the Cow Project keeps giving

"Yesterday two new heifers were given to two new families of Timothy (left photo) and Shukrani (right photo)," Pastor Fue reports. "Thanks to Zion Lutheran Church in Davenport for the donation of Heifer project for the people of Kirangare."

It's a gift that keeps on giving! Almost 20 years ago, through the Heifer Project, Zion sent cows to our companionship congregation, Kirangare Lutheran Parish in Tanzania. The church gives a cow to poor families capable of keeping cows. Selling milk generates income that can be used to pay for children's school fees or replace a leaky roof.

The project is still going because each new owner gives their first calf back to the church. That calf is then given to another family. And so on, for almost 20 years.

Simon Simon, a secondary school teacher in Kirangare and the secretary of Kirangare Parish's Companionship Committee, credits the Cow Project for his education. Without the cow from Zion, his family could not have paid for his schooling.

The freezer for Kirangare Zion invested in last year supports the Cow Project. Without refridgeration, milk sellers had only a short window to sell before the milk went bad. Now, with a freezer, housed at the Milk Store, milk sellers waste less milk and thus make more money. Keeping a cow is more profitable.

Zion's current "Buy a Brick" fundraiser is a similar kind of investment. When the new Zion Daycare building is finished it will also be a gift that keeps on giving. It will allow preschool education to go all day long, instead of just half day, because staff will have room to prepare and serve lunch, and it will accomodate more students.

Consider a gift today. The project needed 7,000 more bricks before we started the fundraiser. But $1 buys 5 bricks, and we've already raised enough to buy 4,400 bricks! Just 2,600 to go! That's $520. Zion people previously gave $1,000 to start construction on the new daycare building, and our brothers and sisters in Kirangare turned that initial investment into $5,000 worth of material and labor. Wall Street can only dream of matching that return. In every way, treasure in heaven is better than treasure on earth.