Our friends, the Brumleys, sent us a unique gift for Christmas: A hive of honeybees!

When I first read about their gift in an email they sent me, I was confused because the picture showed an African woman receiving honey from a man dressed in a beekeeper outfit. I kept reading and realized that the bees were not for us but were for a poor person in another country so that they can become self-reliant by selling honey, beeswax, and pollen.

This gift, given in our honor, was made through Heifer International, an organization that provides different types of animals (and even bees) to people as well as training in how they can make a livelihood through them.  The people given this gift are then held accountable by being required to give one or more of the offspring of their animals to another family.  Cool!

In somewhat related news, my mom told me that our dear next-door neighbor growing up, whom we called “Moon”, had passed away recently.  He kept bees in his backyard right next to ours, and I was fascinated by them.

I expressed interest in them, and one day I got to skip school so that he could take me to some other hives he managed.  I donned the beekeeper suit and was given a smoke can, which is used to drug the bees while you take the honey out of the hives, and we went to work.

It was very neat, and I never forgot the experience.  Katie and I want to keep bees one day, as well!  They are marvelous creatures.

May God rest the soul of my old neighbor, Moon!