Harvest Thanksgiving Songs of Praise

On Songs of Praise this week, we're celebrating harvest

as we give thanks for all that God has provided throughout the year.

And I've come to Kenya to find out how the humble

Irish potato is transforming lives.

Also on today's programme, we will be meeting the men

who risk their lives bringing food to our tables.

We take to the streets with the group who make sure that

none of the harvest goes to waste.

There's music from Stuart Townend,

and our choirs will be singing some great harvest hymns.

Welcome to Songs of Praise, and welcome to Kenya.

Straddling the Equator,

Kenya is home to almost 50,000,000 people.

Although it has the strongest economy in central Africa,

Kenya is still a developing country

and four out of every ten people live in absolute poverty.

Agriculture dominates Kenyan life.

Despite only one-fifth of the land being suitable for growing,

80% of the workforce are involved in farming or food processing.

Because of its warm climate, crops can be grown throughout the year.

Across the country, there are millions of small farms

where families grow food, mainly to feed themselves.

The people of Kenya have many reasons

to give thanks for a good harvest.

We'll have lots more from Kenya throughout the programme,

but we'll start with the first of our harvest thanksgiving hymns.

Our choirs have gathered in St Patrick's Church in Jordanstown,

and they're singing that harvest favourite,

We Plough The Fields And Scatter.

Like most African countries,

Kenya struggles to produce enough food to feed its growing population.

Potatoes, or Irish potatoes, as they're known in Kenya,

are an important crop.

In the last decades, a combination of poor farming techniques and

climate change has badly affected the size of the potato harvest.

Derek is working with Kenyan farmers to help change that.

Derek, what brought you, an Irish potato farmer, here to Kenya?

I have to say that it was a very strong sense of call,

a conviction from God to, I suppose, come and help others

who are a lot of less well off than ourselves.

I had a feeling that the skills and abilities I had learned through

farming at home could be of use to small-scale farmers here in Kenya.

Just how important are potatoes to the lives of Kenyan people?

The potato is such a wonderful food source,

it's very rich in vitamins and minerals.

They're the second most important food crop in Kenya.

Having a good crop of potatoes is the difference between your family

living in full nutrition, or living with malnutrition.

So, what has caused the potato harvest to get smaller?

Potato farmers in Kenya could not get access to quality,

certified seed, and so they were planting the same crop

that they harvested over and over again.

The problem there is that you get a build-up of diseases within

the crop itself, and it's passed on from one generation to the next.

If you keep multiplying generation after generation,

the yield will drop enormously.

Working with other farming experts, Derek and his colleagues

adopted a back to basics approach.

They started by growing high-quality seed potatoes.

As we started to multiply quality seed and give that to farmers,

immediately, without anything else, their yield started to double,

and sometimes triple.

Considering that it's had no rain,

it's absolutely amazing what you have here.

When we started to teach them about our methods

and planting methods, spacing, where to apply the fertiliser,

how to manage the crop, their production went up phenomenally.

Isabella Paul was one of the first farmers to benefit

from Derek's guidance.

Since the death of her husband,

Isabella has been responsible for feeding her extended family.

What difference has meeting Derek made to your life, Isabella?

Isabella has been involved with the scheme for several seasons,

with amazing results.

Wow. That's huge!

With an abundant crop, Isabella can now sell her extra potatoes,

which benefits the entire family.

Isabella's story is so good to hear

because it shows that all of the work we have put in is making an impact.

It's transforming lives,

it's putting more food on the table for Kenyan people,

and that for me as a farmer from Ireland is a great satisfaction.

# Lord, we stand in the shallows of all you have given

# Grateful for mercy, yet hungry for more

# For the power of grace to go out from this place

# To the ends of the Earth

# We have praised you with passion and worshipped in wonder

# Thrilled by your spirit and fed by your word

# Now to fully delight in the riches of Christ

# We must go to the world

# For you live in the streets of the city

# You stand with the weak and the needy

# You walk with homeless and hungry and poor

# And your hands are the hands I am lifting

# Your voice is the life I am living

# Your love longs to meet them

# But how will they know

# Unless I am willing to go?

# Lord, where are you hungry and where are you thirsty

# Naked, imprisoned, with no-one to care?

# To give of our best to the poor and oppressed

# Is to give back to you

# So cause us to see with the eyes of the Saviour

# Give us a heart that will love as you love

# Courageous compassion in words and in action

# Brings hope to the world

# For you live in the streets of the city

# You stand with the weak and the needy

# You walk with homeless and hungry and poor

# And your hands are the hands I am lifting

# Your voice is the life I am living

# Your love longs to meet them but how will they know

# That you live in the streets of the city

# You stand with the weak and the needy

# You walk with the homeless, the hungry and poor

# And your hands are the hands I am lifting

# Your voice is the life I am living

# Without us there's no other way they will know

# So send me, I'm ready to go. #

In the last century,

the invention of the tractor has transformed farming.

Like me, this tractor has travelled quite a distance to get

over here to Kenya, and it bears the name of an Irishman who is

known across the world as the creator of the modern tractor.

Harry Ferguson grew up in a Christian family

on a farm in Northern Ireland.

One of 11 children, he knew just how hard

work on a farm could be during the early years of the 20th century.

He was a born engineer and inventor.

Spurred on by his childhood memories,

Harry turned his inherited evangelical zeal

to making life easier for farmers everywhere.

He wanted to modernise farming and to make food affordable for all.

Early versions of the tractor were bulky and cumbersome.

Harry worked to design a smaller, lighter tractor and plough

that could work together as one unit.

Using this Ferguson system, the tractor quickly replaced the horse,

and became an essential item on the farm.

Working with other partners, Harry Ferguson's tractors

were mass produced and shipped across the globe.

Harry died in 1960, but his name lives on.

Today, farmers around the world are thankful for the enormous

contribution that one Irish engineering genius

made to the world of agriculture.

And giving thanks is the message of our next hymn,

as our choir sing, Now Thank We All Our God.

No matter where you live in the UK,

you are never too far from a fishing port.

Every day, tens of thousands of fishermen and women

leave harbour to reap the harvest of the seas.

The Fisherman's Mission works to meet the physical

and spiritual needs of these communities.

Maurice Lake works around the fishing ports in Ireland.

What is life like for these men?

It's a job that they do because it's in their blood.

In the good times, it's very, very good.

It can be lucrative, but there are difficulties within fishing -

quotas, cost of fuel, it's never easy.

There's always another brick wall for them to face.

The frustration is going out, spending a fortune on fuel,

being out all week, wages to pay,

all the bills coming in and no fish caught.

When, as happened at the beginning of last winter,

horrendous weather, they're unable to get out and fish,

and not just for days, but for weeks, going into months, and their

livelihoods are completely in danger, their families were suffering.

The Fisherman's Mission were there to help.

Last year, the Mission was part of a team that developed

and distributed a new life jacket which fishermen would find

comfortable to wear when working.

You can take over here, Maurice.

For one skipper, his life jacket arrived just in time.

It was a lovely, calm morning, a pleasure to be at sea.

But, as the day progressed,

the sea got rougher and rougher.

There was some water in the boat.

During the next few minutes, the water level was increasing.

Just as we were sending out the Mayday, the boat capsized

and I found myself in the water.

I always believed that if the boat was ever going to sink,

I could sit and relax and wait on the lifeboat coming to get me,

but it didn't happen like that. Boats sink fast.

After about an hour, I was tired and starting to get cold.

Silly things were coming into my head, you know,

like I'm supposed to be getting married soon,

who's going to walk my dog?

I just thought, you know, this is the end.

I felt a great calmness and peace,

and basically just gave myself up to the sea.

I felt someone grab me,

and it was the inshore lifeboat crew. They got me into the lifeboat

and were able to give me the medical attention that I needed.

Bush that button and it sends the distress through to the coastguard.

The life jacket was given to me by Maurice Lake from the Fisherman's Mission.

Without it, I would have drowned in a few minutes.

I'd only just started wearing it, to be honest.

I'd never worn a life jacket in my life before.

If I hadn't been wearing it, I guess I wouldn't be talking to you today.

What is the spiritual aspect of the Fisherman's Mission?

I think it's meeting individuals at their point of need.

Something that I've learnt in the ups and downs in my life,

is not to look at an individual and judge them

by the circumstance you see them in, but more to take off your own

metaphorical blinkers, broaden your view,

stand in their shoes.

And your own faith, how important is that in the role that you play?

It's absolute.

I feel in some small way that I am actually doing

what God wants me to do.

In some small way, we are fulfilling his purpose in our lives.

# I'm gonna make it

# He's already said that I would

# I'll keep on trusting

# That he's working everything for my good

# He walks beside me

# And heaven is in my view

# Oh-oh

# I'm gonna make it through

# In spite of the good intentions I've had

# Sometimes my strength can fade

# Though I have tried the very best that I could

# My weaknesses prevail

# But then I remember the promise He made

# That in my weakness, he is strong

# And that's when I know whatever may come

# His steady hand will lead me on

# And on and on

# I'm gonna make it

# He's already said that I would

# I'll keep on trusting

# That he's working everything for my good

# He walks beside me

# And Heaven is in my view

# Oh-oh

# I'm going to make it

# I'm gonna make it through. #

# This is the call from the mountain of God

# Tambira, tambira

# To come with thanksgiving and joy in our hearts

# Tambira, tambira

# Let's fill the streets with love

# And shake this world alive with singing

# The celebration's now

# For our time to dance has come

# Tambira, Jehovah

# Tambira, tambira

# Tambira, Jehovah. #

Aren't they brilliant?

The children at this girls' school

certainly know how to celebrate harvest.

Our next hymn is perhaps the best-known

of all the great harvest hymns.

Written by Cecil Frances Alexander, All Things Bright And Beautiful.

This is the small town of Hollywood in Northern Ireland.

It's early Saturday evening

and the shops are just about to wrap up for the weekend.

Time for a local church group to spring into action,

making sure that none of God's harvest goes to waste.

Hi, are you all right?

The ministry is called Restore Food Ministry.

We get food from bakeries

and coffee shops in the town - food that they have not been able to sell

on the Saturday, which would be wasted.

We collect that and then distribute it around the families.

Why does the Church get involved in this work?

We want to meet people's practical needs,

but more importantly, we want to demonstrate God's love

and our Church mission statement or strapline

is "Making Jesus Known", and we feel through this

that we can get alongside folks and show God's love to them.

So they leave the goods here, ready to go, brilliant.

Initially, some people are puzzled as to why

we'd be arriving from church and giving them food,

but once people realise we're being practical when people are in need,

I think people see us then as genuine friends, which is nice.

If we can help to make your week a bit easier by sharing God's love

in a practical way, that's what we're about.

OK, Alistair, thank you.

My daughter said to me early on,

"Doesn't it make you feel good to do that?"

I said, "No, it makes me feel really ungrateful".

When I go to the shops I have a Visa card and I have a job.

If I want food, I have got it.

I've also got family who'd do anything for me,

and I'm now aware that there are people for whom that is not the case,

and they're not miles away from me, they're actually around the corner.

Why should the Church get involved in a ministry like this?

Because church is not just about what we believe.

When Christ was on the Earth he did not just talk about what he believed,

he showed his love to people in practical ways,

and we need to be the mirror of that.

It's 2,000 years on, but we're still trying to be practical, as He was.

He was either healing people or providing for them,

and I think we need to be the same.

It's lovely to walk into peoples lives,

see these families come along to church services,

come along to some of the events that we run,

and God spoke to me through his word,

which just talks about not to grow weary in doing good

because in my time you will reap the harvest.

God the Father who created the world,

give you grace to be wise stewards of his creation.

God the Son, who redeemed the world,

inspire you to go out as labourers into his harvest.

God the Holy Spirit, whose breath fills the whole creation.

Help you to bear his fruits of love and joy and peace.

And the blessing of God Almighty the Father,

the Son and the Holy Spirit,

be with you, and with all whom you love, this day and always.

Amen.

Well, that's it for this harvest edition of Songs of Praise.

We'll leave you now with that stirring hymn of Thanksgiving,

Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of Creation.

From Kenya, see you soon.

Next week, Diane explores exciting initiatives

churches are adopting to invite people in.

She'll meet pioneer of the Alpha Course, Reverend Nicky Gumbel,

and find out how a summer festival led to a fresh expression of church.

And there are captivating praise and worship songs from around the UK.