Alternative Harvest at Holy Trinity Woodburn

Friday October 26th 2007

The children of Holy Trinity Woodburn presenting the Rev Trevor Stevenson (Director of Fields of Life) with a cheque to purchase chickens as part of Fields of Life’s micro-economic project in East Africa.Harvest at Holy Trinity Woodburn was a different affair this year, with paintings of chickens replacing the usual harvest fare.

The paintings, created by the young members of Potter’s House, the church Sunday School, raised £665 for the Fields of Life charity which will use the money to buy chickens for families in East Africa.

Woodburn Parish hosted the Fields of Life Celebration Choir earlier in the year and the idea for this ‘alternative harvest’ grew out of that experience.  The children spent time learning about Uganda and how out of their riches they could help others in need.

Rev Alan McCann, Rector of Woodburn, said he believed the children benefited more from this type of harvest celebration than the traditional flowers, fruit and vegetable decorations.

“The truth is for a parish like Woodburn harvest produce to decorate the church comes from the supermarkets and we felt that the money would be better going to Fields of Life than into supermarket profits,” Mr McCann said.

“The children enjoyed learning about another part of the world and learnt a valuable lesson of sharing the blessing of their riches in order to bless others.”

The children of Potter’s House decided at the beginning of October to do the harvest project and in three weeks raised £665. Each chicken costs £2 and the children were delighted to know how many chickens they had purchased for families in East Africa. 

Mr McCann added: “It helped that the children had spent time earlier in the year with the choir from Uganda and Annette Neema (from Uganda) had spent three months at Holy Trinity during the summer.”

The rector and others from Holy Trinity have been to Uganda on several occasions helping to train teachers in bible teaching and discipleship courses.  It is hoped that this is the first of many such projects with Fields of Life.

Further information concerning Fields of Life can be obtained from www.fieldsoflife.com

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