Christmas Eve Offering: 50 Bee Hives for Guatemala

Each year, our Christmas Eve 2015 service offering goes to a helping organizational somewhere around the world. This year, we raised money for Heifer International to buy bee hives for farmers in Guatemala ($30 each). Our goal was $750. However, generous donations doubled that amount with a total of $1,525, supplying 50 bee hives!

Why bee hives? Heifer International is partnering with families to build sustainable, self-reliant communities in many countries. A few years ago, we raised money to buy farm animals. This year, we are sending bees to pollinate the coffee and produce honey.

In the process of searching for nectar, bees pollinate plants. The placement of a single colony can potentially double local fruit and vegetable yields. The ancient Mayans believed that bees were part of the hills or mountains and thus an important part of agricultural success of the area.

Many farmers that keep bees are able to harvest honey during the non-growing season to earn extra income, producing 60 pounds or more of honey each year. Honey is the only food that includes all the essential elements necessary to sustain life, including enzymes, vitamins, minerals and even water. Its unique chemical makeup also allows it to be preserved indefinitely.

Coffee honey is believed to taste better than regular honey, so these farmers are able to charge about 10 percent more.

Read more about Heifer International’s programs.

Matching Sunday Offering
After two families offered to match the general budget offering on December 20th up to $15,000 total, that Sunday’s offering was a whooping $48,354!