If you’re like me, a sense of frustration can grow with the approaching Christmas season.  When the children are grown, it’s easy to look at our gift list and realize how blessed we truly are–because we don’t really need anything under our Christmas tree.  

I also pity the poor postman, who has already begun bringing me pounds and pounds of Christmas catalogs.  I have a tendency to order online and from catalogs, so that means I get a ton of them every autumn. 
Last week, however, the mail man brought me a little catalog that has really tickled my fancy. I call it “Cows for Christmas” or “Heifers for the Holidays” and maybe you’ll like the idea, too. 
The book is filled with ideas for gift giving:  for instance, for $120, you can give a goat to a poor family in Peru. The goat can supply a family with several quarts of milk a day, plus provide them with the means to make cheese, butter, ,or yogurt. The goat manure is used to fertilize a family’s garden. And if someone else in town has a male goat, there will soon be little goats running all around . . . 
Or, if you’d like to spread your gifts around, $10 will buy a share in a goat.  Your gifts will be combined with others to provide a goat.  
Isn’t this a great idea?  The little catalog from www.heifer.org explains how you can give pigs, heifers, sheep, rabbits, bees, water buffalo, and seedings.  Most of all, your gift can give hope
So visit www.heifer.org and request a catalog . . . or place your order online.  I’m going to talk to the hubby about doing this for Christmas.  Why give someone another appliance to stick under the kitchen counter when you could give a sheep to a family who knits?  🙂  
~~Angie 
P.S.  This review of THE FACE released today. Amazing, isn’t it? 

WOW!!!  This one single word sums up this powerful novel.  Phenomenal author Angela Hunt never disappoints, and THE FACE is the best novel she has penned to date.  I predict it will make a huge impact and win a multitude of awards.  Every single character is vibrant and over-the-top, bringing each and every page alive and pulsating with life, and the characters themselves jump right off the paper and into your heart.  Written in alternating chapters that feature Sarah’s and Renee’s first person voices, THE FACE is a commanding piece of work.  It’s a blockbuster novel that deserves every award out there.  I don’t have the power to bestow such accolades, but I can award it a Perfect Ten.  Even at this early date, I will also pronounce THE FACE to be a strong contender for RRT’s Best Book of the Year award — it is nothing less than an extraordinary work of fiction.

Diana Risso

7 Comments

  1. robinlee

    Angie, I stopped giving gifts to work associates several years ago and replaced it by purchasing a cow or a goat or a sheep in their name. I send my friends and associates a card/email that tells them this animal was purchased in their name. They love it, and so do I. I would much rather feed a hungry family than give another box of chocolates to my editor. (I also give to Angel Tree in honor of others.)

    Reply
  2. Mocha with Linda

    Unique gift idea!

    And what a gift you received with that great review! I agree with every word!

    Reply
  3. Leslie

    I thought about doing this last year for my brothers, but ended up not doing it. LOL – Long story.

    I don’t know if the one you listed is a Christian organization, but there are Christian ones too – like Food for the Hungry that have the same option, you can also buy chickens too. Which may be what I do for my brothers this year…. (Chickens for the Chickens)

    Teeheehee. I’m awful.

    Reply
  4. Anonymous

    My old church in California supported The Heifer Project every Christmas for years. Glad to see that there are other ways we can continue this worthwhile kind of effort. Thanks for letting us know!

    Heartiest congratulations on that fabulous review. Were I more eloquent, that is exactly how I would have described “The Face”. EXCELLENT and WELL DESERVED!!!

    Clyde

    Reply
  5. God's Prof

    Samaritan’s Purse, run by Franklin Graham, does an excellent gift catalog with such items. Check out http://www.samaritanspurse.org. You can even sponsor Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes, an excellent ministry!

    Reply
  6. jan

    excellent gift(s)idea!
    and, congratulations on the review!
    jan

    Reply
  7. Christina Berry

    We do it through World Vision. In fact, last January my daughter shared her birthday with another little girl at a church’s indoor playground. They invited the entire elementary school and asked for donations instead of gifts. They are responsible for a share of an alpaca, two chickens, two shares of a treadle pump, malaria prevention for one family, and and entire earthen fish pond stocked with enough fish to feed a small village forever.

    Not to brag or anything … 😉

    Reply

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