Hither and Yon, and then Hither Again

Have you ever made a mental itinerary, which included a little down time, only to discover that “down time” was going to be replaced with running hither and yon? Surely you have. It’s sort of like making plans to relax on the weekend only to discover your child’s science project is due on Monday. This is pretty much what Trish is experiencing.

The final countdown is on for Trish’s return to Honduras. Although Allen will remain in the States until the first week of December, Trish will be flying home on November 13th. Why?  Ben’s ninth grade school year is coming to an end and Trish wants to be home to spend time with him. She’s also very eager to deliver the violin to him. The thing is, that even though Allen will be available for meetings for several more weeks, churches are opting to find a time to meet with both Allen and Trish. People have a tendency to say, “Let’s schedule things before Trish leaves.” And that brings us to the “hither and yon” portion of this blogpost.

Allen and Trish have been meeting with churches who are involved with Sowers4Pastors in varying degrees. Some are fully in partnership with the ministry. Others are simply wanting to hear more as they consider becoming involved in the future. When Allen and Trish set up meetings, they always do their best to give priority to the pastors’ schedules. They don’t say, “We’ll be in Tallahassee on such and such date.” They say, “What date works for you? We’ll be there!”

That’s why they have been bouncing around the state of Florida like a couple of ping-pong balls. They’ve been spending time in Melbourne and New Smyrna Beach, which are on Florida’s east coast, as well as Tallahassee, which is in the northern part of the state, and Sarasota, which is to the west and farther south.

Here’s a sampling of what their journey has looked like: They are in Melbourne on the Tuesday and Wednesday. On Monday, they were in Sarasota. The day before that, they were in Edgewater, which is north of Melbourne. They drove to Sarasota on Sunday night, had dinner with their kids, spent the night, and headed back to Edgewater. Trish will happily sacrifice the dream of downtime for the chance to develop relationships with churches, even if it means taking a very scenic route around Florida.

Allen pointed out this is one reason it is always good when they have more than one church to visit in any location. As much as they love visiting stand-alone locations like Seattle, they are hoping to be able to work with additional churches in that area, in the future.

While Allen and Trish are running hither and yon, Russell and Kelsea are hosting a medical team in Honduras. The team is doing well-visits on children in some of the sponsorship locations. They are also doing an open clinic for the surrounding area. Well visits are a part of the sponsorship program, and they also serve as a screening process for Sowers4Pastors’ ongoing mercy medical missions. These people don’t need no stinkin’ downtime! They are the most mission driven missionaries you’ll ever meet.

 - posted by Christi