One Indian father, Danesh, is a day laborer and he noticed many of his coworkers had an alcohol addiction. At first, he didn’t join their excessive drinking. But eventually, Danesh gave in to alcoholism and his life spiraled out of control from there.

(Photo representative, courtesy of Mission India)

Bartholomew* with Mission India says, “He ended up spending a lot of what he earned on alcohol, leaving little for his wife and his son. Unfortunately, he would just get drunk to the point where he would fall asleep whenever he fell. He was drunk to the point he didn’t know where he was when he would pass out.

“That would also heap shame onto his family’s name. Obviously, drunkenness is a sin, and it really heaps shame on his wife and his son and on himself to a point where his wife didn’t feel like they could actually go out in public.”

A church planter with Mission India named Vimesh began building a relationship with Danesh.

“Vimesh over time asked to meet with him, and Vimesh just continued to encourage him to give up alcohol. Vimesh prayed over him and for him [and] he shared the Gospel,” Bartholomew says.

“Over time, Jesus freed Danesh from that addiction and recently he received Jesus as his Savior.”

This father went from being an alcoholic who shamed his family to a spiritual leader pointing his family to Jesus.

“Now his family attends a church, they pray together, and they can go out in public and not be embarrassed. So just that [life change] of Danesh now is also [impacting] his family.”

This father went from being an alcoholic who shamed his family to a spiritual leader pointing his family to Jesus.

An Adult Literacy Class with Mission India. (Photo courtesy of Mission India via Facebook)

“We as an organization love working with fathers and encouraging fathers to come to know Jesus and be changed by the love of Jesus,” Bartholomew says. “Through that change, those fathers then are changing the lives of their kids, the lives of their families, and really, in some cases, changing the entire direction of the family name going forward for generations. So it is quite powerful to see.”

To give a gift to Mission India in honor of your own father, grandfather, or a father figure in your life, click here!

Your gift will help advance the Gospel among dads in India and lead to new Christ-following legacies that can be passed down for generations.

Bartholomew says, “You can pick any of the programs. I would recommend Adult Literacy Classes or Church Planter Training as those are two programs that deal specifically with adults. Go give a gift of any amount and write, ‘In honor of my father’ in the comment section, and then let your dad know or your granddad know that you’ve done that — that you supported a potential life change of a father or father-to-be in India.”

*Last name omitted for security purposes.

How about a goat? Melissa Kruse, India Partners’ communications coordinator, suggested this to ministry staff several months ago. “She came up with this wonderful idea of how we could honor fathers for Father’s Day — giving a goat to a G.O.A.T.,” explains India Partners’ Donna Glass.

Gift a goat for Father’s Day through India Partners.

Why does a G.O.A.T. need a goat?

(Photo courtesy of India Partners)

Gifting a goat for Father’s Day seems quite odd until you know the details behind this idea.

First, G.O.A.T. stands for Greatest Of All Time. It’s meant to be a title of honor as well as a play on meaning. Second, there is a literal goat involved – but don’t start purchasing material and building a pen just yet.

The goat – or, goats – will not be showing up on your dad’s front porch.  They’re on their way to a needy family in India. “Goats play an important role in the food and nutritional security of the rural poor,” researchers describe in this 2010 article.

“Usually what our partners do is they will give a pair of goats, maybe two or three goats to a family,” explains Glass. “As they breed the goats, then they (family members) start getting milk from the females. This actually helps to increase their nutrition.

“Any extra milk can be sold in the market. Extra goats can be sold, or they can build up a small herd of goats.”

Goats bring help and hope

(Photo courtesy of India Partners)

Goats seem unlikely carriers of help and hope, but they serve precisely this purpose in rural India. Glass points to Suresh as an example.

Suresh and his wife eke out an existence and struggle to provide for their young daughter. “They’re struggling because they are internally-displaced people from another state,” Glass explains. “It’s harder to get work [in their present location] because they don’t have the papers [they need].”

When Suresh’s wife recently became ill, he sold all of his cows and goats – the family’s only source of income – to purchase the medical care she needed. Thankfully, Suresh’s wife recovered from her illness, but the couple didn’t have any money to replace their livestock.

Suresh became desperate, but then one of India Partners’ in-country cohorts gave him a pair of goats sponsored by gracious givers in the West. It will take a bit of time, but “he knows now that… they’ll multiply and… [provide] a living that can help to lift them out of this severe poverty.”

India Partners works alongside a broad group of indigenous grassroots agencies focused on alleviating poverty and injustice. Their vision is an India rich in hope, justice, and compassion. Take a closer look at their work here.

Header image depicts Suresh, his wife, and their daughter with the pair of goats given to them by India Partners’ in-country cohorts. Photo courtesy of India Partners.