Today (April 12, 2013), we visited the community of Merge near Port-au-Prince to see first-hand how some children there are successfully raising goats after being involved in a goat project for 2-3 years.
Next weekend (April 20th) we are partnering with the same organization that trained these young shepherds to train leaders from about 40 of our teams.
We interviewed 3 girls and 2 boys and were very impressed by their Christian character and work ethic. By raising goats and being responsible for another living thing, they all had learned some valuable spiritual and life lessons.
The first young lady we talked to was Sabrina. She was one of the first students to be involved in the project in 2009. Today she has 5 goats and has sold another one to help her pay for her schooling. She takes care of her goats every day and even brings them into her house when it rains. When we talked about Psalm 23 where David says God is his Shepherd, she said she feels like by raising goats, she lacks nothing because as long as she takes good care of her goats, she will always have a renewable source of income.
The second student was Christela who was 15. She now has a small herd of 9 goats and has also sold 3. She was also one of the original students to start the project in 2009. When I asked her what she had learned spiritually from raising her goats she quoted John 10:11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” She almost cried as she talked about how much she loves her goats and the sacrifices she is willing to make for their well-being.
After that we talked to Valentine, a 12 year old who was 10 when she started in the program. She has had a rough time, with 5 goats dying during that time (4 were very young and the other was hit by a car). But now she has 5 goats and is still working hard. Her family does not own any land, so it is difficult for her to find foot for her goats, but the people running the project have planted a community garden where she can get some food for her goats on a regular basis.
Ralph is a precocious 11 year old who interviewed me in English when I first arrived. He has only been involved in the program for one year, but has already given back on goat to the project and now has another one.
The last boy we interviewed was Billydew. He has built a goat pen near his house to protect his goat, and is very excited because she is pregnant!
Jacques and Isabel Jourdan joined me on this trip. They are from the French Alps and have worked as shepherds so I was anxious to show them this project. They were happy that the goats were healthy and the children seemed to be doing a good job. But of course Haiti is a far cry from the Alps!
In all we were very encouraged by what we saw and hope that our leaders and players will benefit from learning how to raise goats and will work hard to succeed both spiritually and as shepherds – after all, they have the example of the greatest shepherd ever to follow: Jesus!
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