Our family developed a love for chickens when we purchased our first mini-farm in Colorado. At the beginning, we raised chickens for eggs. Later, we also raised them for meat. Chickens are amazing, fruitful creatures that provide wonderful food and give you the joy and satisfaction of raising what you eat. The eggs and meat are so much better than store-bought. And we can rest assured that our free-range chickens live a wonderful life until the very end.

When we moved back to lush Virginia, raising chickens was even easier, and we frankly raised too many—chickens are just so much fun, and our girls do an excellent job managing the flock. They love raising chickens, incubating eggs, and getting to know each chicken's distinctive personality. We found ourselves with more eggs than we needed, but we didn't want to butcher productive, egg-laying hens, so we thought about what we could do with all of those eggs.

An idea struck us—why not start an egg ministry? We could give away eggs to people in need and solicit donations from those who would otherwise pay for eggs at the grocery store. And that's just what we did. Our girls are in charge of almost everything: feeding, watering, and caring for our hens, and collecting, cleaning, and packaging the eggs. We just pay for the feed, build chicken tractors when they're needed, and help move the tractors each day.

In the past several months, we've given away dozens and dozens of eggs and raised hundreds of dollars. One hundred percent of the donations go directly to our local church to support the youth ministry. We cover all the costs and donate all the money raised. It's fun and rewarding, and the girls love giving back to God with their hard work.