The Unity Goat Project. Designed to provide assistance to the poorest/neediest families in the local church. Each Church Plant pastor decides which families could benefit immediately from a goat. Then goats are distributed accordingly. Each of those families agrees that they will return the offspring of the goat to the church for distribution to another needy family. Etc. Etc. Etc. This could and should go on for a very long time. The cost of each impregnated goat is $25-$30. Each goat typically has twins or triplets. It gets a little complicated. But they have a good system. There is a three-fold value in each goat. First of all, it produces milk which the people can drink. Second, it produces manure which they use for fertilizer. Great idea. Third, they can eventually slaughter it and eat it. I suppose if times were really tough, they could also sell it for cash. I wonder how much a used goat sells for??!!
This trip changed the course of my life. I know that sounds pretty dramatic. But really, our lives will never be the same. On the Tuesday that Dan went back to work, he turned in his resignation letter. That was a pretty big deal. He signed up for a course called Body Builders which is designed to teach you the Biblical way to approach support-raising. I'm attending the course with him. It's in Jacksonville, FL. He has been assigned two mentors through e3...one will mentor him with fundraising, another with becoming a Church Planter. We are both very excited about the process he is embarking on.
And now, moving on to Burundi. Burundi is a small country in Africa directly south of Rwanda. This is a country that is very open to having e3 partners come in and evangelize the entire country. The president is a fully devoted follower of Christ. So, there is a possibility that Dan would become involved in church planting there. I am also praying about becoming involved in e3 partners as a Church Planting Coordinator. This is something that I am actually almost wrestling with. I know that I love being involved in ministry. Up to this point, it's been in music/worship in local churches. I'm wondering what in the world God is up to. Being a missionary wouldn't be so far removed from working in a church. We'd actually work with churches and mobilize groups of people from churches to go on trips. I'm watching and waiting to see God start to orchestrate the details and provide us little glimpses of what the future might hold. Maybe I need to have more blind faith than that. Maybe as I move forward, the road will be invisible. Am I ready for that kind of faith?
