BACKWARD IN TIME -- Twice Over
     It hits me like a punch in the gut!  A swift intake of breath comes as my foot touches the ground:  familiar smells, trees, damp air, and rocky creek bed. This is Arkansas -- first time back since my husband's death four years earlier.  As I walk toward the creek, unbelieving, my eyes fill and regret sinks in.  I drop my head.  It seems incomprehensible that a small "Rest Area" just outside Bentonville gets to me this way.
     There isn't much time to grieve after Rel's passing in October, 2011.  Selling our house in New Mexico, packing and moving to Montana, are the priorities.  Making a new home, becoming involved in a community, take time and attention.  Our eight years of previously living in Arkansas slide into the background -- until today.
     Already this drive to Heifer International Ranch in Perryville retraces often-traveled paths:  from regular visits to see Rel's father in Rapid City to now staying in the same motel we stayed in for his father's funeral.  Different landscapes along the journey through South Dakota, Iowa, and Missouri, and now into Arkansas bring back memories.  As I return to my car, I feel sad, disoriented, vulnerable -- I had not expected this.
     Several hours later, I pull into the entrance of Heifer Ranch.  The sights, smells, and just plain quiet seem to soothe my spirit as I park my car and prepare to settle in as a Volunteer for the next three months.  Although I know some of the history of Heifer International from my days as a student at Manchester College, orientation sessions provide the details.  How did Heifer International begin*?  Not only that, but why do I feel a sense of well-being when arriving at Heifer Ranch?
     The story begins with Dan West, an Indiana farmer, a member of the Church of the Brethren, graduating from Manchester (now University) in 1917.  West is a pacifist and, as such, refuses being drafted into military service.  He spends two years in WWI serving as a conscientious objector.  He is married and active in his church.  He travels the country leading youth camps, inspiring young people to become world citizens, encouraging them to lead a simple life and one of service.  He is a Christian educator for his Church of the Brethren while his wife tends to their soon-to-be five children.
     In 1937 he is assigned as Director of a relief program that provides aid to refugees and victims of the Spanish Civil War.  What he finds causes him distress.  Not only are many young men killed in the war, barns and homes burned, and animals destroyed, the women and children left behind have no food.  The benefactors of his organization of Mennonites, Quakers, and Church of the Brethren have donated reconstituted powdered milk, along with used clothing, that is distributed.  The problem is there is not enough milk for the children, and the same families keep returning.  Babies are dying.  It gets to the point that if a baby is weighed and found to be losing weight rather than gaining, no more milk is given -- the ration of milk must be stretched.  It is then that Dan has an epiphany:  What is needed here is not a cup of milk but a cow.  A cow can furnish all the milk families would need.
     He shares his idea with friends and fellow church members back home, most of whom are farmers themselves.  They begin to piggy-back more suggestions onto Dan's.
     "Why not," asks the Superintendent of Animal Husbandry at Goshen College, "send bred heifers to Spain?  That way they wouldn't need to be milked during the journey, and, once there, would have a calf and milk."
     "How about," speaks up another, "setting up the understanding that the recipient of the original heifer will give the first female calf to a neighbor?  In other words, pass on the gift.  Milk from the heifers will grow within the whole community."
     "And it won't only be milk," adds a friend.  "There will be from these animals what we can refer to as the "7 M's:  milk, meat, muscle (for help with labor), material (hide), money (from selling milk), manure (for fertilizer), and motivation (to help themselves).  These families will no longer be holding out their hands asking for food; instead, they will be holding out their hands with a gift for their neighbor."
     This is the kind of thinking that warms West's heart.  His Dad's philosophy is reflected in West's world view:  "...we must recognize human worth, celebrate individual differences, and assist in developing each person's potential..."  West feels that "restoring dignity through passing on the gift will change the situation from one of relief to that of sustainability".
     West never gives up on the idea of giving a cow instead of a cup.  What at first seems to be a crazy idea and an impossible task now begins to take the shape of a plan.  Donations of heifers start with a Guernsey calf called "Faith" who is shortly followed by "Hope" and "Charity", all coming from members in Church of the Brethren congregations.  Mennonites, Presbyterians, Methodists, Lutherans and even some Amish donate heifers.  As more heifers become available, the next question of how to transport them is tackled.  Heifers for Relief and the Farm Security Administration come to their aid.  In 1944, the first shipment of 18 heifers (plus a new calf) is sent by ship to feed hungry families in Puerto Rico.  "This is the beginning of a worldwide, interfaith, self-help program known today as Heifer International."
     At the end of WWII, it becomes safe to begin shipments of heifers to war-torn countries in Europe.  Every six weeks for eight years, 60 animals are shipped to Europe for reconstruction (some shipment are horses).  The invention of sea-going cowboys and some cowgirls is created to care for the animals while in transit.
     In later years, it makes more sense financially to purchase animals from within the country or region where need exists rather than use shipments from the U.S.  A variety of animals like sheep, pigs, goats, and more (not just heifers), are currently matched to the ecology and climate of the region-in-need.  Training and skill development are now provided to make sure the farmer is successful.
     Heifer International has been in 150 countries.  Today, in 2016, it is in 20-30 countries.  Why?  Because once the organization has come in (by invitation of the country), the task of providing help is completed within seven to eight years; in-country citizens are furnishing on-going aid as needed.  Currently, an emphasis is placed on helping small-scale farms be successful, mainly run by women in countries like Nepal.
     As Dan West might say, "Human beings want to be actors, not spectators, in their liberation from poverty.  Unless people feel they can grow as human beings, master their own destinies, and share in decisions, no amount of material effort will liberate them.  Human beings also long to live in a peaceful world where their children are well-nourished and educated.  The day may yet come when we all agree to turn our swords into plowshares by laying down our guns and doing everything we can to build sustainable communities."
     What about my sense of well-being when entering Heifer Ranch?  I recognize another memory:  that of visiting the family farm in eastern Ohio, renewing relationships and just catching-up with cousins at annual family reunions.  This is a restorative community, this family, this farm and, by extension, so it can be at Heifer Ranch.  This is as it should be.

     *Information taken from "Dan West Monologue" by John Haman and Jan Shrock, prepared for the 60th Anniversary of Heifer International.  (Google)