Friday, August 19, 2016

Let's Talk About Bridges!

As I sat down to brush up on the bridge building projects going on with Sowers4Pastors, I found myself taking a stroll down memory lane. Please indulge me here. Growing up, I attended a tiny, little, country church which contained limited musical talent. Very limited. Anyone with the guts and gumption to do so could stand behind a microphone and deliver the “special music”. What those sweet souls lacked in ability, they made up for in enthusiasm. One of the most frequently requested musical numbers was the Southern Gospel song, “I’m Building a Bridge,” performed by a quartet who had the ability to memorize lyrics and project to the back pew. That alone put them on par with the Gaithers as far as we were concerned!


Lyrical Bridge


I can still hear their attempts at harmony as they sang the chorus:


I’m building a bridge, across the divide.
I’m building it strong; I’m building it wide.
God gave me the plan. I’m following through.
I’ll make it somehow. Brother, how about you?


While the voices in my memories were singing about a metaphorical bridge (One that I’m sure I didn’t understand as a child who was enthralled in my Sunday morning task of coloring in all of the o’s in the bulletin.), the Sowers are involved in some very literal bridge projects.


Literal Bridges


A team of eighteen people from Lighthouse Church in Maryland will arrive in Honduras on August 27th for the purpose of building a bridge-in-a-week. Do you remember the bridge-in-a-week project Allen and Russell headed up in Haiti, in May? Yeah, well, this project is like that, except it’s in Honduras instead of Haiti. That’s great because: 1) It will seriously cut down on Allen and Russell’s travel time, and 2) It will eliminate the need to have things translated between three languages like that “I Love Lucy” episode when she inadvertently passed counterfeit money in France. Also, it’s nice anytime Sowers4Pastors gets to help serve the local communities of Western Honduras.


Allen and Russell will be laying the groundwork to get ready for the team. They will go over the plans (yet again!) and make sure they have all of the needed supplies purchased and delivered in time for the team’s arrival.


The Sowers men aren’t just involved in building one bridge across the divide! Another bridge building project is already in sight. A team from Trinity Anglican Church in Jacksonville, Florida will be traveling to Honduras in February to work on yet another bridge project. The team will be working to complete a bridge for their sister church. That’s a larger, car bridge, which will take a couple of months to build, but the team from Florida will be there for the final week of construction.These projects are crucial because they connect rural communities to the outside world.





Sowers4Pastors builds bridges with the same intensity I devote to binge watching a good show on Netflix, which, I must say, is causing me to reevaluate my metaphorical bridge building! Brother, how about you? - posted by Christi

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