Mentoring and education – Promise Land Pastures

Tractor TEAM 2.0

Reuben Smith — Mon, 25 May 2026 17:30:14 +0000

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 mentoring the next generation made the day both educational and highly productive.

This summer, Bruce will lead the next phase of the Tractor Team program with at least four sessions scheduled throughout June and July. The primary goal is to repair the farm’s compact Case IH tractor to full working condition and raise funds to equip it with a 3-point tiller attachment.

Once complete, this upgraded tractor will enable the farm to handle its own tilling needs while also offering mobile tillage support to families and individuals in the community who want to start their own gardens. Because the tractor is small enough to fit inside our livestock trailer, it can be easily transported across the county — transforming it into a true mobile outreach tool.

This new chapter also creates meaningful opportunities for retired men from our volunteer crews to stay engaged, using their experience as tractor operators to serve others in practical ways.

The young people from Lux Church are already enthusiastic about the program. They are actively recruiting friends for the first session on Tuesday, June 2, with a goal of bringing together six participants.

The Tractor Team is more than just fixing equipment — it’s about building skills, fostering mentorship, promoting self-sufficiency, and extending practical help to our neighbors.

If you’re interested in supporting the Tractor Team through volunteering, donating parts, or helping fund the tiller attachment, please reach out to Reuben at reuben@promiselandpastures.org.

Training Tuesdays!

Reuben Smith — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 19:07:04 +0000

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 a way that prepares them for the calling He has on their lives.

These young people are eager to learn new things. Recently, they expressed an earnest desire to learn how to butcher chickens! So we put together a chicken slaughter workshop using some of the roosters we had been raising for this purpose. These brave teens and their youth leader helped us slaughter, scald, pluck, and eviscerate a dozen birds for meat. The kids had a ball, we were able to reduce the rooster population, and we filled the freezer with meat.

As we work together on these days, we talk about what we’ve been discovering in the Bible or principles of God’s Kingdom. These young people demonstrate rare maturity and character, and we believe they are going to be leaders with us as we see a move of God among young people in the near future.

Mentoring and Training Together

Reuben Smith — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 15:39:23 +0000

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.

What’s even more exciting is when the Lord sends team members who combine God-given skills with the ability to teach them. This is exactly what has been happening lately. The Lord has sent us two very capable teammates:

Bruce Adams, a longtime friend of the ministry, brings vast knowledge and skill in mechanics, welding, and engine repair.

Faron MacLelland, another longtime friend, is equally skilled in mechanics and welding.

Both of these brothers are also blessed with the patience and ability to teach what they know.

Everything on the farm is woven together so that one area of activity naturally integrates with and complements the others. Our firewood ministry, for example, has four log splitters. Two of them were out of commission and needed repair. This need became the perfect opportunity for a workshop. Our growing group of youth volunteers came together for a day of small-engine and hydraulics repair. Six young people from Lux Church in Jackson Ward joined us to repair and maintain all of our log splitters while learning a great deal about small engines. They received hands-on experience lovingly guided by two top-notch pros.

God story that started 30+years ago

Reuben Smith — Wed, 10 Sep 2025 18:12:41 +0000

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 Center, another area church affiliated with ours. The experience left an indelible impression on our lives and the lives of all the other students and youth leaders on the bus.

Recently, a young person reached out to me about our programs here at Promise Land Pastures. She had seen our website and was intrigued. She shared that she had always had a passion for farming since she was little. She also shared that she was a Christian whose dad was a pastor of a local church in Henrico, and our concept of a farm that was also a Christian mission outreach excited her. She asked if she and her grandmother could visit the farm and volunteer with us.

We set up the visit, and this girl, her grandmother, and her sister spent a few hours with us. As we introduced ourselves and shared our stories, it turned out that the girl’s grandmother was one of the youth leaders from Lighthouse Christian Center who had been on that 30-hour bus ride with us back in the 80s! We couldn’t believe it. She knew our pastor well, and we had many other significant ministry connections. Her son had become a pastor of a church plant in Henrico County, and It was his daughter, Trinity, who had found our website and reached out to us. It became clear to us that this was more than a coincidence—it was a divine appointment. We believe God led Trinity to reach out to us for a future partnership between our two ministries, and for us to help her fulfill her God given destiny as well.

Trinity, her sister, and her grandmother helped Debra and me harvest sweet potatoes from our community garden, which we share with the Chickahominy Tribe. The harvest was very successful! We had a whole tractor loader full of perfect sweet potatoes that we will use as part of the farm’s food production in creative ways to serve and inspire people in the community.

Wesley Adkins from the tribal garden was also there working, and we were able to get to know one another. God is weaving a tapestry of churches, cultures, and community!

Tractor Team Completed

Reuben Smith — Wed, 01 Jan 2025 17:16:14 +0000

Tractor Team – Six young people from the community joined us for a project to rebuild a 1971 Ford tractor. This was a much more challenging project than previous ones because we not only completely remanufactured the engine, but also restored every aspect of the entire tractor. We rewired the electrical system, 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 gained valuable hands-on experience. We all shared in the feeling of success as we pressed on to completion and finished the job!

In Memory of a Mechanic Mentor Hero

Special recognition goes to our dear friend Mark Tignor who was our volunteer expert mechanic guiding us through this project. Mark passed away in Late 2024 not many months after we completed the tractor. We are grieving with the family at the loss of this special friend. This wasn’t the only project Mark helped us with. He was faithfully with us through all of our tractor rebuilds and the establishment of our new shop. He donated many hours and a lot of shop tools and supplies. We learned so much from his patient, but firm instruction. We will miss you Mark! Thank you for all you did to help us inspire and train many young people

New Full-time Intern

Reuben Smith — Mon, 02 Nov 2020 17:04:14 +0000

David Foeckler is our new full-time intern for a three month term ending in December. This all came about by a “Divine appointment” with a Native American friend named Nellie Adkins from Front Royal, Virginia. Nellie, a partner of our ministry, has coached us in Native planting and seed-saving methods. She was aware of our need for help with labor on the farm, and our mission to mentor young people. Consequently, she had been praying for us. She is a teacher, and she had had a beloved student that she had also been praying for. This student, 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. Nellie, knowing David’s interest in working on a farm, reached out to us to suggest there may be a Divine orchestration going on here. We communicated with David’s parents, and he came with his family and interviewed with us during the summer. It seemed like a great fit for all of us. However, there was one problem. Where would David stay while he worked with us? As we all prayed about it, Our ministry partners Doug and Carla McMurry of the Clearing prayer center here in Charles City supplied the need. They committed their “Upper room” guest apartment at their place for David to stay in for the entire three months. He is working one day a week for Doug and Carla at the prayer center to bless them in exchange for their help to us. David has been a tremendous blessing! As he labors on the farm, all of us with Promise Land are working together to bless David with skills, knowledge, life coaching, and mentoring. Thank you to everyone involved in making this win-win situation possible. We rely on donations, prayers, and in-kind gifts like the housing to move forward with life-changing experiences for youth.

Fall After School Workshops

Reuben Smith — Sun, 01 Nov 2020 16:51:43 +0000

We are SO EXCITED about this new development of the after school workshops. We started last year with the idea of a diesel mechanics class. Then our pole barn burned down along with one of our tractors. Then the Corona virus shut everything down. However, we have been raised back up from the ashes. Now we are moving forward with a new shop, and a new direction–more and better. Instead of a single class, we are opening a whole new arm of our ministry. 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 will be able to teach with this new system. Our first offering for the fall demonstrates the wide variety of possibilities–“Deisel engine reconditioning,” “Arborculture,” and “Drone building.” With this “open source” teaching model, The sky is the limit!

We have been moving forward with Arboriculture, and Diesel. A local arborist Luke Scott of LG Scott Landscaping Co. right here in the county is volunteering for a six week class. He is giving a fantastic overview of the kind of career and proficiencies students could acquire in the field. The classes are so informative! Davion, one of our students, has always had a passion for forestry and tree work. He is getting some really great training and an introduction to a field that could land him a very rewarding career.

The diesel class is the real deal! We are tearing down and doing an in-frame rebuild of a John Deere fifty horsepower tractor engine. Reuben Smith and Mark Tignor are co-instructors on this one as Reuben has had a good deal of field experience with diesel, and Mark brings 30 plus years of professional experience with Caterpillar Diesel.

We began the rebuild by faith knowing that we didn’t have enough money to cover all of the parts. While approaching local businesses for support, we were were given some really important Divine connections and some miraculous provision. At the point when we couldn’t move on because we needed a rebuild kit, one of our new local business partner popped by and gave a donation that covered the kit. Then the machine shop estimated reconditioning the head at $500. We didn’t have the money so we prayed. That very evening, just a few hours later, another local individual gave us a sealed envelope. In it was a check written and sealed up the day before. The check was for $500. There was a note in the memo line “for tractor parts.” This person had no idea of the pressing need for that exact amount. Thank you to all of our amazing donors, who are making this class possible. We couldn’t do it without you!

The class is going faster than anticipated, and the rebuild is turning the corner from teardown to reassembly. We look forward to hearing the engine roar to life and putting the tractor back into service on the farm. Dylan and Hosea are pictured here removing connecting rods from the crank shaft. Dylan, who has a passion for mechanics has been so excited about the class and is learning so much. Thank you to everyone who is making this a reality for him and the others.

OJT Program Successfully Complete

Reuben Smith — Wed, 05 Aug 2020 19:24:51 +0000

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.

As a pilot program, it was a prototype that has helped us experiment with our approach to student mentoring. We have come to think of this level of our Student Impact programs as our most advanced paid mentoring and life-skills opportunity with Promise Land Pastures. OJT will only be offered to those students who show exceptional motivation, aptitude, and character development potential.

While working this On-Job-Training mentorship program, students are presented with as many trade-skills learning opportunities as possible. Christian has been involved in animal husbandry with chickens, goats, sheep, horses, and livestock guardian dogs. He has had beekeeping training, where he has personally helped capture swarms, inspect hives, Identify the queen, maintain beekeeping equipment, and much more. He has gained experience with construction skills and tools, with operating tractors and completing agricultural tasks like plowing, disking, bush hoggin, and more. He has been involved in the maintenance and overhaul of farm machinery. He has learned 3D computer modeling, and he has helped design and build new farm inventions from these conceptual models.

Christian has piloted our experimental agricultural farm management drone prototype, and helped us herd sheep with first person video flying!

He has experienced all of this while being paid as a part time employee, with a portion of his pay being set aside for higher learning.

Christian is a Native American of the Chickahominy tribe. His people Were one of the first contact tribes, and they are known for their agricultural heritage. To compliment this fact, Christian has also worked with plant and horticulture projects that have included learning ancient techniques and seeds and breeds of our agricultural heritage, and the heritage of his tribe.

Our OJT program is a holistic learning approach that is about equipping the whole person As such, the program includes personal coaching in life-skills of all kinds. Christian has had problem solving opportunities, and time management growth. He has also developed in leadership, initiative, creative problem solving, and general management.

He has received many hours of personal interaction with mentors, coaches, and instructors who have poured into his life with all sorts of character building instruction. This has included our Masterpiece Discovery component which helps a person discover the hidden treasures of passion and calling that are burried within each one of us.

Christian graduated with honors from Charles City High school this June, and he has been accepted to Virginia Tech to study for a degree in Wildlife Management. By the end of the summer, Christian will have worked with us for approximately 1000 hours over the last two years. And as a result of this initiative, and his hard work, he is leaving us with a $2,000 scholarship toward his tuition needs. Christian is a role model student, a diligent, trustworthy, and faithful employee, and a person of exemplary character. We have received so much benefit from the time that he has served here at PLP, and he has helped us define what an advanced intern opportunity with us can look like. Congratulations, Christian, for a job well done!

Swarms!! April Bees Post

Reuben Smith — Wed, 13 Nov 2019 07:19:03 +0000

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 wild swarms that we were able to capture. This Brings us up to 6 active hives in our apiary. Christian Stewart has been one of the students learning beekeeping, and he was working along with Reuben as they caught a massive swarm of perhaps 60,000 bees by hand!

When a swarm appears, you have to act fast! Here Mentor Reuben Smith and Christian Stewart prepare to capture another swarm. All of the frames and boxes and other tools have to be prepared ahead of time and standing by for the moment a swarm is spotted. A swarm is a bee colony’s way of reproducing itself. The hive decides it needs to split itself in two. They “make” another queen by feeding royal jelly to a new egg. Once the new queen emerges, the old queen takes a large group of the bees and leaves to find another home. if you can capture that cluster of bees while they are relocating, you have just added another hive to your apiary!