Uncategorized – Promise Land Pastures

Three Pillar STEW!

Reuben Smith — Thu, 24 Sep 2026 16:01:01 +0000

Promise Land Pastures has three pillar activities: FARMING, MENTORING, and MISSIONS. The idea is to weave all of these facets of our work into one integrated whole. To that end, we have been including mentoring in our Garden Team as we grow food for a stew event we are preparing for this fall. That gathering will be a celebration of our teamwork, as members come together for food, fun, and fellowship. The Firewood Team will join the Garden Team and the Food Team to take what we have grown together and simmer it in a cast-iron kettle over an open fire, using wood from our firewood ministry. This stew will then go out as mission outreach to families in need through our partnership with The Storehouse food pantry.

Your donations have helped us purchase a new freezer to store the food we produce for our outreaches. Thank you!

The new donated TEAM freezer filling up with farm grown products for the stew event!

Intertwining at Promise Land

Reuben Smith — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 02:39:51 +0000

Our vision is to build TEAMS marked by true intertwining: weaving together believers from different races, churches, and denominations, while linking the farm’s five activity areas so each one connects to and circles back to the others.

We’ve been praying for racial diversity to become a hallmark of our events. Charles City County is known for its three main groups—White, Black, and Native—but it’s been challenging to bring these communities together in meaningful ways. So we’ve prayed specifically for more color in our firewood ministry and beyond.

Enter LUX Church from Jackson Ward, Richmond. You may remember Trinity, who found our website and reached out—she’s the daughter of Pastor Manny Peña. LUX has a growing men’s ministry, and our firewood fellowship events were a perfect, out-of-the-box opportunity for their guys.

James Donlin, a longtime friend, had been attending LUX, and he helped spark the connection.

Recently, James and Tyrone Foster (LUX’s men’s ministry leader) brought a group of men to our firewood processing breakfast. What a beautiful answer to prayer! Thanks to LUX, we’ve seen strong representation from Native, Black, Hispanic, and White participants working side by side in unity, honor, and mutual learning.

We shared breakfast, finished splitting and stacking our full log goal, and enjoyed powerful times of God-glorifying testimony and life-sharing that deepened our relationships and faith.

A highlight was meeting Chavis Morton, a young, newly married African-American man and spiritual son of Pastor Manny. He pulled me aside, eager to return regularly, learn skills, and gain experiences—even taking time off work for midweek visits. We immediately welcomed him to join our Tuesday volunteer days (the same ones Trinity and her sisters attend). God is growing the TEAM!

The Sol-a-Carte, a mobile off-grid power solution

Reuben Smith — Thu, 26 Jun 2025 17:29:20 +0000

The Sol-a-Carte is our own invention, born out of a need for backup power on the farm. We were particularly concerned about powering the well pump to support our animals during a prolonged power outage. We wanted a sustainable, quiet power source that could run indefinitely without fuel. The well is deep and requires a 240-volt (two-phase) power source, so we knew the solar generator needed robust batteries and a powerful inverter. Then we had an idea: what if we mounted it on a trailer to tow wherever power was needed?

After building the original prototype, a friend of the ministry provided two generous donations, enabling us to construct two more prototypes with design improvements each time. The Sol-a-Cartes have become invaluable assets for farm events and projects. They’ve backed up the house during power outages and provided remote power for welding, power tools, and compressors in the field. They’ve also proven to be a powerful outreach tool. Our Sol-a-Cartes have powered three major multi-church events in the county, including a mobile stage with a full band, multiple amplifiers, instruments, and microphones. They’ve also run popcorn machines, snow cone machines, and bounce houses—all without the noise, cost, or fumes of a traditional generator.

We are now preparing to build Sol-a-Carte units for purchase, ideal for farms, homesteads, off-grid cabins, or other applications. If you’re interested in having us build one for your off-grid power needs, please email us at reuben@promiselandpastures.org.

A New Beginning

Reuben Smith — Fri, 28 Feb 2020 17:59:27 +0000

The Mission of the Mission farm is to utilize a working farm as a platform for education, mentoring, and community partnerships. It is a wonderful concept. That is, to take an established working farm and use it as a place where a rural community can partner together to provide mentoring and educational experiences to our youth. One key concept is the bringing together of Mentors who have years of experience in various trades to pass those skills along to students who discover they have a passion for those areas of interest. To that end we are right in the middle of establishing a new shop that we need to outfit as a multi-purpose trade skills training facility. We have a 53 horsepower tractor that we will be rebuilding as soon as the building is complete. We have highly qualified volunteer mechanics who will be walking us through the rebuild. We need your help to complete this and many other infrastructure projects.

New Kids On The Block!!

Reuben Smith — Fri, 27 Sep 2019 16:35:05 +0000

Promise Land Pastures is home to a growing herd of Nigerian Dwarf dairy goats. Our girls are registered with the American Goat Society or AGS. We have been having a number of kids born on the farm recently. There isn’t much that’s cuter than a baby goat! here are a few of the new additions…