A live report from our first "Genesis Goat Project" training

I'm not into Twitter, but this is the closest thing to it!



I am reporting live from our first pilot project on "How to teach children to raise goats" with Dr. Kelly Crowdis. Dr. Kelly is speaking Creole with an accent, but that doesn't prevent those attending the conference from absorbing the training and asking lots of questions. There are 34 Ambassadors Football Haiti leaders here from two towns. In a few months, each will receive a pregnant goat if they pass a test and start training AFH players how to raise goats. Then, after our young players have been trained, they in turn will receive goats with the ultimate goal of helping each child and AFH leader start raising goats for their own benefit as well as to help create a sustainable source of income for AFH in Haiti.



Most people in Haiti know something about goats, since almost everyone loves to eat goat meat here. Also, many of those attending have already worked with goats at some time in their lives, so we are not starting from scratch with them.

This morning we talked about the best foods for goats. Then we are talked about how to take care of the goats - whether to let them roam free, tie them with a cord, or put them in a goat pen. We talked about the advantages and disadvantages of these different ways to care to the goats and prevent theft and disease.



Then we had a testimony from Franso, a young man who started in Dr. Kelly’s goat project when he was 16. Now he is 19 and has a “flock” of 10 goats after having sold a few to pay for his school this year. He described how at first he did not pass the exam so that he could get a goat of his own. But he kept going to the class and eventually passed with 85%! Then, with the help of his Christian teachers, he made the decision to trust in Christ. After that decision, he decided to give a goat as an offering to his local church – sounds like the Old Testament, doesn't it! He has even purchased a cow as a way of creating a savings account for when he wants to get married. All this activity is based on Biblical principles he learned from raising goats and attending his local church!



Right now Pastor Nesly is talking about John chapter 10 where Jesus describes himself as the Good Shepherd. He is saying how many of the heroes of the faith like Abraham and the patriarchs and Moses were shepherds before God gave them great responsabilities.



So please pray for the success of this project. We have made a good start, but now those we trained today must put what they learned into practice!