Checking in with the Feeding Centers

Esdras is taking this time in the middle of the year to reflect on the feeding centers–on how much they are growing and how Sowers4Pastors hopes they will continue to grow in the future. 

A goal this year for S4P was to visit each feeding center. Esdras reflected on that by saying, “Each time I have visited a feeding center, it has been an opportunity to see how God is impacting the lives of these kids.”

Usually, pastors pick up the rice themselves, sometimes driving as much as four hours. Because of this, S4P staff has to make an effort to see the feeding centers in action. Visiting each center brings home the importance of this part of the ministry. 

Esdras said, “You can see the kids growing in the Word of God. At the same time, we can see that the pastors are doing a great job.” 

S4P provides fortified rice for the centers, but the pastors often add eggs or beans to the rice. Or sometimes they use the rice in a pot of soup. The food is not only nourishing the children physically, it is a way of enticing more children to attend Sunday school.

“Some kids don’t want to go to Sunday school,” Esdras said. “It’s not attractive to them. Some kids may just come for the rice. But during the time the pastors give the rice, they are also able to share the Gospel. The kids may come for one thing but they go home with the most important thing – the Gospel! Our goal is to get more feeding centers because we consider how important the program is. This year we have added thirty centers. For the rest of the year, we are looking for more pastors who can share the love by sharing the Gospel through rice. We praise God for those pastors.”

Esdras went on to talk about the fact that it is not Sowers4Pastors’ job to run each feeding center. All the feeding centers scattered throughout the rural parts of Western Honduras, that simply wouldn’t be a possibility. S4P’s job is to empower the pastors so that the pastors can then spread the Gospel to their communities. If the pastors were not serious about that, the whole thing would fall apart. 

The goal is to add another thirty feeding centers to the program in the coming months. Esdras would like to share that Sowers4Pastors regularly prays for the people who make the feeding centers possible. 

“We are thankful for every sponsor, for every donation, for every person that God put on their heart to help with the rice. Thank you so much for making this possible,” Esdras ended.

It will be exciting to see what the second half of 2024 has in store for the feeding centers.

- posted by Christi

What's Cooking at the Feeding Centers?

Over the past year, Esdras has had the pleasure of visiting many of the feeding centers sponsored by Sowers4Pastors. He was eager to share what’s going on with them.

The S4P feeding centers are run by local pastors through Sunday school programs. The pastors drive to Gracias to pick up the food. Then they return back to their communities loaded down with rice, beans, and vegetables. Protein-packed meals are prepared each Sunday, providing physical food to go along with the spiritual food that is being served up to the children in attendance.

This past Sunday, Esdras visited Pastor Henry’s church, which is about a three-hour drive from Gracias. That church has around three hundred kids in attendance each Sunday. The Sunday school program has grown to include things like a music school and a barber school. Yes, a barber school! Thinking I might have misunderstood him, I asked Esdras to clarify that last point. Here’s what he said:

“Some people in this area don’t have money to pay for a haircut. This ministry is on the street–working with people who may not have homes.” 

Yes, Pastor Henry is an innovative man who saw a need and found a way to fill it. This isn’t the only feeding center he oversees. Pastor Henry serves six different locations, serving a total of 1200 kids in his area. 

“It’s an awesome opportunity to see in person what the goal is when we are donating to the feeding centers. Sometimes when we give out the rice to the pastors, we can’t see the whole picture. But I saw kids involved in music and in serving with skills like barbering,” said Edras.

In two weeks, Sowers4Pastors is hosting a meeting for the leaders of all the feeding centers, which will take place in Gracias. The idea behind this meeting is to make sure that each center is given quality Sunday school materials and how to use them.

Esdras shared, “The food centers are sharing stories from the Bible but many of them don’t have a system or age-appropriate materials.” 

S4P wants to supply each center with good resources that cover topics such as grace and mercy. Esdras has been working with some other people on this and a curriculum has been found. While the kids are given nutritious food to assist in their physical growth, they will also be receiving food to help them grow in God. 

If you’d like to make an extra donation to the feeding center program, head over to the ministry website. Your donation can make a huge impact.

   

- posted by Christi.

Prayer Requests to Kick Off 2023!

Sowers4Pastors is serious about “making the main thing, the main thing" . . . which is to say, they don't want the spiritual aspects of the ministry to be overlooked in the midst of school supply distributions and feeding malnourished children. They can’t do it without the prayers and donations of supporters. As they are moving into 2023, they want to offer a huge “Thank you” to each and every person who helps them do what they do. 

Here’s your first official S4P prayer request list of the new year:

• Please pray for harvesters! There is an ongoing shortage of coffee harvesters and the Sowers4Pastors coffee farm is in competition with every other coffee farm in the region. Just a month ago, there were 120 pickers helping out on the farm. They were harvesting faster than the equipment and farm crew could process it all! Fast forward a month. This coffee harvest started out with 8 pickers. A day later, that number had increased to 25 outside pickers plus the farm crew.

• Pray for the ministry vehicles. There’s going to be an overlap between the coffee harvest and the arrival of teams. The first team to arrive will be from Lighthouse Church. Their Lighthouse for Lempira sister church program is a hard 1 hour and 20 minute drive each way. The vehicles are also needed to drive coffee harvesters to and fro each day, as well as for moving the actual coffee around on the farm. Obviously, working vehicles are not really optional in this scenario - every vehicle needs to keep going during this busy time!

• From the ongoing prep work and organization to the upcoming distribution, backpack work and backpack recipients are always good additions to a prayer list.

• Please pray for the building of the new house on the property–specifically that there will be gaps in the day-to-day responsibilities to work on it and that Allen and Trish’s personal funds will stretch to meet the rising costs. With Allen’s travels back to the States for backpack trips, everyone will feel better with increased security. It is likely that Kirstin will join Allen on future trips. For Trish’s safety and the safety of the property, everyone wants to have Brandy and Rachel close at hand. The sooner the new house is built, the sooner Brandy and Rachel will be able to move in. 

 

• Pray for the progress Alejandro and Cesia are making, as they work on the partnerships with the sister church locations. This Saturday, they will be meeting with the supervisors who oversee the pastors. Alejandro and Cesia are relying on the supervisors for their recommendations to maintain accountability and good stewardship in everything. 

• Please pray for the next container of food to arrive with no issues. Container issues seem to be more frequent than in the past, and the food supply on the ground right now is starting to run low.

• Pray for continued safe travels for Trish. She’s having a great time snuggling baby Steven. Pray for a safe trip home.

• Please pray for Rachel’s 3rd trimester of pregnancy. Since this coincides with team season, pray that she will not feel overloaded with stress and that she will find plenty of time to rest and nest! Prayers for a healthy third child for Rachel and Brandy and seventh grandchild for Trish and Allen.

• 
  Pray for the matching funds drive. Allen never wants to miss out on a single penny that could be used to feed a hungry child. With a matching funds drive in play, there are a lot of potential pennies! This comes at a time when a supply of food is especially needed. Also pray for the children who will receive the food. 

• Prayers for this time of transition, as people are learning new jobs and positions within S4P, are appreciated. As the Gospel is being spread throughout each of the ministry’s programs, pray that the pastors and staff will all be focused on making eternal things the priority. Pray that each person involved will deny themself, pick up their cross, and follow Jesus.

 - posted by Christi

Merry Christmas AND Matching funds for FOOD!!!!

As the angel, played by Gladys Herdman, said in the classic children’s book, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, “Hey! Unto you a child is born!” In case you’re not familiar with the book, consider this your official recommendation. You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. It will move you. It’s a story of what happens when a family of the six “worst kids in the history of the world” get involved in a church Christmas pageant. 

While we are celebrating Jesus’s birthday, it’s a good time to remember that Jesus didn’t come just so we could wear our Sunday best while sitting amongst other people, also wearing their Sunday best. As Christ followers, we are called to care for the poor, feed the hungry, and share the Gospel.

Shortly after the time set aside to celebrate the birth of Christ, it will be time to celebrate Allen’s birthday. And Allen always requests gifts to help feed the hungry. Proceeds from Allen’s birthday fundraiser are used to cover a lot of the food shipping costs needed for the upcoming year. This year, there is a matching funds challenge for any amount up to $23K. In theory, the ministry could raise up the $46K to be used for shipping containers of food. Last year’s birthday challenge raised about $50K, so this is not beyond the realm of possibility!

Why is this birthday fundraiser so important? Here are examples of three different MAJOR occasions, when Sowers4Pastors has been asked to jump in and help during a food crisis, beyond their normal feeding programs. 

The first time was when a study was done by the U.N., the Honduran government, and a branch of the Catholic church. The study came back with the finding that 1200 Honduran children in western Honduras were starving to death. Even though the group doing the study had identified the situation, it was going to take some time before they had the resources in place to help. S4P was asked if they could step in immediately - and they were able to do so, providing 100 meals for each child and their families. That was enough food for them to have at least one nutritious, calorie-dense meal per day for three months. 

The second time S4P was called upon to provide immediate food relief, beyond their regular commitments, was after a major earthquake in 2009. People had lost their homes and were in desperate need of everything. Again, other organizations pledged help immediately, but it was weeks before they were on the ground and able to give concrete help - and in the meantime, S4P was able to fill the gap. 

Something similar happened in 2020 when people in many parts of the country lost their homes during the back-to-back hurricanes (Eta and Iota). With each of these three events, Sowers4Pastors was able to provide immediate food assistance. Local pastors were going out and seeing people in need of food. During this time, there was a major increase in pastors requesting food. The number grew to be sixty pastors beyond those who routinely operate feeding programs. Pastors were able to deliver assistance and use the food as an evangelism tool. 

These fast responses were only possible because S4P had the food on hand. That’s why they like to keep more food than is required for the upcoming scheduled meals at the sponsorship and non-sponsorship feeding centers. The food doesn't go to waste, and if there is no emergency, it is used in the regular ministry work.

During COVID restrictions, there were problems with getting the food from the US, to fulfill the regular ministry obligations. The organization that normally provides the food at no charge if S4P can cover the shipping costs was unable to package food. That was the one instance when Sowers4Pastors had to pay for the actual cost of the food to fill three containers (in addition to paying the cost of shipping and entry fees). Several churches stepped up to the plate and held socially-distanced packing events. The ministry paid an additional $100K for the much-needed food. This was possible because of your generous donations!

Sowers4Pastors has been blessed to have the funds, the storage space and the manpower to keep a large quantity of food on hand. They want to do the best they can to be ready when there is a crisis. Other individuals and organizations might have the desire to help but may not have the resources available to provide immediate assistance. This is why S4P believes it is their responsibility to use their resources to keep an emergency supply of food on hand. 

Allen said, “It is prudent to have resources (money and storage space) so that when a container is offered, we are able to take it. We never want to say that we can’t accept food because we don’t have the money to ship it.”

You will be able to make donations to Allen’s Birthday Fundraiser via Facebook or through the Sowers4Pastors website. When making a donation through the website, simply make a note that you would like the funds to be used for this purpose. 

Merry Christmas to you all!

 - posted by Christi

Shipping Containers Can't Fly!

The majority of the time Sowers4Pastors has a blog post about shipping containers, it concerns containers filled with backpacks. Everyone is eager to hear when the backpacks they filled will arrive. Plus, there is usually some added excitement because those containers are filled with goodies that people at customs just might want to get their hands on. Interestingly enough, backpack containers account for less than half of the containers Sowers4Pastors ships each year. Shipping the 3 - 4 containers of food throughout the year is usually a simpler procedure.  The same people who donate the food also take care of packing. They know what they’re doing and things almost always go off without a hitch. With only one item on the container - boxes with food in them - the paperwork is less complicated, and generally there are no major issues with getting through customs.

The latest food container was donated by the same people in Minnesota who donate multiple times a year. They are back to their pre-COVID methods, which means they are packing the individual meals at their own facility. This time, enough food packaged to fill a container, but the shipper was unable to find a good option to get the food to Honduras. They explored unique options like sending the food by train to the West Coast and having it go by ship on the Pacific, through the Panama Canal and then back up to Honduras. Fortunately, the man who heads up the food donation ministry is himself a trucker. He volunteered to haul the shipment to the Gulf Coast of Mississippi at no cost. This was a significant donation since he charged for neither his time nor the cost of gas. The person who regularly handles the Sowers4Pastors shipping arranged for warehouse space to hold the contents until it could get on a ship headed for Honduras. A couple of weeks ago, Allen received word that the food had arrived at the port in Honduras.. 

Then an email arrived from the shippers. The email, which was written in poorly translated English, mentioned that there were customs allegations that the container was carrying plague. Yikes! “Plague” is a poorly translated way of alleging insect or rodent infestations. There has been some speculation that any container that goes through customs now manages to rack up huge storage fees. (While it’s not outside the realm of possibility that there were some bugs in the container, it doesn’t appear there was ever a big issue.) The people on site had to contact the experts from another part of the country to examine the container. Sowers4Pastors paid for extra storage fees and a spray that went on the outside of the food boxes to kill any real or imagined bugs.

This past Saturday, the container was released. With teams coming and going each weekend, Saturdays aren’t the best days to receive a container, but they made it work. Russell was off collecting the new arriving team from the airport in San Pedro. The farm crew was on call to unload the food when the container arrived. Then word came that the truck with the food container had been in an accident. What the what? An accident? What kind of accident? The pictures of the accident soon arrived, leaving almost more questions than answers. 

The answers came when the driver from the accident brought the food to Sowers4Pastors. He explained that he was having to make a U-turn when he was barely out of the port. Another driver saw him too late and had to make a large swerve to keep from hitting the food container. But wait! If the driver swerved then why was there a huge hole in the back passenger side of the food container? Well, the largeness of the swerve coupled with the apparent speed of the second driver sent container #2 airborne! It flew through the air like a giant clumsy bird that shouldn’t attempt flight and tore open the food container. A lot of boxes of food got crashed upon impact.

The police were called to secure the scene because truck accidents are always looted. Trish has witnessed such scenes and described it by saying, “A truck goes off the road and is opened up in the crash . . . and then people come like a stream of ants to pick up the contents.” Thanks to the fast action of the police, they didn’t lose a lot to looting. 

The newly ventilated container was taken to a location where they could move the food to another container. Apparently this process could have been more gentle, as even the "undamaged" boxes arrived looking quite distressed. The container arrived in Gracias at about 8:00 pm. When opened, it revealed loose bags of food. 

The crew filled sacks with individual bags of food. Then they got to the stacks of boxes. FYI, cardboard boxes aren’t really designed to sustain the impact of a flying container filled with whatever the 2nd container was filled with. The boxes were falling apart and falling apart boxes don’t stack particularly well in a warehouse. When the wonky boxes were moved from the container, more loose food was revealed at the back of the container. The process of unloading the container and moving the contents (such as they were) to the warehouse went on until almost 2:00 am. Allen and Kirstin worked with the crew even though Allen had to be up at 5:30 to go out with the team. 

Sowers4Pastors will be submitting a claim for a loss of about $1000, but they don’t know what will happen with that. The team that is currently on the ground has three days of scheduled backpack distribution and then they will move on to other tasks. The plan had been for them to prepare backpacks to make sure everything will be ready for the next teams. Now, it’s looking like they might also be sorting through food in the warehouse. Any food that is spilling out and can’t be used at feeding centers will be fed to the Sowers’ hogs, so it won’t entirely go to waste.

The upside to this week is that Brandy is finally in Gracias. His first day of work with Sowers4Pastors was Tuesday. Everyone is quite excited to have him there, particularly Rachel and their boys.

 - posted by Christi

Funds Raised in the Nick of Time

Praise reports and prayer requests go together like… Peanut butter and jelly? Sugar and spice? Trucks and mud? The 1980s and big hair? Take your pick. The point is that praise reports and prayer requests often go together. This blog post is another example of praise and prayer joining hands.

The recent fundraiser to celebrate Allen’s birthday was a rousing success. Due to matching funds donations, more than $40,000 was raised to be used for shipping food containers to Honduras. That’s enough money to ship and pay customs on approximately 1.5 million meals!

A lot more people are requesting food than is normal for this time of year. Usually, pastors aren’t in as big of a hurry to pick up food during the time around coffee harvesting season. This is typically the season when families have enough money to purchase some extra food, for stocking up. They will usually take this time to buy an extra bag of rice, an extra bag of beans, and several bags of corn to see them through the leaner times. But things are different this year. The cost of food in Honduras is going through the roof. Prices have increased by 25-50% on most items.

The World Food Programme is still studying the problem in Lempira specifically, but it has already determined that 30% of Hondurans are suffering from acute food insecurity. 7% of Hondurans were found to be in a state of emergency food insecurity.

Farmers are doing what they can to combat the problem. But, as Allen said, “There are only so many bad fields they can plant in. A lot of farmers have run out of places… In addition to that, the cost of fertilizer has already gone up 30% over last year’s prices and is expected to double this year.”

Allen also discussed the overall nutrition dropping. To compensate for higher prices, many people are only eating protein once or twice per week. Sowers4Pastors is even exploring the idea of helping people get chickens because the cost of eggs has gone up 50% in the last year.

Another ministry recently reached out to Sowers4Pastors because they were getting requests for food from the more than 30 pastors they work with. Sowers4Pastors was able to respond by sending them 110,000 meals! That is both a prayer request for other ministries and a praise that S4P was able to help people in another area of Honduras.

The money raised to transport food is an obvious answer to prayer. Food for Kids has committed to doing everything they can to help out with food donations. Allen is also reaching out to other groups in hopes of getting more food. Please pray that one or two of those groups will be able to donate another container or two filled with food. It is important that the containers be full. Otherwise, it doesn’t make sense to ship them. Also, please pray that the cost of shipping doesn’t go up any more than it already has. It increased 50% in the last year, climbing from $8,000 to $12,000. Another 50% jump would put the cost at $18,000!

Please continue to pray for the feeding centers. Pray that the pastors will take full advantage of the opportunity to share the Gospel with the kids while feeding them.

In the praise column, Allen wants to thank everyone for making his birthday wishes come true with your generous donations. He said, “We’re happy to be in the middle of helping to get these kids some of the nutrition they need."

- posted by Christi

Putting Your Money Where Their Mouth Is

Psst.. Hey, you. Yes, you. Check this out. Do you remember reading about the container of food that was recently gifted to Sowers4Pastors? You remember, right? The food that has just been waiting to be shipped to Honduras where it will be distributed to feeding centers? Yeah, it’s all coming back to you, I can tell.

A large donation of food is always a big ol’ deal to the ministry. But with food prices up by 50% over last year’s costs, this donation is a supremely huge thing. Shipping costs have also gone up by 50%, but… drumroll, please… two people have come forward with a matching funds challenge. This is where you come in, so pay close attention. 

The cost of shipping the container of donated food will be about $15,000. But with the matching funds challenge, Sowers4Pastors is only responsible for raising $7,500. That still sounds like a lot of money, doesn’t it. Well, it is, but the cost per meal will still be minimal. Even at $15,000 for shipping, each meal will cost about 3 cents. But, we’re no longer talking about the full cost of shipping. We’re only talking about HALF of the total shipping cost!

This is your opportunity to donate toward the shipping cost. Your donation will be matched dollar for dollar, meaning that you can provide a meal to a malnourished child for well under 2 cents. This brings a whole new meaning to the phrase, “Put your 2 cents in.” 

With a deal like this, you can make your donation dollars stretch like a basket of loaves and fishes. For the sake of easy math, let’s round your cost per meal all the way up to 2 cents. That means that a $100 donation can purchase 5,000 meals. A $10 donation will provide 500 meals. You simply are not going to find a better return on your investment anywhere else. 

You can even make a donation in someone else’s name just in time for Christmas. Instead of purchasing another gift card for the person who has everything, you can give the gift that keeps on giving. These opportunities don’t come up as often as they have in the past, so don’t let this one slide by. 

Allen and the shipping company have been working really hard, and seem to have found a solution to the crazy shipping problem that will get the food to Honduras in a timely manner. 

As always, Sowers4Pastors is so grateful for their prayer and financial partners who help make this food available to the pastors, who then feed the children physically and spiritually. 

- posted by Christi

Mighty Oaks Drop Little Acorns

 If you’re up on your 14th century proverbs, you’re probably familiar with the saying, “Mighty oaks from little acorns grow.” Here’s a 21st century addendum to that: Mighty oaks drop little acorns which will hopefully grow into more mighty oaks which will drop more little acorns and so on and so on… There’s a reason those addendums never get cross-stitched onto pillows. Even though the whole life cycle of a little acorn may never be captured in needlework, the mighty oak/little acorn thing is the lead-in for talking about some new growth in Manna 4 Lempira. 

Manna 4 Lempira has added some additional sectors to its existing program at Tablon. Other than adding new kids to the Manna program, this is the first time Manna 4 Lempira has been expanded into a new location since Quelacasque was added four years ago. Several months back, Manna 4 Lempira reached a point where all of the enrolled kids were sponsored. More kids were added and they were quickly sponsored, too. That was like an acorn falling from the sky and hitting Kim Hall on the head. She said it showed her that they had the capacity to do more. 

Kim said, “It is a sign of God’s faithfulness and the faithfulness of our sponsors that we lost so few existing sponsors during a pandemic. We even saw growth.”

The Halls started looking at how the program could grow and expand. There are some criteria required for expansion. Any church needs to be relatively close to Gracias. Pastors and Sunday school teachers need to be prepared for growth. Looking around, the Halls didn’t find any immediate prospects for new partners, so they began looking at ways to expand existing sponsorship centers.

Quelacasque and Mercedes are already bordering sister church programs and there wasn’t a place for Manna to expand there. There were no churches near Betania that met the criteria. There was not a place to grow.

Tablon, on the other hand, is close to other churches they knew could work. The Halls began thinking about where they could go to develop some new partnerships. They originally evaluated four pastors and Sunday school programs. 

They decided to start with El Zapote, and they registered twenty children. It is an established program and there are good prospects for growth. 

The second sector added to the Tablon sponsorship center is La Estancia. The pastor at that church died of COVID in November. Pastor Omar at Tablon had a great working relationship with that pastor for years and wanted to continue the program he began. There are 60-70 children at that church. Thirty-nine of them are now registered with Manna 4 Lempira. It should be noted that the Sunday school teachers continued working and kept the program going even when they were without a pastor. The church recently got a new pastor.

Food getting picked up for the Tablon program

The other two churches that were considered are doing a good job, but Manna 4 Lempira is trying to achieve sustainable growth - the need and room for growth will be reevaluated in the future. Though the other churches couldn’t be added right now, they are being supported through the feeding program.

Of the 60 new children, FORTY have already been sponsored! Kim knows there are people already considering sponsoring some of the other 20 children. The potentiality for more growth is there. New acorns are being planted during a difficult time. The thankfulness to God and the Manna 4 Lempira sponsors cannot be stressed enough.

Interested in sponsoring a child through Manna 4 Lempira? Click here and here for more information about the program . . . and click HERE to see the children available for sponsorship!

- posted by Christi.

Feeding Centers and Sponsorship Programs

 (This post is part of a series on S4P's mission statement. Here's a link to introduce you to the series.)

Get out your paper and some colored markers because it’s Venn diagram time. If you don’t have a compass, you can freehand your circles or trace around a glass. Draw two overlapping circles. Got it? Now, write FEEDING CENTERS in one circle and SPONSORSHIP PROGRAM in the other. In the overlapping part in the middle, you can go ahead and write BOTH. You can fill in the circles as you read, but let’s make the first entry as a class. In the middle, overlapping part which is embarrassingly just called an intersection, write in EMPOWER PASTORS. 

The feeding centers predate the sponsorship program. They are set up and continue to run hither and yon over a large swath of Western Honduras. These feeding centers are operated by individual pastors out of their own churches. Sowers4Pastors provides the food and collects the records of how it is used. That’s it. Other than that, the feeding centers are completely pastor driven. If a pastor determines there is no longer a need in the community or if he just doesn’t have time, he can close the center. 

COVID had a huge effect on the feeding center program because the need grew exponentially. New pastors came out of the woodwork because their communities needed food. Pastors in existing programs needed more food for their communities. But, generally speaking, the feeding center program is quiet. There aren’t a lot of pictures because there aren’t a lot of visits to these centers. Some are extremely small and remote. One center might only have a dozen kids. There are some places that Sowers4Pastors have never visited due to their remote locations.

In 2015, Kim Hall had the idea to begin a sponsorship program using some of the feeding center programs as home base. Sowers4Pastors did it as a trial with one location. There are some requirements that make a feeding center program a potential sponsorship program:

• The center can’t be too remote because there will be regular visits. 

• There must be a large enough number of children to make it cost effective to visit often.

• The center must have a pastor who wants to put in a lot of time and effort to make this happen. Sponsorship centers require a lot more work and none of the pastors are doing this for pay. They are seeing growth in their churches. Communities are changing because more kids are going to school. 

A lot of research goes into opening a center. The backpack and shoe distributions don’t necessarily happen at feeding centers, but they may. (That little factoid is wreaking havoc with my Venn diagram!)

There are lots of pictures and videos of the sponsorship programs because kids are cute and it’s always fun to see them receiving backpacks, etc. For lack of a better term, sponsorship programs are a bit flashier than their more introverted cousins, the feeding centers. But that doesn’t change the main purpose of both, which is still empowering pastors!

A lot of people love the sponsorship program - and what's not to love? So many pictures of so many kids getting backpacks and going to school and learning about Jesus - but S4P want people to remember that ultimately that's the point - using the sponsorships and the feeding programs to get kids in touch with pastors who can point them in the right direction spiritually. The staff at S4P and Manna4Lempira thank you for your involvement in that process!

-posted by Christi.

Shipping Containers and Tongue Twisters

 Let’s begin today’s post with a tongue twister. No, it has nothing to do with woodchucks chucking wood. This original tongue twister is an ode to shipping containers. Ready? How many shipping containers could Sowers4Pastors ship if the shipping containers were ready for shipping? 

Unlike the unanswerable mystery of how much wood that woodchuck could chuck, this tongue twister doesn’t leave you hanging. The answer is five. There are five shipping containers heading to Honduras. 

If you’ve been around this blog for a while, you know that shipping massive containers of food and backpacks is something that Sowers4Pastors generally does five or six times a year. They’re not what you could call newbies to the wonderful world of shipping. They’ve been regularly shipping containers into Honduras for the last fifteen years. This year, because of COVID, two hurricanes, and backpack season, there are the aforementioned five containers at different stages of the shipping process.

Getting containers shipped is not an easy or inexpensive endeavor. People operating on smaller scales generally stick with shipping pallets. Since Sowers4Pastors has a large need for food and backpack distribution, it works for them. It has always been a process that involves a lot of emails, phone calls, and paperwork. Each year, new Honduran government regulations bring new challenges to get duty-free shipping.

Because people are always curious, the savings achieved by sending a container from the US, over purchasing food and backpacks on the ground in Honduras, is astronomical. Sowers4Pastors does purchase a lot of items locally. They do what they can to boost the economy, but with food and backpacks, that isn’t a viable option.

But let’s get back to the tongue twister. This may be the only tongue twister to come with prayer requests. Admit it; you’ve never given that woodchuck a second thought. Here’s what’s happening with the five containers:

• 
  Container #1 is in port in Honduras. This one is filled with food packed in Maryland. It has already been on the ground for a week. Please pray that it is released before it starts racking up storage fees. UPDATE: THIS FOOD ARRIVED IN GRACIAS YESTERDAY!

• Container #2 is just leaving Florida. This one is filled with backpacks. Pray that it arrives in a timely manner so that the teams arriving in January will be able to distribute them as planned.

• Container #3 is getting ready to load in Maryland on Saturday, filled with backpacks. This prayer request is a biggie. The trucking company doesn’t normally send out trucks on weekends. The company is currently looking for a driver who can deliver the container, hang around while it’s being packed, and then drive it away. Weekend collection is important because that is when volunteer manpower will be available to load the boxes of backpacks onto the container. UPDATE: SATURDAY SHIPPING HAS BEEN COMPLETED, AND CONTAINER IS ON ITS WAY TO HONDURAS!

• Container #4 is being packed next Wednesday. It is a container of food coming out of Ohio. While Allen doesn’t foresee any problems, pray that it will be a smooth process. UPDATE: THERE ARE CURRENTLY NO CONTAINERS AVAILABLE IN THIS PART OF OHIO! PLEASE PRAY THAT WE WILL BE ABLE TO FIND A CONTAINER IN A TIMELY MANNER!

• Container #5 is still in the early stages. Sowers4Pastors is currently applying for a dispensa (permission for duty-free shipping). Like the container before it, #5 will be filled with food and coming from Ohio. The food has not all been packed yet, but that’s on the calendar for January.

Please pray that everything gets through customs in a timely manner, particularly #2 and 3! 

 - posted by Christi

Git-R-Done

In the words of comedian Larry the Cable Guy, the featured players in this backpack collection trip are ready to “Git-R-Done!” This is a phrase that became a favorite of Allen’s many years ago when a gentleman named Rev. Sparks heard Allen speak. The following week, Rev. Sparks delivered a card that contained a donation to the ministry. Allen was grateful for the donation, but the talking card it came in was also appreciated. The inside of the card had a picture of a hillbilly with a gruff voice saying, “Git-R-Done!” A few years ago, when Sowers4Pastors became its own 501c3, the team had a discussion about what to name their fledgling organization. Most of the Sowers clan feel a little weird about having their last name be part of the ministry’s name - sometimes they intentionally mispronounce the name of the ministry, saying “SOWERS” (rhymes with mowers) rather than “SOWERS” (rhymes with flowers). As they were searching for a name, Allen jokingly suggested that the ministry should be called “Git-R-Done Ministries."

This year, when Allen arrived in the U.S., he had a whole pile of paperwork to do. With Kirstin’s help, it is “gittin’ done!” Allen’s goal is to speak at a different church each Sunday. Oh, and while he’s doing this, he and Kirstin are also walking between 10 and 12 miles every morning to improve their fitness and decrease Allen’s risk factors for Covid. In the afternoons, Allen is also riding a bike for about 12 miles.

Allen and Kirstin aren’t the only ones “Gittin’-R-Done.” Russell and Kelsea, along with Kirstin, are getting ready to fly out to Seattle to begin the first leg of the backpack collection portion of the trip. Being at the designated locations at the correct times means they will be pulling 16-hour-days of truck driving. Once they hit Kansas, things will slow down a little, but they will still be in “Git-R-Done” mode. Along the way, Russell will be repacking each box they collect (as needed) in order to use every square inch of space.

Even though there are periods of time when the team will be pushing hard to “Git-R-Done,” that doesn’t mean the Sowers are all work and no play. The truck crew for the West-to-East leg of the trip (Russell, Kelsea, and Kirstin) will make a brief stop to admire the Grand Canyon during the part of the trip where they will be pushing hardest. The Stateside crew is enjoying the chance to spend some time catching up with friends of the ministry. Of course the entire ministry team, especially Allen, is always ready to jump back in and “Git-R-Done!”

All told, the backpack collection trip will involve six weeks on the road and five different rented Penske trucks. It will also include traveling through more than 30 states and a total of over 10,000 miles of driving.

Before Allen joins the convoy, he must first deliver food packing equipment from Maryland to Ohio, where a group from Amish, Mennonite, and independent church communities will pack the next container of food. Between speaking at churches, getting into tip-top shape, and preparing for the trip, Allen is also working to raise funds to ship the next container of food for the kids in Honduras. If you want to join the ministry in “Gittin’-R-Done,” you can partner with them through prayers, packing events, backpacks, and financial support. As always, Allen says “Thank you, thank you, thank you for helping us ‘Git-R-Done!’”

HERE is the link to the itinerary of the West-to-East backpack trip. If you think you should be on the list and are not, please let us know!

 - posted by Christi