Water tanks

Store room going up

Store room again

Water tanks ready for collection

Water tanks were purchased for the chicken farmers in the community and a Beyond Belief storeroom is being built at Crossroads Community Church to help store chicken feed and other items that are bought in bulk.

Beyond Belief Tomatoes

Mcebisi Ncube

Mcebisi works with the Beyond Belief farmers who are involved in crop farming. This is what he had to say about the farmers.....

There are 108 Beyond Belief tomato farmers in the communities of Mablauwuni, Natisa, Lushumbe, Gqalaza, Mapane and Silozwe. They have all grown tomatoes which are being collected at the moment and will be going to a market in Bulawayo. The main challenge faced by the farmers was red spider mite and boll worm.

Update on chickens from Mxwayisi Dube

Mxwayisi Dube

1. The first group of 7 layer chicken farmers are in their last month with the layer chickens. In June 2012, each farmer will receive 1000 broiler chickens.
2. The second group of 6 chicken farmers are doing okay. They are up to 93% with the outlay of eggs.
3. Beyond Belief is blessing 10 farmers a month with 1000 broiler chickens.
4. The number of farmers has increased. The aim is to work with 100 farmers. So far, Beyond Belief has 35 in Mablauwuni Village and the rest will come from the surrounding community of Silozwe.
5. Generally, the chickens are doing real well and theft in the community has stopped.

Catching up with Honest Matabire

Honest is one of the emerging leaders at Crossroads Community Church and he is 21 years old. He graduated from Ebenezer Training Centre in 2010 and in 2011, he completed his graduate year at Ebenezer. Honest joined Beyond Belief in mid-December 2011 and he is based at Ebenezer. He works with broiler chicken farmers in Mablauwuni community as well as working with the apprentices at Ebenezer.

Each broiler chicken farmer in the community has approximately 1,017 chickens which take 6 weeks before slaughter. The average weight per chicken is 1.9kg. There is a market in Bulawayo for these chickens. Some of the challenges faced is mortality. The average weight for mortality is 1.7kg. The chickens eat on average 900kg chicken food per week but this is dependant on the growth of the chickens.

Honest is enjoying working with the farmers in the community and he uses his visits to minister to them as well.

Update on Beyond Belief Field Officers

The 6 Beyond Belief field officers who were based in Mapisa for the past 8 months have returned to Ebenezer Training Centre and Shalom.

To find out what is happening with them, please read the Ebenezer Blog on www.ebenezerzimbabwe.blogspot.com