Good News for the countryside: Farming and a very different kind of inheritance

​For at least five generations, the Annett Family have farmed the lands that we still call home. Through the hottest of summers and wettest of springs, economic downturns, threats from potato blight and bovine tuberculosis, not to mention the ever-increasing pressures faced by farmers and their families - we are still here.

Located between the Mountains of Mourne and the Irish sea, it’s a beautiful part of God’s Creation. On a good day the ‘view from the office’ is pretty spectacular! The home farm runs to around 40 acres, which along with some rented land plus common grazing on the mountains, has supported our herd and flock over the years.

Despite the seemingly endless wind and rain at the start of the year, we were blessed with a good lambing season, but it was very different, as it was the first that our dad, Reggie, wasn’t with us. Born on the farm, he worked the land all his life looking after the sheep and cattle, until God called him home last July - just shy of his 85th birthday.

While it wasn’t unexpected, it was and still is, a time of sadness. We miss his physical presence in our lives daily, especially around the farm, where, like most farmers, his heart was.

But at a young age, my dad had given that same heart to Jesus, accepting him as his Lord and Saviour. Perhaps you have been a faithful church attender for many years, and don’t yet know Jesus personally? Or, you have never attended church, but know there must be more to life than you are experiencing? If that is you, Jesus is inviting you to trust him as your friend and Saviour.

By confessing to him your sin that separates us from God, repenting of it (which means turning away) and asking for his forgiveness, we can live in the firm assurance that “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans

10:13).

With death comes eternal life for those who know Jesus, and for those left behind there is often an inheritance. Inheritance and farming have been very much in the spotlight lately, with the recent changes to inheritance tax rules. Dad passed away eight months before they came into effect, so we were spared the stress of having to sell part of the farm to comply with the new tax liability.

I know that many famers will not be spared from this tax – but I hope and pray, that like my dad, they will ultimately know “…an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade…” (1 Peter 1:4) which, he tells us, is kept in heaven for us.

As we still mourn dad’s loss and grieve his absence, I was able to say ‘goodbye’ to my dad knowing that as a follower of Jesus, we would be reunited one day. How? Because Jesus prepared a place for him in heaven (John 14:1-6) as he will for me and all who know him as their Saviour. In so many ways this assurance is such a precious gift and has been a wonderful comfort as well.

It was also a comfort to know that the last verse of Scripture that he heard this side of eternity was this wonderful promise from Psalm 23:6, “Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” It would be my prayer that like my dad, you too can say that.

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Ronald Annett works for a local animal feed company and helps out on the family farm in the shadow of the Mourne Mountains. He is a member of Mourne Presbyterian Church in Kilkeel, County Down.

If you would like to talk to someone about any of the issues raised in this article, please email Rev Kenny Hanna, PCI’s Rural Chaplain at [email protected] or call him on 07938 488 372.