One Summer A Few Years Ago, a local Learning and Livestock Center of Heifer International asked if we would quarantine 14 goats and four sheep in our barn for three months. The animals were destined for Honduras and the Dominican Republic as breeding stock to replace animals lost in 1998 to Hurricane Mitch. Their offspring would provide milk for struggling families and help minimize erosion through grazing. The firstborn female of each animal gifted to a family was to be given to an improverished neighbor, who in turn would be required to give the animal's firstborn female to an another neighbor. The goal: To lift up a community toward self-sufficiency.
The farm steward explained that Heifer usually purchases livestock in the countries it works in, rather than shipping from the United States, but this was a situation where they needed top quality breeding stock to improve the gene pool in the other countries. He needed to set up satellite farms because their barn was already full. The animals would only be with us for a short time, I reasoned, and I had been looking for ways to show love for my fellow world citizens. Certainly this was a way to gain a larger, more expansive view of love by reaching beyond our family and community to someone halfway around the globe. It was love in action. And It was an opportunity to teach our children ways to put into practice the Golden Rule and Jesus' commandment to "love thy neighbour as thyself." Our family discussed the details and decided to loan out our barn.
It was exciting to watch Heifer volunteers arrive and pitch in. Vans with distant state license plates dropped off church groups that represented a range of religions. Methodists, Lutherans, and Mennonites joined together to unload hay bales, build fences, and muck out the animals' living quarters. Divisions and self-absorption disappeared as we worked together. But it wasn't always easy. Midway through the quarantine period, animals in virtually all of the statellite farms became ill. Early on, the mixing of young animals from various herds was stressful, and many fell ill. Most built up a quick immunity, but some of the smaller ones required extra nurturing. The youngest goats were not expected to survive. I prayed to know that nothing could interfere with their right purpose and activity, and we fed them milk from baby bottles. Soon the animals were well again, and we were grateful there were no losses on our farm.
