Like Progressive Lenses for Missions

Current Team from Edgewater Alliance Church,
Edgewater Florida

While Trish is in the U.S., Allen and Russell are back in Honduras hosting a team from Edgewater Alliance Church. The team is there to spend time with their sister church in Guacutao.

Trish took some time to explain why Edgewater Alliance is such a great sister church! It’s always fun to see how different churches implement things. EAC created a Sister Church committee, consisting of 8-10 people with varying talents.

Committee members have regular meetings to plan ahead for things like backpack packing events. As you may recall, EAC is also a hub for one of the Sowers4Pastors’ shipping containers, each year. They do a tremendous job of mobilizing their forces. The committee sends out a newsletter to people who sponsor children. The newsletter contains pertinent information about important dates, future team visits, and when sponsor letters are due to be sent out. Edgewater Alliance also has a Facebook page dedicated to their sponsorship program and their involvement with Sowers4Pastors.

Pastor Lorenzo, of Guacutao, with the motorcycle
that EAC and Sowers4Pastors helped him purchase

EAC has been involved with Sowers4Pastors for longer than the Sister Church Program has been in existence. They have taken to it like a duck takes to water--going above and beyond the call the duty. The church has a direct connection with the pastor of the church in Guacutao, Pastor Lorenzo. When they learned that Pastor Lorenzo was one of the pastors in need of a motorcycle, they raised a share of the money to help him obtain one. Furthermore, Pastor Lorenzo has planted churches and EAC helped put roofs on those buildings. They are a part of Pastor Lorenzo’s vision of reaching his part of Western Honduras, in a direct way.

While on the ground, the team from EAC will be visiting their sponsored children. Even though it is currently school break in Honduras, the team will also be doing some VBS type of activities with the children.

Child from Guacutao with badly burned foot
(I'm sparing you the photo of the injury)

In Guacutao, the team came across a little girl wearing one shoe. It wasn’t that she'd lost a shoe; it was that her foot received a nasty burn, four days prior. After consulting with the girl’s grandmother, two team members who are medical majors cleaned and bandaged the wound. They returned the following day with supplies to care for the wound. This is another example of why having teams on the ground is so important. Visiting teams have direct contact with a community and are able to focus in on specific needs.

As Trish said, Sowers4Pastors never wants to elevate their position as missionaries to make things all about them. They fully see their role as one of equipping local pastors to do their jobs more effectively. The Sister Church Program is great because one North American church is able to focus on one Honduran church. From Sowers4Pastors' perspective, it’s about making connections. The partnership between Sowers4Pastors and sister church sponsors is a little bit like wearing progressive lenses. There’s no need to choose between seeing the big picture and noticing the details in fine print!

 - posted by Christi