MORE than 30 years ago, Derek Wade volunteered to take a box of Bibles to Bulgaria; now, three decades later, he calculates that he has sent hundreds of thousands of aid parcels, worth £2.5 million, to Eastern Europe.

That early experience led Mr Wade, a Reader at St Botolph’s, Barton Seagrave, near Kettering, into more work organising aid for the former Communist bloc, and ultimately into early retirement from a senior teaching post to become Director of EuroAid for the Christian charity Eurovangelism — now known as Transform Europe Network (TEN).

It began in 1991, when he and his wife, Jane, helped two friends who made regular deliveries of Bibles and food aid to the Balkans. “We’d prayed for them as they travelled,” he said, “and, through them, the needs — spiritual and physical — of those living in those countries started to hit home to us.” So, with the help of TEN, they sourced 300 Bibles in Germany, written in Bulgarian, and made a 5000-mile round trip by van to deliver them.

HARVEST FOR THE HUNGRYDerek Wade distributes parcels in Podgorica, Montenegro

In 1992, when the Balkan War broke out, he mobilised churches and schools to pack boxes with food, clothes, and other aid, which TEN airlifted to the Croatian capital, Zagreb. “It was the beginning of an annual Harvest time project which has become ‘Harvest for The Hungry’ [HFTH],” he said.

“That first year, we filled half a truck from TEN: around 1000 parcels. Almost every church and school in greater Kettering joined in. Schools and churches celebrate Harvest, but often didn’t really know how to focus their appeal; so, when we presented the need, they were delighted to help.”

Since then, annual deliveries have been made to more than a dozen countries, including Albania, Serbia, Romania, Moldova, and Russia.

Now retired, Mr Wade, aged 79, is still active, and this year is promoting the charity’s 30th anniversary appeal, made more necessary because of Covid and the war in Ukraine. “The similarities are so clear,” he said. “A brutal focus of aggression sending refugees fleeing, and the knock-on effect on those neighbouring countries providing refuge and help. Sadly, I fear HFTH will be even more needed this year, and in the following years.”

harvestforthehungry.org