Beyond Belief Update - Sithabiso Tshuma

Sithabiso will be working closely with Stephen Manhanga, helping farmers in Mablauwuni village and the surrounding communities. Their focus will be on crops.

Of the 6 Beyond Belief Field Officers, 2 of them were young ladies: Sithabiso and Simangaliso and I asked them what challenges they faced on the ground whilst in Mapisa and any lessons learnt. Their answer was:

1. Loading the truck with tomatoes. The crates were heavy.

2. They learnt to be more responsible i.e. cooking for themselves and being self motivated. They felt that with God, ALL things are possible - nothing is impossible. Culturally, it's the older people who teach the younger ones but the older folk 'listened' to both Simanga and Sitha.They also managed to harvest some tomatoes despite the water shortages.

They both are glad however, to be back in Mablauwuni Village and to be able to fellowship and serve at Crossroads Community Church again.

By Molly Manhanga

Beyond Belief Update - Tawanda Moyo

Tawanda has decided to come back to Ebenezer. He will be involved with Beyond Belief chickens in Mablauwuni Village and the surrounding villages. Tawanda will be working closely with Ezra Prescott and Mxwayisi Dube.

By Molly Manhanga

Beyond Belief Update - Simangaliso Ndlovu

Simanga will be working closely with the girls in their fields as well as helping to teach some the lessons.

By Molly Manhanga

Beyond Belief Update - Mqondisi Moyo

Mqondisi has decided to come back to Ebenezer for now. However, he hopes to go back to Mapisa in August if the water situation improves.

By Molly Manhanga

Beyond Belief Team - update

Left to right: Sithabiso Tshuma, Tawanda Moyo, Simangaliso Ndlovu and Mqondisi Moyo. (Brilliant Khoza and Mkhululi Ncube were absent)

The 6 Ebenezer graduates who joined the Beyond Belief Team and were based in Mapisa, have come back to Ebenezer and Shalom. The team were out at Mapisa for the past 8 months and due to water shortages, they were given options of coming back to Ebenezer or becoming part of Beyond Belief in the Mablauwuni Village and surrounding communities where they would join Beyond belief chickens or crop farming.

Read on to find out the decisions made by this team.........

By Molly Manhanga

Fertigator cum filter

The fertigator has come is handy at Ebenezer. It's job is to make sure that the water is clean before going into the drip irrigation system. Sand, lime, small fish and algae can get caught in the fertigator however, there is sand which traps any foreign objects.

The fertigator is not being used at the moment. It will be used when the drip equipment is set up. Ebenezer is in the process of acquiring a new drip system.

By Molly Manhanga

Crops on the ground

30m x 30m field of rape (leafy green vegetable)

The farm workers cleared a 30m x 30m field and rape ( a leafy green vegetable) was planted. Rape is normally best planted in winter but this crop was planted during the post rainy season. It requires lots of water and the heat was not doing it any good. Ebenezer should harvest something from this crop.

Rape looking slightly wilted

By Molly Manhanga

Chickens are working

Teddy (Left) and Tapiwa (Right)

The chickens are definitely working at Ebenezer. The apprentices work in teams to look after the chickens for 6 weeks. The group that are doing the lastest batch of chickens are Tapiwa Munyati, Nkosiphile Nkosi, Teddy Mpofu and Nhlanhla (meaning Fortune) Ndlovu. They feed their 3,100 chickens 200kg grower feed per day. They moved from the brooding house to the growers house on Thursday.

Nkosiphile (Left) and Nhlanhla (right)

The chickens are on their 4th week now but I don't know how their weight. Lets hope this this group of apprentices does really well with their chickens.

Chickens at Ebenezer

By Molly Manhanga

Miracles still happening

It was wonderful catching up with Ezra Prescott at Ebenezer recently. Him and his wife Martha are walking miracles. Ezra is part of the Beyond Belief initiative and works with the chicken farmers in and around Mablauwuni village.

To cut this story short, Ezra took his wife away for a weekend to some lodges, with a waterfalls being an attraction. However, once Ezra had climbed to the top of the 30m or so waterfalls, he slipped and fell head first. There was no water at the bottom and his landing knocked him out. His wife Martha saw him 'slide' down and followed suit in a sitting position. Her landing caused both her feet to break, her left wrist was broken and she also had back injuries. Ezra suffered from memory loss for about 15 minutes. He had head, neck and shoulder injuries. Martha lay in a stream for about 3 hours but luckily they had a doctor friend with them who made sure that Martha wasn't moved without proper care and medical attention.

Both Ezra and Martha were in hospital for 8 days and they are both expected to make a full recovery. That can only be the hand of God on their lives. He certainly specialises in the miraculous.

By Molly Manhanga

The Poes and Life Change Team visit Ebenezer

Steve Manhanga leading the team on a tour of the fields of Ebenezer

Sam and Marlene and the Life Change Team had a whistlestop tour of Ebenezer on Monday morning. It was so good to see Marlene head straight for the kitchen to greet the lady 'chefs'. She is remembered for her snicker doodle biscuits and discipling the young ladies. Well done to Marlene for adjusting to a smokey kitchen and baking in a dover (wooden) stove. Sam is remembered for Chronological Bible Storying and discipling the emerging Crossroads leaders.

The team on a tea break at Ebenezer

It was really good having them visit and spending some time with them.

Marlene Poe with the lady 'chefs' in the kitchen at Ebenezer

Want an "up close and personal" with the Life Change team to get to know more about them, read Crossroads Community Church Blog on www.crossroadskezi.blogspot.com

By Molly Manhanga

The Mangena's visit Ebenezer

Gerald and Laura Mangena

It was wonderful seeing Gerald and Laura Mangena and baby Nathan at Ebenezer yesterday. We had a great catch up time. Gerald and Laura were part of the Ebenezer team for the past 4 years before they left to go back to Harare and become part of ONE Church which is led by Laura's brother Sean Mullens. They are still adjusting to life in the city but are so appreciative of having their family around them in Harare.

Baby Nathan

We hope the Mangena family visit Ebenezer, Crossroads and Bulawayo again real soon.

By Molly Manhanga

Lorator Nyathi

Lorator Nyathi in her field

Lorator Nyathi is on the Advancer programme, formerly known as the graduate programme, at Ebenezer. She has recently planted 3000 tomatoes and of those, 1000 have died due to water shortages. She is hoping to gap fill. Lorator has also started mulching her field and she is expecting a good harvest. Each tomato plant is expected to produce 3kg's of tomatoes. She doesn't have any pests or diseases on her crops and neither has any animal eaten any of her plants. Lorator is working on a 30m x 30m field.

I hope she does well.

By Molly Manhanga

Cayenne Pepper Trials

Jacques DuPreez had planted a 5m x 5m cayenne pepper demonstration plot in December 2011. He has now started harvesting the peppers which are looking great. The purpose of the trials were to see if they'd go through winter. If the cayenne peppers make it, production will increase.


By Molly Manhanga