Laboring at the Farm

Dean Cornwell – Congo

Dean Cornwell – Congo

In September I received a message from our Agronomist, Celestin Engelemba, who is director of our farm at Ikengo near Bolenge. He was in the West African country of Benin taking a refresher course in agricultural methods.

I invited him to stay with me in Kinshasa on the way back to Mbandaka so that I could help him with shopping he needed to do for the farm. One of the needs was for two young male hogs for breeding. One needs to keep fresh genes in the herd in order to maintain good quality animals. Celestin has friends in the breeding business here in Kinshasa and was able to buy two healthy young males. We drove to the farms and picked them up and penned them near my house until shipping by air.

This farm is one of the great enterprises the church has engaged. The dream is for all the former missionary posts to have one, to provide food for local people and at a profit. At Ikengo they have large fields of beans; corn and other crops all from land cleared and tilled by hand labor. There are many things that we often take for granted that would enhance the work on the farm – a kerosene heated incubator of five hundred or more eggs for poultry production, a small tractor with plow for cultivating the soil rather than manually, and solar electricity so that the farm can have the use of the computer, a radio, and other appliances. The Disciples Amateur Radio Fellowship is working hard to facilitate the communication needs of the church.

Please lift Celestin, a very ambitious and motivated Christian who labors at the farm in spite of a very small income and primitive living conditions, in prayer.

Dean

Dean serves as a long-term volunteer with the Protestant University of Congo. He serves as Communications Director for the University.