A Tale of Two Harvests
The inspiring story of Fields of Life
(From the October - December 2019 issue of VOX)
A dairy farmer from County Dublin, Rev Trevor Stephenson is the founder of Christian development agency “Fields of Life” and minister at Crinken Church, in Bray, Co. Wicklow. Here he shares a little of his remarkable journey - a story that is told in full in his new book due out by the end of the year (see www.fieldsoflife.org for details).
In Uganda, mango trees can produce two harvests at the same time. While the first harvest is almost ripe, the second harvest has already begun to flower. At the beginning of 2018, we saw the obvious harvest of 25 years of Fields Of Life: flourishing schools, wells providing fresh water and individual lives transformed. Yet, we also saw the flowers of a second harvest.
It was interesting thinking back to the first school. Josephine was one of the very first children to walk through the gates of Fields of Life Academy. Now, she has a design business and looks after nine children that she found homeless on the streets.
Moses could not afford school but after receiving sponsorship to attend, he is now an Assistant Health Inspector in Wakiso District Local Government.
Solomon, who is lecturing in Gulu University, said, “I invite myself to schools and rural communities, to inspire the young people to keep going after their dreams. I tell them, ‘If Solomon Olum, from an obscure parish in a little-known village in a formerly war-torn region could make it, anyone can, given the opportunity.’”
I wonder, “What if Fields of Life had not turned up in their lives?” God loves these children. He wanted to give them a chance. Back in 1993, I had no idea what God had in mind, but I had felt enough of His heart for Uganda that I opened myself to the crazy possibility that I would do something about it.
“I had felt enough of His heart for Uganda that I opened myself to the crazy possibility that I would do something about it.”
He could never use me...
I grew up on a dairy farm in Co. Dublin. Apart from farming, St James’ Church, Crinken, in Bray, was where our family spent most of our time. I had heard the Gospel but it was not until I was around 20 that I took it seriously and committed my life to Jesus.
My parents would take me, kicking and screaming, to missionary conferences at Carraig Eden. Listening to the missionaries, I thought, “They must be something special that God could use them in such work. He’d never use me like that.”
When Ken (Fanta) Clarke arrived as the new minister in Crinken, things really took off in my spiritual life. Rev. Ken was down to earth with bags of energy. After some time, he asked me to teach in Sunday School. I never felt I could teach but there was no one else to do it. By the age of 23, I was Sunday School Superintendent.
I remember one day on the farm, leaning against a hay bale with my father. A bit like the prodigal son in Jesus’ parable, I was suggesting to my father that I might want more than being a farmer all my life. I had no idea what seeds were being sown in me that day.
Eventually, I looked at my options with Fanta. I could become a lay reader but with summer Saturday nights cutting silage on the farm, that would make it unfeasible for a service on a Sunday morning! Eventually, with reservations about the academic study, I opted for ordination.
During my training for the Church of Ireland, I undertook a month-long placement in Coleraine, where Fanta and his wife, Helen, were then ministering. The night I arrived, they told me we were all going to New Horizon.
“I’ll go anywhere for you, Lord!”
I can remember it vividly. Charles Price was preaching about the staff in Moses’ hand. When God asked him to throw it down, it turned into a snake. Then God asked him to pick it up again. It became God’s staff. Charles challenged us to look at what we were holding in our hands - was it our job or family, finances or even a ministry?
The Holy Spirit went for my jugular. I felt that I was the only one there. Charles seemed to be talking to me. He said, “Maybe you think you have given up everything for God (yes - I had left farming and I was training for ministry) but are you prepared to go anywhere for Him?”
Charles challenged us to stand if we knew that God had asked us to surrender our ministry to Him. Before I knew it, I was on my feet. I told the Lord, I was prepared to go anywhere. I suppose I had a get-out clause. I thought there was no way I would be leaving Ireland, as I had to fulfil my curacy. The notion that God might send us to somewhere else seemed remote.
During my curacy in Magheralin, Co. Down, the African Children’s Choir came to sing in our church. Hearing my background was in farming, the guy in charge asked if I would come to Uganda and give advice. I said, “Sure.” I meant it but I didn’t really mean it. The choir left and I put it out of my head. But then he called and invited me to visit Uganda. So off I went [to an area that had become known as “the killing fields” of Africa because of its grim history].
A sun-scorched land
I’d never seen poverty like that! They had a school and they wanted to develop a farm to provide an income for the school. On the way home, God spoke to me, “What are you going to do about what you have seen?” I knew I needed to say, “Yes, Lord” to whatever He wanted me to do. I shared the story with my wife, Ruth, but we didn’t know where we could get the money to buy the land, equipment and livestock needed for the farm.
Our church got right behind the vision. Our first fundraising slogan was, “From killing fields to fields of life.” That is how Fields of Life was born in 1993. After six months, we had raised £126,000. I was convinced God was in this.
They needed someone to go to Uganda to oversee the project but the penny still hadn’t dropped. We’d been asked to read through Isaiah 58 for Lent. I was reading verse 11; “God will guide you continually in a sun scorched land.” Ruth was reading the same verse and it jumped out at her.
With confirmation from Isaiah 58, God led us to Uganda for three years. It was an exciting journey with plenty of struggles. We set up the farm and built a school on the land. Today, they have a Ugandan farm manager and a Ugandan head teacher with 500 kids in the school.
Going to Uganda was the hardest decision because at the time we were hoping to adopt. We risked losing the opportunity. But after returning home, God made it possible for us to adopt two boys!
Back in Ireland, I started looking at C of I parishes without success. Either they thought I was cracked in the head or I felt the parish was too inward looking. During that time, God was speaking to us that Fields of Life wasn’t finished. There was a board meeting and we knew that if they offered me the job as CEO, I would take it.
“The way God provided over all those years has been staggering.”
The way God provided over all those years has been staggering. Fields of Life has helped build 126 schools, drill 700 wells, develop health care and invest in Christian discipleship programmes across East Africa.
From one generation to the next
By 2009, I was thinking about succession planning inspired by the Global Leadership Summit. When Richard Spratt joined Fields of Life, I knew he was the one to take over from me. Richard became CEO at the end of 2010, and my wife asked, “What are you going to do?”
There was a vacancy in Crinken Church so I agreed to look after the parish. Eventually they asked me to stay on as the minister so I have come full circle to where all this began.
In a similar way, the Fields of Life alumni came together to start fundraising for a new school. They felt they had received so much that they now wanted to give something back.
They chose Karamoja, one of the most needy regions in Uganda. For me the pinnacle of the second harvest was when the school opened in January 2019. Champions of Hope, the young children in Crinken Church, paid for the desks for the new school!
“No farmer could ever dream of the kind of harvest I experienced.”
The whole way through this wonderful God-given vocation, I have had no idea where it would lead. What I am sure of, is that no farmer could ever dream of the kind of harvest I experienced at the Fields of Life 25th Celebrations, or the alumni-funded school when it opened in Karamoja.
