A Stone of Help

One of the projects supported by BMS is the agricultural college at Ebenezer. This is based on the farm of the Cunningham family on the edge of the Matopos national park. Set up in 2007, Ebenezer currently has about 70 students taking its two year course.Over the two years the students are given training in both farming and the business of farming, putting the theory into practice as they work on their three 30mx30m plots. Undergirding it all, the farm has a strong Christian foundation, with prayer and Bible study built into the curriculum.

As we turned off the main road onto the dirt track to the farm we picked up some extra passengers - our visit coincided with the family open day, and many of the students relatives had travelled three hours and more to come to the event. When we arrived the site was full of proud students showing their folks what they had been up to over the past few months, and soon we were also being shown around by some of the friends Elliot had made when he had stayed in the college a few weeks earlier. We were taken aound various aspects of the farm's work - the plots, which were still being supplied with water from the dam built near by; the bicycle powered threshing machine; and the chicken houses which supplied both birds and eggs for sale through a national distributor, these being part of a project which also encouraged local farmers to build their own chicken houses and join the cooperative.

      

After the tour we all gathered in the main 'hall' or the formal part of the day. This was attended by various village elders and the local village headman, and included songs and sketches presented by the students as well the speeches by the staff. The day as apprciated by all those who came, as as the meal that followed shortly afterwards.

 

          

Once most of the parents had left, there was time to relax - which  large group of the students did by setting up an impromptu volley ball tournament, joined by one of the lecturers along with \Elliot, Tristan and myself. It as an enjoyable workout at the end of a very good day.