Motivation to Keep Truckin'

Regardless of the decade of your birth, you likely remember seeing some of the famous motivational posters of the 1960-70’s. Who could forget the posters of the “Hang in there” kitten clinging to a tree branch for dear life? Or the yellow smiley face posters urging you to “Have a nice day”? But do you remember the 1970’s “Keep Truckin’” posters? This post is all about Sowers4Pastors effort to keep truckin’, hang in there, and help thousands of Hondurans have a nice day.

A few months ago, Allen checked on rental trucks for the 2021 backpack trip, but he wasn’t ready to schedule anything yet. Last week, he called back and got actual quotes. Yowza! He was prepared for a price increase, but we’re talking about a PRICE INCREASE! The truck for the first leg of the trip, from Seattle to Frederick, MD has skyrocketed from last year’s price of $3200 to $7600! The second truck that is needed from Indiana to Frederick has increased from $800 to a whopping $2400. Um, yeah, that’s substantial. And that doesn’t even take into account the higher gas prices and increased shipping costs.

Shipping costs could easily be 3-5 times what they were last year. That means the price of shipping one container could go from $5000 to $15,000-$25,000. If shipping is astronomical, it won’t make sense to ship items from the U.S. Let that sink in for a moment. There is a container filled with donated food that should be ready to go in the not too distant future. Another food container is expected to ship in January. Higher shipping costs could make it cost prohibitive to accept gifts of FREE food. And much like the kitten clinging to the tree, the future of backpack trips is hanging in the balance.

Sowers4Pastors is struggling to keep truckin’ in another way, too. Honduras was hit with back-to-back hurricanes in 2020. The loss of life wasn’t as grave as it could have been, but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t damage. Some areas along the Northern coast received 100 inches of rain. Roads were wiped out, bridges were destroyed, and a whole lot of people were left homeless. There are still some people living in tents as a result of the storms. The government of Honduras took all of its (admittedly) meager resources and diverted them to helping the North coast. That was the right thing to do, but now other areas are suffering.

The roads in Western Honduras have never resembled the autobahn, but now they don’t really resemble roads either. There are areas where the roads have completely disappeared and you’re left to drive on dirt. Those patches are preferable to the roads where there’s still asphalt riddled with potholes 8-10” deep. Allen said you might encounter hundreds of potholes per mile. Naturally, this is doing a lot of damage to the vehicles. Trish mentioned that on one particular outing, Allen heard something and knew that it was time to find a welder. Allen and Trish had to stop mid-trip to find a welder to repair the piece that holds the radiator in place.

There are nine people who regularly drive the ministry vehicles. The vehicles aren’t exactly straight off the showroom floor to begin with. Some are circa 1997, while others are from 2007 or 2008. The cream of the crop are the vehicles used for transporting teams. They are only 8-years-old. The best type of vehicle for this terrain is hands-down a kind of Toyota that isn’t sold in the U.S. or Canada. It is popular in places with rugged terrain and exceedingly bad roads. There is currently a 6-month waiting list to get a new Toyota Hilux. Sorry, but I didn’t catch the actual name. It’s not like Sowers4Pastors would be purchasing brand new vehicles, but this shortage means that used Hiluxs are going for the same price as the new ones would be if there were any new ones to be had.

Here’s where everything stands: Sowers4Pastors needs your prayers. They want to make wise decisions and be good stewards of the resources God has given them. They need to decide things like whether they should be doing full repairs to their existing vehicles or just enough patch jobs to keep them limping along. They need to decide the best way to go forward with the scheduled backpack trip.

2020 saw donors rise to the occasion. People were very generous and stepped up when Sowers4Pastors was trying to bring in food. Now that things seem more normalized, giving has dropped back to pre-COVID levels. But there are still rising financial needs on the ground. Please consider sacrificial giving so that Sowers4Pastors can continue to help send children to school, operate feeding centers, and have the vehicles needed to visit those feeding centers.

Thousands of good days are depending on you.

- posted by Christi.