THIS tired and dusty Massey Ferguson tractor is now, I'm told,
gleaming and good as new and ready for use. It was bought two years
ago by the Worcester diocese, in a poor state of
repair, and it had been agreed that the students at Moreton Morrell
agricultural college would undertake the rebuilding of the tractor
as part of their course work.
They have now transformed it. Tim Hutchinson, on the staff of
the college, has supervised the project, and he and one of the
students involved in the work will soon be travelling to Tunguli
village, in the Tanzania diocese of Morogoro, to hand it over to
the villagers and to advise them on its maintenance. They will also
be taking a trailer and a plough.
The dioceses of Worcester and Morogoro have long had a
friendship link, but this project has also been helped by a small
independent charity, Mission Morogoro, whose supporters undertook
the purchase and the cost of the restoration, the purchase of the
disc plough, and the considerable cost of transporting them to
Tanzania.
The chairman of the Morogoro Task Group in the diocese, Canon
John Green, says: "We are thrilled that this tractor project has
been the catalyst for bringing so many people together, and for the
deepening links between our two dioceses."
The tractor should make an enormous difference to the lives of
the Tunguli villagers. The Bishop of Worcester, Dr John Inge, will
bless it at Moreton Morell College on 23 March, when all who have
been involved will be present, and the tractor, trailer, and plough
will be shipped out to Tanzania to arrive at the end of June, when
they will be presented to the village.