my hair and didn’t let go all the way up the hill.
When I got to the top of the incline, I arrived at the home of a woman named Jacqueline, who had been standing outside waiting for us. She invited us into her home. The main room was about 5 x 8 foot space with a dirt floor and not a single piece of furniture. I was embarrassed to be seeing her desperate state of living, but recognized that she was proudly welcoming me into all that she had, which was barely more than nothing. I found out her name and the names of her children. I prayed for her and told her I hoped the goat would be a great help to her family. At the end, she hugged me and thanked me and then began to sob, and hung on and continued sobbing. I had probably just given her the greatest hope for her future that she ever had and yet it seemed so small compared to the magnitude of her need that I felt like I was being inhumane.
We have SO much. I was so impacted by her deep gratitude for what we had done for her. The fear I felt when I was handed the goat quickly faded from my mind, replaced by the knowledge that I was delivering a lifeline to a desperate family.
Lives were changed today. The question is who was changed more, them or me? It was the best day of my entire trip."
Read full, original post here:
Can animals really help that much?
The Animal Project is a fun project to donate to! Giving a family a goat, chickens, etc could set them up for years to come! It helps that family to become self-sufficient.