If you go to the homepage on the Sowers4Pastors website and click on the drop down tab labeled “What We Do,” you will see a lot of really cool branches of the ministry. But you’re not seeing everything. It’s like going to a music concert where everyone is singing along with the Top 40 hits, but only the hard core fans are still singing the lesser known songs. It’s not that the lesser known songs aren’t as good. They just never got as much air time and publicity. Today, it’s time to talk about a couple of ministry branches that are every bit as worthwhile as the ones that make it onto the Sowers4Pastors’ Greatest Hits album. Let’s hear it for the Bible bookstore and Gifts for Gracias. Feel free to mouth the words or hum along if you’re a long-time fan and you know what’s coming!
The Bible Bookstore
When Allen and Russell go out to visit churches, they often ask the question, “Who here has a Bible?” Depending on the location, there might be three raised hands. Then they ask to see the pastor’s Bible. Again, depending on the location, it might be a plain Bible with no concordance, footnotes, etc.
All books are expensive in Honduras and the purchase of books isn’t generally a high priority for a family struggling to survive. A typical study Bible in Honduras would cost about $80. That’s not pocket change for most of us, but it’s about a month’s wages for the average Honduran family.
Allen found a supplier who sells him Spanish Bibles and study materials wholesale. Sowers4Pastors then sells the materials with no markup. Through the Bible bookstore, pastors and anyone else have the opportunity to purchase a beautiful study Bible for $20. That’s still a week’s wages, but it’s quite an improvement. The bookstore contains study Bibles, other study materials, Bible Dictionaries, and concordances. There are even materials to help pastors learn how to minister. Since its inception over 14 years ago, more than 40,000 Bibles and study materials have been sold or given away through this humble bookstore.
Gifts for Gracias
Another ministry that doesn't frequently get the spotlight (at least, not anymore) is Gifts for Gracias, and it comes with a brief history lesson. Some of you might recall Gifts for Guanaja. Allen and Trish started Gifts for Guanaja back when their family lived on the island. Gifts for Guanaja started as a shoebox ministry. Churches in the States would send shoeboxes for kids filled with toys, socks, toiletries, etc. You know the type. Guanaja is a small island and Allen and Trish were able to distribute shoeboxes to all of the children in their town. Being the forward thinkers they are, when they moved to Gracias, a name change seemed in order. When they moved from Guanaja to Gracias, they brought about 800 filled shoeboxes with them. Now that they weren't on an island, the communities were a lot bigger and there wasn’t nearly enough to distribute to everyone, so Allen began reaching out to pastors. He went from town to town, seeking out pastors and leaving shoeboxes for their children, which helped him meet a lot of pastors in a short time.
Eventually, this program changed. The shoeboxes grew into Home Depot boxes filled with donated clothing and household goods. If you’ve ever filled a box of backpacks, you know that Sowers4Pastors asks that used clothing donations be packed around the backpacks to utilize every fraction of an inch of shipping space. Those donations find their way to Gifts for Gracias, along with plates, pots, sheets, and other miscellaneous household items. These are the ministry’s Christmas gifts to the pastors and their families (though the scheduling works out that they get the presents in April and May, go figure), so Sowers4Pastors makes a point of giving them the nicest donations they have.
Supervisors of the various denominations give Allen lists of the pastors working under them. Right now, that number is up to about 300. Each of the pastors' children also receive filled backpacks. Many of the pastors in the area are 2nd generation church leaders. The idea here is the same as with the backpacks the kids in the sponsorship program receive. The hope is the more kids have access to school supplies their families might otherwise be unable to afford, the longer these kids stay in school. With so many kids growing up to follow in a pastor parent’s footsteps, it’s extra important for these next generation pastors to receive as much education as possible. The Sowers feel blessed to be a part of helping improve that cycle.
- posted by Christi
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