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Farming '88, 1988-03-30, Page 33FARMING ’88, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30, 1988. PAGE 9. Queen's Bush Ministry offers help for troubled Although there are signs things may be improving in agriculture, many farm families still find themselves under tremendous stress. The Queen’s Bush Ministry wasfounded last yearto help people solvetheir problems. The tremendous growth of the ministry shows there are still many problems in the farming community. BY TOBY RAINEY Since the Canadian farm econo­ my began its long slide into crisis in the late 1970’s and the early 1980’s, there have been a great many government and administra­ tive programs put into place to share up the victims of falling prices and rising interest in the agricultural sector. But, as Elbert Van Donkersgoed of the Christian Farmers’ Federa­ tion of Ontario recently pointed out to farmers in Lucknow, many of these have done little or no good, and some were actually harmful, for the simple reason that most of them helped the rich get richer and the struggling just to hang on for another few months before going under. He also said that the family farm would never again be the solid foundation upon which our country was built unless farmers them­ selves took much of the responsi­ bility for solving their own pro­ blems, quit depending so heavily on government handouts, and started fighting back to defend the way of life they hold so dear. With a mandate to deal with rural people as it sees fit, professionally, sympathetically, compassionately and in the strict­ est of confidence, the Queen’s Bush Rural Ministry was put in place last December to deal with the human problems that have crowded in as the result of the farm crisis, and tostandbesidethose suffering the most, enabling them to “fight back.’’ The idea of the ministry was first conceived three years ago, spear- headedby the United Church in Bruce County, says Bill Wolfe of RR 1, Dobbington, near Tara, president of the administering board of directors, who went through his own financial hell in theearly ‘80’s. Itwasfitting, he says, that the church hotline should have been born in livestock­ dependent Bruce County, where the Ontario farm financial crisis was first felt. Since then the crisis has spread to the rapidly declining tobacco belt of southwestern Ontario, and most recently to the grain belt of southern and central Ontario. Mr. Wolfe says that, rightly or wrongly, farmers and other rural people are often wary of approach­ ing service organizations, espe­ cially government agencies, when they are facing problems, so in 1985 a group of United Church ministers and lay persons saw a chance for the church to become involved with the ever-increasing need for counselling and assis­ tance. “ We felt that if it was something born of the churches people might feel more free to call,’’ he says. Now, Queen’s Bush Rural Mini­ stry is an interdenominational organization run by a 10-member board of directors, only one of whom, Reverend Barry Bain of Hanover, is a minister, while the rest are concerned individuals and farmers, some of whom have been through the mill of the agricultural crisis themselves. Now there are representatives of the Lutheran, Mennonite and Roman Catholic Churches serving on the board, although a by-law of the organiza­ tion requires that six of the members be of the United Church faith, Mr. Wolfe says. Brenda Mason of RR 1, Belgrave and Brian Ireland of RR 2, Teeswater, are the two people at the forefront of the ministry today, the ones hired late last year to field the calls which were expected as soon as the Queen’s Bush tele­ phone line was installed on December 8, 1987. Originally, expecting that one person would be able to handle the job, the board hired Brenda alone. But when she Continued on page 10 Members of the Howick Junior Women’s Institute were stunned when Queen’s Bush Rural Ministry counsellor Brenda Mason, right, told them recently that the Farm Credit Corporation had handed out foreclosures to 17 Morris Township farm families the week before Christmas, 1987. “That hits pretty close to home for all of us,” she said. All Furniture Purchases of LISTOWEL---------GODERICH 291-1461 524-4334 IN-STOCK ROOM SUITES Zilliax Furniture & Appliances & Major Appliance $399.00 or More Eg. your purchase of $600 + 12 = $50./mo. Pay No Interest for 1 Full Year O.A.C.