Mighty Oaks Drop Little Acorns

 If you’re up on your 14th century proverbs, you’re probably familiar with the saying, “Mighty oaks from little acorns grow.” Here’s a 21st century addendum to that: Mighty oaks drop little acorns which will hopefully grow into more mighty oaks which will drop more little acorns and so on and so on… There’s a reason those addendums never get cross-stitched onto pillows. Even though the whole life cycle of a little acorn may never be captured in needlework, the mighty oak/little acorn thing is the lead-in for talking about some new growth in Manna 4 Lempira. 

Manna 4 Lempira has added some additional sectors to its existing program at Tablon. Other than adding new kids to the Manna program, this is the first time Manna 4 Lempira has been expanded into a new location since Quelacasque was added four years ago. Several months back, Manna 4 Lempira reached a point where all of the enrolled kids were sponsored. More kids were added and they were quickly sponsored, too. That was like an acorn falling from the sky and hitting Kim Hall on the head. She said it showed her that they had the capacity to do more. 

Kim said, “It is a sign of God’s faithfulness and the faithfulness of our sponsors that we lost so few existing sponsors during a pandemic. We even saw growth.”

The Halls started looking at how the program could grow and expand. There are some criteria required for expansion. Any church needs to be relatively close to Gracias. Pastors and Sunday school teachers need to be prepared for growth. Looking around, the Halls didn’t find any immediate prospects for new partners, so they began looking at ways to expand existing sponsorship centers.

Quelacasque and Mercedes are already bordering sister church programs and there wasn’t a place for Manna to expand there. There were no churches near Betania that met the criteria. There was not a place to grow.

Tablon, on the other hand, is close to other churches they knew could work. The Halls began thinking about where they could go to develop some new partnerships. They originally evaluated four pastors and Sunday school programs. 

They decided to start with El Zapote, and they registered twenty children. It is an established program and there are good prospects for growth. 

The second sector added to the Tablon sponsorship center is La Estancia. The pastor at that church died of COVID in November. Pastor Omar at Tablon had a great working relationship with that pastor for years and wanted to continue the program he began. There are 60-70 children at that church. Thirty-nine of them are now registered with Manna 4 Lempira. It should be noted that the Sunday school teachers continued working and kept the program going even when they were without a pastor. The church recently got a new pastor.

Food getting picked up for the Tablon program

The other two churches that were considered are doing a good job, but Manna 4 Lempira is trying to achieve sustainable growth - the need and room for growth will be reevaluated in the future. Though the other churches couldn’t be added right now, they are being supported through the feeding program.

Of the 60 new children, FORTY have already been sponsored! Kim knows there are people already considering sponsoring some of the other 20 children. The potentiality for more growth is there. New acorns are being planted during a difficult time. The thankfulness to God and the Manna 4 Lempira sponsors cannot be stressed enough.

Interested in sponsoring a child through Manna 4 Lempira? Click here and here for more information about the program . . . and click HERE to see the children available for sponsorship!

- posted by Christi.