Rogation comes from the Latin word, ‘Rogare’, meaning ‘to ask’. At Rogationtide we ask for God’s blessing on the activity of the land.  Rogation falls in spring, the time of emerging crops and young animals.  In the church calendar it sits between Easter and Ascension.  Rogation offers a joyful link between the new life, renewal and resurrection in the natural world and the Christian Church.

This service will be the official launch of the 2024 Grow Hope Program.

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For the last several years the Diocese of Rupert's Land has supported the Grow Hope initiative through the Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund (PWRDF), in partnership with the Canadian Foodgrains Bank (CFGB). 

Leveraging the success we have been enjoying over the past years, we are once again launching the Grow Hope program. We will once again be supporting a program in East Africa, but this year, it will be based in Kenya….a brief description of the program is as follows:

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“The project would be a six-month project to support 330 drought affected households (227 female-headed and 103 male-headed households) in 4 communities of Laisamis sub-County in Marsabit County. The project participants will be actively involved in cash for work in the establishment or rehabilitation of community structures including fencing off pasture lands, repair of roads destroyed by floods, fencing off water structures, setting up multi-purpose nurseries (to produce vegetable, fruits, and other tree seedlings) among other identified activities. Participants will work in 11 groups and will be provided with seeds of vegetables, fruits, trees and fodder, including tools. Training, extension, and input support will be provided for kitchen gardening (to produce vegetables such Amaranth, cow pea, green gram, red kidney beans and African Leafy Vegetables), beadwork, household level poultry production, and other income generating activities. The groups will receive trainings to establish village saving and loan associations. They will engage in the leadership workshops for gender equality and prevention of gender-based violence in their communities”.

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As you can see this is a very worthwhile project, and our support is critical. Remember that the money we raise can be matched 3 or 4x by the Canadian Federal Government.

The 2024 Grow Hope program will follow the same procedures as in the past. We will work with a farmer in the Starbuck area of Manitoba who will donate part of his crop to the Grow Hope project. We will pay the grower $300 an acre to cover some of his costs. He will then donate the proceeds of the crop to the Grow Hope project. For reference, last year we paid the grower $12,000 for his input costs (to grow soybeans), and he then later donated the proceeds of 40 acres of his crop ($19,000).  Our plan is to have the grower donate 40 acres of crop once again to support Grow Hope which means we will need to raise $12,000 in the diocese.