Spotlight on Arenales

Third in a series of posts about the Sister Church Sponsorship programs. The first post was A Vision for Guacutao and the second was A Seattle 4 Lempira Anniversary Update.

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We’re continuing to shine a spotlight on the various sponsorship centers. This time, the beam is pointed at the center in Arenales. Clay Davis, a member of Life Community Church, shared his insights, which I’m sure you will find illuminating.

Clay and his wife, Carrie, visited Honduras with two other members of their church. Life Community Church is the sister church to Arenales. They partner with Pastor Marvin and currently sponsor most of the students in the community's upper school. There are 213 kids in that school. LCC currently sponsors 204 of those students.  The amazing thing is that Life Community Church only has about 300 members! They hope to eventually sponsor the 125 students in the lower Arenales school, as well.

Upper school in Arenales

I asked Clay about his first impressions of Arenales. Like so many people who visit the communities in the mountains around Gracias, Clay spoke of how physically remote the church and school are. He said, “I knew that intellectually, but it’s difficult to convey how remote it actually is without visiting. Their definition of ‘road’ is very different from ours.”

The remoteness of the location impressed Clay because he knows Arenales is typical of the communities served by Sowers4Pastors. Knowing that Arenales was a fair representation of many of the locations the Sowerses are involved with was impressive to him. It also really drove home the importance of the Sowers4Pastors’ philosophy of equipping indigenous pastors.

The group from LCC got to distribute backpacks and shoes to the children of Arenales. The Davis family is currently sponsoring eight children. They were able to meet all of their sponsored kids, plus the children sponsored by their friends from LCC.

If you're reading this post by email, you can click on this link to see this video:

 Life Community Church - backpack distribution in Arenales 2019 

Clay and Carrie weren’t the first members of their family to visit Arenales. Their teenage son went on a mission trip with LCC in 2018, when they put on a week-long VBS program in the area. Clay and Carrie also aren’t likely to be the last Davises to visit. Their teenage daughter should be going on the church’s next trip to Honduras, which Clay believes will be in 2020.

Home Depot box heading out for the final leg
of its journey

When I asked Clay if he would like to go back, he offered up his thoughts on efficiency before answering. Clay said he is a business guy at heart and he is very impressed by the efficiency with which the Sowerses operate their ministry. Clay said, “They are doing more with less, which is a mantra people say - but they are doing it!” Clay appreciates their ability to look around and advance the Kingdom in some non-traditional ways--such as using their coffee farm to provide jobs and fund part of their ministry. Clay marveled that when doing backpack distribution, they even have a specific number of uses they try to get from each Home Depot box. The boxes are used in collecting the backpacks in the US, shipping them to Honduras, organizing them for distribution, carrying them out to distribution points, and finally using them in the Gifts for Gracias project, filled with appreciation gifts for individual pastors.

As to whether or not Clay would like to return, he said he would absolutely enjoy another trip. But even more, he wants more people - other people - from Life Community Church to visit Honduras and, as Allen says, “Catch the vision, go home, and share the vision.”

 - posted by Christi