MORE AREA MINISTRIES

Providing Water Buffalo for Pastors

What would you do if you had no access to a bank? In SE Asia where folks don’t have access to banks, people store their wealth as gold and silver, most of which they wear all the time. But there are other things that rural Asian communities use to store their wealth. One way is central paddy rice storage for a village, another more unique way to store wealth is to own water buffalo!

Water buffalo are still the rural tractor in many parts of the world. Their strength for labor in the fields and the resilience in wet and hot conditions make them a coveted farm animal. A village pastor can live off the proceeds from the sale of a water buffalo for a year!

We have created a program that allows churches to “borrow” 4 water buffalo from our mission. In roughly 4 1/2 years they have to give 4 buffalo to another church. Within 4 1/2 years they also usually have enough buffalo to begin to support their own pastor. This program creates an easy way for indigenous churches to be self-sustaining. It also helps your money go farther because one gift can keep multiplying for many years!