I had the opportunity to travel to North Dakota for the first time over the weekend to a missions conference and really enjoyed this experience. Steer Inc. was founded by farmers in North Dakota as a way to "steer" money to missions. They have sent over 10 million dollars to various mission agencies and missionaries around the world just in the last 10 years and have sent over 20 million dollars in total since their founding in 1957. They also have a long history with World Gospel Mission and currently work with 16 missionaries in WGM. I was amazed to find out that what they need was not more money, but willing farmers to give money to. Since farmer's cash flow is not always constant and can sometimes be a once a year deal, farmers joined together to form this organization so that they could still financially help missions in a consistent way. Steer actually gives the farmer money to buy a cow, hog, or inputs for the crop, and then the farmer basically blends that into their operation. A lot of times the work and land cost are already being used for their own use anyway, so for example, the one or two cows Steer Inc. buys, blend right in with the other 30 cows they already have. Then when that cow has a calf once a year the sale of the calf goes to Steer Inc. and Steer pays the mission agency/missionary of their choice. Anyway I know for those of you who don't farm this may not be too interesting, but it is just one way that God can use people in extraordinary ways to be a blessing to others. - Andy
http://www.steerinc.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzm8FWUd4QY&feature=player_embedded
