It has been wonderful to welcome our beneficiaries back onto projects over the last few weeks. Connor, our poultry Project Leader, began his job during the first national lockdown and so has been especially excited to welcome people back onto the project in person. Please pray for Connor and the other Project Leaders as they welcome and care for those we support. Many of our beneficiaries have had difficult times during the past year and many are anxious about leaving their homes. Pray for great wisdom and compassion as we seek to share Jesus’ love with them back at the farm.
"I started my job on the Poultry project in the first lockdown. So to start with I was only working in person with the chickens. I was having to get to know all our beneficiaries remotely, via zoom and telephone calls. They were all missing the chickens and so we had to come up with creative ways for them to still feel part of the project. One of these ways, was filming a day in the life of a chicken video, which showed the chickens waking up, being fed, laying eggs and going outside to roam and graze in the field, before being herded up and put back in the houses for the night. After sending the video out to the guys, a few commented how much they missed certain jobs such as dusting and grading eggs! And how seeing the video made them really excited to come back to the farm.
So it was a real blessing to be able to reopen a couple of weeks ago and welcome people back to the project, and actually finally meet them in person and work with them. A fair bit has changed since they were last here, we got a new flock of chickens a few months ago who have settled in well and are much friendlier than our last flock!
We also have reseeded the field and lots of lush new grass is starting to grow. Everyone is enjoying these new changes and also being able to do the same jobs they did before lockdown and being able to get into a familiar routine and spend time having fun together. To have people back on the project has been a real treat, we’ve had so much fun whilst working in the egg room and playing the radio and all dancing and joking together.
Everyone has settled back into the swing of things really well and are all also excited to see each other again and work alongside their fellow poultry project members, who they have really missed over the last year - and of course the chickens!"
Connor