Greetings from India where we are teaching a seminar on how to set up a small business and keep it running with proper financial accounting practices. Our students are men and women who live in villages on large tea estates and who aspire to more than tea picking for their livelihood. We are listening to their business plans today and making decisions about microloans.
Last October, a large typhoon swept over Northern Luzon Island, Philippines, leaving great property damage in its wake. Three of our churches were completely flooded as were the homes of the people in that area. We worked with our national church leader, Rev. Edurado Viray, to make an itemized list of building materials and other things needed to get life back to normal for this community. We sent this to the Church of God Ministries Disaster and Relief Committee. The last thing on the list was three water buffalo. The committee had never seen this kind of request before. We explained that three buffalo had been washed away, never to be seen again. Since they are essential to plowing, hauling, and processing the rice crop, this was a devastating loss for the families who owned them. The committee understood and funded the request. It was fun to meet up with these animals last week and see the rice paddies that they helped to plant.
- Don and Caroline Armstrong
