MUILA FALLS AGRICULTURE CENTRE
E-MAIL BULLETIN
JULY, 2012
“Still other seeds fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop,
multiplying thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times.”
Mark 4:8
Dear Friends and Supporting Churches,
We have been engaged in the past
couple of months in our largest
harvest ever. It has been hard work
and required the assistance of
dozens of men, women, and school
students to bring it in. Because
school was in session, much of the
maize was brought in for the first
time using women to pull the ears
from the stalks and throwing them
into the truck. Other crops such as
our soybeans were brought in
through agreement with a local
church congregation. They did the
harvesting in exchange for a
donation from our project to their
church.
As our fields and herds grow, so do the numbers of people in the local community who are
benefiting. It is hard to believe that we are now supporting over 60 head of cattle, over 70
goats, 45 sheep, 2000 chickens, 60 rabbits, 30 turkeys, and ten donkeys. All of it through your
faithful support and “seed” money and actions of the Holy Spirit sprouting the seeds and
multiplying our animals.
In recent years we are seeing our markets for eggs, milk, and meat expand. People who were
once malnourished are now able to buy a balanced diet and properly feed, clothe and educate
their children. The incidence of infant mortality are greatly reduced and I am marveling at how
tall young people are becoming in the village--- All of it due to better diet.
“BRINGING IN THE SHEAVES”
With the dry season comes harvest time in Zamiba.
Over the past few months we have harvested around 90
acres of crops including a bumper harvest of corn. We
also harvested soybeans, black beans, sorghum,
peanuts, and coffee. We have just finished filling our silo
pit with chopped napier grass so that our cows will get through the six month long dry season in
pretty good shape.
The corn crib couldn’t hold the whole harvest so we had to place another amount equal to half
the crib in another building.
Our last task was to chop silage for our cattle. Using only a
small Chinese built stationary chopper and a one cylinder diesel
engine, we have made enough silage to get us through the dry
season.
NEWS FROM THE AGRICULTURE SHOW
Along with the dry season comes agriculture shows.
This year for the first time, the show was held in
Kanyama only seven kilometers away from Mujila Falls.
We built cages, hauled up fencing, drove our oxen and
donkeys, and set up our booth for the two day event.
The Women from our
Mujila Falls sewing
group set up next to us and were able to sell many article of clothing that they had made over
the previous months.
Chief Kanyama visits our exhibit and gets to know
Tobby, one of our donkey’s. Chief Kanyama is the first
Lunda Chief to consider himself a farmer. He has
recently bought a John Deere tractor and cultivates
large fields of corn. He is supportive of our work and
has co-hosted Farmer’s Field Days with us and holds an
annual Rain Festival and Evangelism event that we help
support.
We brought quality goats, pigs and
sheep to show along with turkeys,
chickens and rabbits. We continue
to use these demonstrations to
encourage people to improve their
own stock and to use them for
milking, meat and animal traction.
We brought two pair of oxen and did
a plowing and ridging demonstration
in the school garden near the show
grounds.
Ben, one of our workers is explaining the
many field crops, fruits, and garden produce
items we had on display. We also sold milk
and boiled eggs to the hungry crowds who
came to the show.
ENGINEERS WITHOUT BORDERS AND STUDENTS FROM AFRICA
UNIVERSITY STUDY AND WORK AT OUR SITE:
In June we were blessed with three students from Africa University School of Agriculture who
came to fulfill their requirement for an on-farm practicum. They started each day at 6:30 a.m.
milking goats, feeding pigs and rabbits, picking eggs and milking cows. Then they learned to do
procedures such as de-horning cattle, vaccinating chickens, castrating and treating animals
against ticks. They learned to make concentrate for the animals, harvested peanuts, sorghum,
and other crops and made silage. All of these are skills they will need if they are to be
employed on a farm or start their own farming enterprises.
We also had a group of Engineers without Borders
come from Huntsville, Alabama to continue their
work in the area on water, santitation and
irrigation projects. With the help of Mujila Falls
employees and the three Africa University Students
they rebuilt a malfunctioning pump in a nearby
village, capped a spring on our property and did
soil sampling of our fields among other things.
EWB and trainees celebrate completed pump repair.
THERE IS A CONTINUED NEED FOR FINANCIAL SUPPORT:
Costs continue to rise and planting season is just around the corner. Recently the Zambian
Government significantly increased the minimum wage for farm workers. While this is good for
our workers, it does increase our operating costs. In response we have tried to reduce the
number of workers we continue to employ while increasing the use of labor saving machines.
Unfortunately, those are also expensive.
Please help us out by continuing to send donations to our 15016A Advance Special Account
through your Church Treasurer. These donations will insure that our workers are paid and that
seeds, fertilizer and other inputs are ready for the planting season that will begin in late
October. We have greatly improved the living conditions of the Lunda People over the past
twelve years and hope that you will continue to help us in financing economic, social, and
religious improvements over the coming years.
Along with the financial support, please continue to pray for our project and our workers. The
Holy Spirit is acting daily through the lives of these people and our project.
TSHALA AND BETTY MWENGO RETURN FROM ITINERATION IN
ILLINOIS AND INDIANA:
We are very happy to have Tshala and Betty back in Zambia after their two and a half month
itineration in the U.S. Tshala was a delegate to General Conference and then spent time in
Illinois and Indiana visiting supporting churches and churches interested in learning more about
our work. We hope that their time was well spent and that through their efforts we have
gained several new supporting congregations.
THANKS TO ALL OF YOU WHO HAVE BEEN SO FAITHFUL:
I want to close this newsletter by sincerely thanking all of you who have felt the call of the Holy
Spirit to support this project for all of these years. We have made real gains against hunger,
disease, premature death, infant mortality, poor sanitation, and poverty over the past 12 years
here at Mujila Falls. The seeds you have planted are producing a bountiful harvest of love,
religious growth, economic security, hope and joy. Please continue the effort we have started
together.
Your Servant in Christ,
Rev. Paul L. Webster