Backpacks and Crud

Even the “crud” (the technical name for this strain of flu) that has made its way through the ranks of the Western Honduras Sowers family could not prevent Trish from dragging herself to the phone to tell me about what’s going on with backpacks. A very hoarse and puny Trish, shared pertinent information between coughs, while an even punier Allen shared his thoughts in the background. Neither crud, nor cough, nor sore throat shall stay these Sowerses from their appointed ministry!

Sowers4Pastors is currently at the phase of buying backpacks in bulk and sending them out to people who have organized backpack drives at their locations. They also want to encourage more people to participate. So, if you’re not involved in a backpack drive, consider yourself officially encouraged! If there is an existing drive in your area, Allen and Trish can connect you. If not, they would love for you to set one up.

When the season arrives to collect the backpacks, Allen and Trish will definitely be hitting Washington State, Colorado, and all of the states in between. They are currently in discussions with someone trying to set up a drive in California, which would add California and Oregon to that list. Then they'll hit Kansas, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, and places in between. For the final phase of the trip they will go through Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, and Alabama.

There is no limit to the number of backpacks Sowers4Pastors can pass out. As Trish said, “The need is great!” In order to make this trip as cost effective as possible, the more backpacks they collect, the better. More importantly, more backpacks mean that more kids will get to attend school!


From his location across the room, Allen shared an eye-opening statistic. To the best of their calculations, about 20% of the filled backpacks go to kids who would otherwise not attend school at all. The remaining 80% go to children of very poor families, who are barely managing to get their kids to school.

Hear me loud and clear; this is NOT a political post. But, for every person who has ever wanted to help the people of Central America in their own countries, this is a way you can do that. Like parents everywhere, Honduran parents want a better life for their children. The education level of the average adult in the mountains of western Honduras is somewhere between no education and third or fourth grade. They want their kids to have the chance to do better. You can help by providing children with the necessary tools which will enable them to go to school!

 - posted by Christi