Bruce Adams, a talented mechanic, welder, and skilled mentor, is bringing his expertise to Promise Land with an exciting new chapter of our Tractor Team program! Bruce recently led a hands-on workshop where he taught young people small engine repair while also servicing and restoring all four of the firewood ministry’s log splitters. His passion for teaching practical skills and
For several months now, a group of young people from Lux Church in Richmond have been coming out once a week on Tuesday mornings for mentoring and training in practical skills while volunteering on the farm. The goal of this work is to equip these young people with confidence-building life skills and to deepen their faith in the Lord in
Mentoring and training is one of our three main areas of activity. Skills training workshops are where the farm really shines. A working farm requires expertise in so many different areas, which means the necessary personnel and equipment are always on hand. Consequently, a farm makes a perfect living classroom—or natural learning center—for hands-on skills training on real, working infrastructure.
When Debra and I were in the youth group at Mechanicsville Christian Center in the mid-80s, long before we were married, our youth pastor, Carter Goolsby, took the teens on a cross-country adventure to a youth rally called Youth America in Oklahoma. It was a 30-hour charter bus ride that our church co-chartered with the youth group from Lighthouse Christian
Tractor Team–6 young people from the community joined with us with a project to rebuild a 1969 Ford tractor. This was a much more challenging project than previous ones because we not only completely remanufactured the engine, we restored every aspect of the entire tractor. Rewired the electrical, repaired and repainted the body, restored the hydraulics and serviced the transmission.
It was a monumental task, but it was worth it to provide so much training to young people who got to have so much hands-on experience.
David Foeckler, had just graduated high school, and was considering working as an intern on a farm for a temporary first experience away from home before starting college.
After school classes open up a vast potential of student impact. The idea is to bring in volunteer experts who will be instructors in a class on their field of expertise once a week for four to six weeks. Then we open up these opportunities to students to come and gain valuable experience and knowledge. There is no limit to what we may be able to teach with this new system.
After over two full years with PLP, Christian Stewart is coming to the completion of his time with us as the first participant in our pilot High School level OJT student intern program.
Our Beekeeping program has been growing fast. Mentor beekeeper Scott Maclelland, has been training PLP staff and students in lots of Beekeeping skills. Identifying brood patterns and evidence of the queen and her laying strength. Understanding the timing of beekeeping tasks as they relate to the seasons. The list goes on and on. We have been blessed with FOUR new