Sunday school kids from Cragmor Christian Reformed Church have gone into the farm business—big-time.
What started out as a Christmas project in this Colorado Springs, Colo., church has turned into a year-long effort to make a difference in a needy world.
The children’s goal was to build a farm by collecting enough money to buy one cow, one pig, one sheep, and one seed package through the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee gift catalog.
With the theme, “¢hange ¢an make a differen¢e,” the children challenged the congregation to find coins lying around their homes, in their cars, or anywhere. They made colorful paper barns and distributed them to church members as reminders to pray for the poor in other countries and to bring their coins to church.
Education director Mike Broekhuis said, “It was fun to watch the kids running around after church collecting the coins and putting them in the ‘collection silo.’”
The initial project was so successful, they added four goats to the Christmas farm and decided to keep on collecting coins throughout the year. More purchases are being made as money comes in and will continue throughout this year.
One student said, “I couldn’t believe how much we could buy with just collecting coins.”
“It felt good to know that we could help some people living way across the world,” another added.
Broekhuis said if 100 people found a penny a day, it adds up to $365 a year—enough to build a whole farm.
