The Christmas season has officially begun! This weekend was Black Friday and there were a million and one people out there shopping for gifts for themselves and others. We really do spend a lot of money during the Christmas season, it’s kind of ridiculous! But this year, instead of giving gifts that will just get returned to the store, stuck on a shelf, or forgotten, how about giving a gift that makes a difference? Why not give the gift of life to someone in a developing country!
Christian Veterinary Mission is an organization based here in Seattle, that encourages and equips veterinarians to use their skills to benefit others. They work here in the USA, and also overseas in developing nations. In those countries, they work to provide education and training to livestock-based cultures, so that they can take better care of the animals that provide for their source of income and are vital to their survival. They are taught how to vaccinate, de-worm, and other various techniques that will help keep their animals alive and well. This education drastically changes their future and living conditions. Often the successful care of a pig, cow, chicken etc will result in their children being able to attend school, sharing their knowledge with neighbors, more time to spend taking care of other aspects of their lives, and a hopeful future. A healthy animal and the knowledge of how to successfully care for it results in transformed lives! (We live in a non-livestock based culture, so it’s a little hard to understand how an animal can completely change your life! But in cultures where they use their cow for milk to feed their kids, to plow their fields, or sell milk to their neighbors, if that cow dies, their entire source of income and reliable nutrition disappears! This is a huge devastation!)
This Christmas, I encourage you to pay it forward. Give someone you know, (or simply give because you want to see lives transformed,) a gift that does more than just sits on a shelf! Give someone a gift that will make an impact on lives around the world. Christian Veterinary Mission has a Gift Guide that will allow you to purchase an animal (varying in price,) that will change the future of someone’s life. Check out this video and see how you can change the life of someone in a developing country!
