This Confetti is Everywhere!

Sound the bells! Toss the confetti! Start blowing those things you blow at New Year’s Eve parties! What are those things called? Oh, yeah. Party blowers. Sowers4Pastors has recently helped its 200th pastor receive a motorcycle and this calls for a celebration (or at least a blog post)!

Whenever discussing this topic, Allen is adamant that one point is stressed. Sowers4Pastors helps to provide Honduran pastors with motorcycles to use in ministry. They do not simply toss a pastor a key and say, “Here ya go!” This is not at all like the Showcase Showdown on “The Price is Right”! It’s more like telling a kid, “Well, if you want a new bike, we’ll help you buy it, but you’re going to have to pay for a big chunk of it yourself!” (That’s a little parenting trick to raising kids that don’t act like they’re entitled to something. And it also pretty much assures the kid is not going to leave the bike laying in the middle of the driveway, where it will be hit when you’re backing out of the garage!) It’s called “sweat equity”.

Sowers4Pastors pays $1000 toward the purchase of each motorcycle. A pastor’s share is about $600-$700. That’s a serious financial commitment in a country where you’re fortunate if your family income is $1000 a year! Allen said, “It helps us decide if this is really important to the pastor. If we were giving them away, every pastor would want one. They would all want to be my best buddy to try to get me to commit to giving them one. By doing this, I don’t have to worry about a pastor’s motives.”

Pastor filling out motorcycle paperwork

As we’ve mentioned before, a personal investment also demonstrates that a pastor  will have the resources and capacity to maintain a motorcycle. They need to be able to pay for gas, oil, tires, etc…

Each pastor to receive one of these motorcycles must also have the recommendation of their denominational supervisor. They must be hard workers in good standing with their denomination.

A motorcycle can change more than you might realize. Allen said, “A lot of times we help a pastor purchase a motorcycle and he’s planting one church. With the motorcycle, he has the time to begin planting a second church. After working in the fields all day, many of these pastors were walking five miles one-way to visit a church. With a motorcycle, they are able to go visit church plants more often.” It helps pastors maintain better oversight of the church plants. They can be there to truly mentor the more inexperienced pastors and make sure the Gospel is being preached.

Now, won’t someone grab a vacuum? This confetti is all over the floor!

 - posted by Christi