Gift of Love for Mongolian families

THE WONTHAGGI Baptist Church has raised over $11,000 which will go towards providing about 142 sheep for 48 underprivileged families in Mongolia. 

Winters in Mongolia can get down to minus 32. There is no social security and surviving exposure to freezing winter temperatures can be challenging for the economically disadvantaged.  

In some situations, three generations of family may be living together in a single yurt, a round tent that is often less than 20 square metres in size. 

Each year the Church selects a different global mission to support during their ‘May Mission month’ and members focus on raising money for their chosen project. 

This year it was the Gift of Love Program.

Robyn Harbour, the churches’ Missionary leader, was moved by a presentation made by David Beischer, a Veterinarian from Korumburra, about his work in Mongolia and VET Net’s - Gift of Love program.

“The idea with this Gift of Love Program is to provide between two and five sheep per family. That really is a way of securing their food for winter. They know that they’re going to need other food as well, but that certainly can be the difference to just getting them through,” said David who has been part of VET Net since 2006.

The program was first implemented in 2017 and developed as an offshoot of VET net, established in 1995 by two Americans, and assists Mongolian veterinarians and their communities.

About two and a half thousand sheep were given to families last year and overall there have been about 10,000 sheep distributed since the project began. 

“It’s certainly a massive effort from the Baptist Church this year. It’s an amazing amount of money. It’s incredibly generous what they’ve contributed,” said David.

This month VET net will be undertaking the huge task of working with local veterinarians and church and government officials in Mongolia, to identify families in need and begin distributing sheep before winter. 

Two Mongolian veterinarians involved in the program have also come to Australia to work with David for a month and visited the church to speak about the program and also sang 10,000 reasons in Mongolian and English. 

“This Gift of Love program, what they do, is absolutely beautiful,” David said. 

“It’s just really being able to demonstrate love to these people.”