Prepare hearts for Easter this Lenten season with Heifer International's Fill the Ark program. This meaningful family devotional fosters gratitude through a four-week giving calendar, helping families reflect on their blessings and extend generosity.
Christ calls His people to care for our neighbors in need, and Heifer’s Fill the Ark program makes it easy for your congregation to do just that! Each week shares a new scripture. The program also includes a daily giving challenge designed to help families and faith communities raise funds that support families in overcoming poverty. Much like Noah's ark, this inspiring program is about hope and a new beginning. Fill lives with hope today!
Double Your Impact
All gifts your congregation makes through June 2025 will be matched — doubling your impact! Inspire your congregation to make a difference in the lives of families in need.
What is Heifer International?
Heifer International provides families with the resources, education and opportunity to thrive — gifting hope where it’s needed most, a source of income and a brighter tomorrow. In 1944, Heifer International’s founder, Dan West, began outlining a simple but groundbreaking plan to eliminate world hunger. As a church leader and midwestern farmer, he gathered his congregation to come together and support families in need.
His dream to end hunger and poverty has since grown into empowering families and communities all over the world to become self-reliant. Just as Christ supports those in need, we believe that everyone deserves a future free from hunger and poverty, and we want to help strengthen that belief in your congregation.
Ending Poverty Begins with Agriculture
Heifer International provides animals, resources and training to people in need around the world. We bring communities together and link farmers to nearby markets where they can sell extra milk from goats and cows, eggs from chickens and honey from bees. Our goal is to help individuals and families achieve living incomes.
The Heart of Our Community: Passing on the Gift®
The heart of our community development philosophy is Passing on the Gift®. Through this, every family that receives an animal must pass on one or more of the animal’s offspring. This embodies the spirit of community and giving, and it reflects Christ’s call to “love your neighbor as yourself.” Along with passing on the gift of an animal, the recipient receives knowledge on how to care for the animal and learns how to pass on an animal to another family.
From Hardship to Harvest
In the dry and dusty country of west-central Senegal, the empowering women of the Saloum Corn Producers Association celebrate their harvesting achievements in a Passing on the Gift® ceremony. The association’s members, including Ramata Niass, freely give seeds from their harvests to other women farmers. In the same way Christ shares with us, the group embodies the spirit of giving — sowing seeds of hope, grace and community.
“As the Wolof saying goes, ‘Strength is in unity, and what one can do, two can do better.’ This is true for us,” Ramata said.
Cultivating Change With Female Farmers
In rural communities, when women are born into poverty, they often believe it’s the life they’re meant to live — one without opportunities. For many, they feel their purpose is limited to traditional household duties, with little emphasis on the importance of education or the possibility of becoming an entrepreneur.
Women play a vital role in global food production; however, they often lack the resources to succeed. Rigid social norms cause inequality for young girls in impoverished communities, and many aren’t enrolled in school at all. At Heifer International, we know educating women is a key to encouraging economic growth, strengthening resilience and ensuring sustainable development. Your congregation can support female entrepreneurs, helping them break barriers and create sustainable livelihoods.
Other Ways to Get Involved
Your congregation can extend its ministry and service to others with these free faith-filled resources:
- Animal Crackers: Animal Crackers is a resource to help children, youth and adults see themselves as part of the global family and gain a deeper appreciation of the ways in which Heifer helps people, animals and the environment live in harmony as God’s great creation.
- A Kid Can Change the World: A Kid Can Change the World features four weeks of colorful, age-appropriate resources to help you Pass on the Gift of generosity and compassion to the children in your faith family.
- Host a Living Gift Market: Living Gift Markets are charity events that can last a few hours or even a few days. Attendees can buy living gifts like goats or cows, which will supply families with nutritious milk to drink, share and sell. Contact us to help you create your online or in-person Living Gift Market and personalize it to fit your community!
- Heifer Faith Lessons: Each lesson includes a scripture passage, activities and a connection to Heifer's work to improve income and nutrition for struggling families around the world.
Visit our website to explore more of our faith-based resources and ways to get involved in the fight against hunger and poverty.