Goats and Sewing Machines – Women Empowerment
Faith-Seed Planting: The concept of stewardship principles is another important aspect of our ministry that we are teaching to Christians in India. In Gen 3:15, God gives us reference to Jesus in “the seed”.
There are several references in the New Testament to the growth of the believer as compared to a plant and evangelizing to the world as the harvest. God established the principle of sowing and reaping (Gen 8-22). This principle incorporates “giving back to the Lord that which belongs to the Lord.” This principle is an important component of Christian growth in India. Historically, they have not taught this principle.
All our offerings should be directed toward God, as the source from which everything comes (Matt 25:34-40). As a part of this project, we gave goats and sewing machines to the indigenous pastor’s wives that are part of Life Light’s outreach team. In a single year we distributed 30 sewing machines and 20 goats to the pastor’s wives.
This was our way of planting seeds in their lives to help them be more self-sufficient, and asking them to give back to the Lord by blessing others. Our hope is that in the years that follow, we will be able to see how they can plant this seed of faith in the lives of others. Already our ministry has received baby goats, chickens, old sewing machines, and other things that we have been able to give and bless others with.
This is one of our ways of teaching this faith-seed principle to others. The main objective of the project is to break the cycle of poverty, and to help the local pastors in the ministry be financially independent. Most of the time, their limited resources do not allow the pastor to do as much evangelizing as they would like to do. But, by teaching and implementing this principle in their lives and ministry, we pray they will be able to spend more of their time preaching the word of God.