The Room You Didn’t Know You Had (But God Did)

Raise your hand if you’ve ever had that dream — the one where you discover a hidden room or an entire wing of your house that you somehow never knew existed. It’s surprisingly common, and supposedly it represents untapped potential.

Well… that’s probably one dream the Sowers4Pastors staff doesn’t have.

Why? Because they are firmly in the “use what you’ve got” camp — and then use it again, and then maybe repaint it and turn it into something else entirely.

Case in point: the old office space.

This particular space has had more career changes than someone in their twenties. At various points, it has been a storage room, a temporary living space for Kirstin (back when “no shower” was apparently just a minor detail), an office, and — once again — storage.

But now? It’s stepping into its newest role with confidence, purpose, and a fresh coat of paint.

The space is being transformed into an apartment for longer-term visitors.

And not just any apartment. This upgraded version now includes a working shower and a repaired bathroom sink — luxuries that earlier versions of the space could only dream about. It’s functional, practical, and, most importantly, right where it needs to be: on the ministry property.

You might be wondering, “What about Mary Faith’s house? Isn’t that already used for hosting?”

It is — and it’s been a huge blessing. But it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution. For starters, it’s a rental, which means its long-term availability isn’t guaranteed. And for nexters (which absolutely should catch on as a word), it doesn’t provide housing for male interns or certain long-term guests.

The newly revamped space solves all of that. It’s owned by the ministry, located right alongside the coffee farm and vehicles, and perfectly positioned to support the day-to-day rhythm of ministry life.

It’s also incredibly practical. When the mechanic comes to service the ministry vehicles, he may stay for weeks — or even months. A freshly updated on-site apartment is far more cost-effective than extended hotel stays, and infinitely more convenient.

In fact, the timing couldn’t be better. A new intern is arriving this evening and will be the very first to stay in the newly repurposed space. Nothing like a soft opening with a real, live human.

Of course, a project like this doesn’t come together on its own. A well-earned shoutout goes to Nathan and Michael, who jumped in to help Brandy get everything ready. From painting to general elbow grease, they brought both skill and willingness — two things that tend to make any project go faster (and look better).  And all of this? It’s happening in the middle of everything else. Because, naturally, there is always an “everything else.”

 Work continues on the coffee farm, where the long-awaited rains have finally arrived — just in time for fertilizing. At the same time, the team is moving from backpack and dental team season straight into medical teams and VBS teams. It’s less of a slow transition and more of a full-speed relay race.

In fact, members of the upcoming medical team are already beginning to arrive, with plans to serve in four different communities next week. And immediately following that, the VBS teams will jump into action.

It’s a full schedule. A meaningful one — but definitely a full one.

Brandy summed it up simply: “Please pray for safety, endurance, and that we would serve in the way God wants us to serve. Pray that we will be a light and show the love of God.”

Because at the end of the day, whether it’s a repurposed room, a backpack distribution, or a medical clinic, it all comes down to the same thing — faithfully using what God has already provided.

No hidden rooms required.

 - posted by Christi

Happy Busy New Year from Sowers4Pastors!

As we ring in 2025, there’s a good chance you’re still shaking off a holiday cheese coma, but the Sowers4Pastors team has wasted no time diving headfirst into the new year. Let’s catch you up on all the excitement happening in Honduras!

Backpacks

The elves at S4P (otherwise known as the hardworking staff) are in full swing organizing more than 2,000 backpacks for distribution. Each bag is being meticulously checked to ensure it’s filled with school essentials—like notebooks, pencils, and erasers—and then topped off with toothpaste (added on-site thanks to customs regulations). It’s a massive operation, but the team’s pace could rival Santa’s workshop during peak season!

It's not the North Pole, but our elves are feeling the need to bundle up!

Trucks

Keeping things rolling—literally—is a top priority. Brandy’s trusted mechanic friend is arriving from Tegucigalpa to ensure every S4P truck is in tip-top shape for the heavy-duty work ahead. With parts already on order, the team is determined to keep these vehicles running smoothly for the busy season.

Coffee

The coffee harvest this year is nothing short of monumental. In the words of Rachel, “We are drowning in coffee!”

After a few years of bouncing back from the coffee blight (and the fire), the S4P farm is experiencing a harvest of epic proportions. What normally takes two weeks has stretched into weeks of continuous work, compounded by the holiday interruptions of Christmas and New Year.

Last week alone, about 80 pickers filled five large Ford trucks with coffee in a single day—on what would normally be a three-truck day! The drying patios are maxed out, and the team has even had to purchase additional tarps to handle the overflow.

It’s a blessing of abundance, but it’s also keeping everyone on their toes!

Teams

The first visiting team of the year, from Lighthouse Church, is set to arrive in about ten days. With the coffee harvest still in full swing, their timing is perfect to dive into the action.

Rachel & Brandy’s New Home

Progress on Rachel and Brandy’s new home has slowed down amidst the holiday hustle and the coffee chaos. Rachel laughed as she shared, “One more month. Maybe. Every month, we keep saying, ‘one more month!’” The finishing touches will have to wait until the whirlwind settles down.

Prayer Request

As the team juggles coffee, backpacks, vehicles, and visiting groups, your prayers mean the world. Brandy shared, “We are happy and not complaining, but we need endurance! The first team arrives in ten days, and it’s a lot. We’re so excited to have our teams coming, but we ask for prayers that God gives us endurance and health. God is sending us a lot of blessings to bless other people.”

So, as 2025 gets underway, please keep the S4P team in your prayers. It’s a year brimming with blessings, and they’re ready to tackle it all with faith, hard work, and maybe just a little extra coffee!

 - posted by Christi

A Slice of Sowers4Pastors: A Sampler of Ministry Updates

 This week’s blog is like a cheesecake sampler – a little bit of everything for everyone! Let’s dig into the sweet (and sometimes bittersweet) highlights from Sowers4Pastors.

Goats and Gratitude

Brandy recently received a thoughtful gift of two goats from a pastor supervisor as a token of thanks for the ministry’s support. One goat, a pregnant female, gave birth to twins, but complications sadly claimed her life and that of one baby. That left a tiny, orphaned baby goat in need of care. Brandy and Rachel, welcomed little Canela (Cinnamon in English) into their family. For a time, Rachel was managing four “kids” in diapers – three human and one goat! Thankfully, Canela is thriving, and bringing joy to everyone.

Tropical Storm Sara

Tropical Storm Sara hit Honduras hard, particularly on the northern coast, where some areas experienced up to 30 inches of rain. The devastation has included road and bridge washouts and damage to homes. Meanwhile, in Gracias, the storm brought several days of steady rain, a blessing for the ministry’s coffee farm and others in the area. Please pray for those dealing with severe damage and for the missionaries assisting these communities.

Citizenship Steps

Rachel, Brandy, and their kids (minus the goat!) spent a chunk of the past week in Tegucigalpa, taking steps toward U.S. citizenship for their children. Due to the time Rachel has lived in Honduras (and thus not in the US), the process is far from straightforward. They’ve started with the application for “automatic citizenship for a child born abroad,” knowing it will be denied as part of the process. The next phase will involve lots of paperwork. The final step is a trip to the US. Just as with Nathan’s citizenship journey, Trish will accompany them when the time comes.

Backpacks in Record Time

In Maryland, the backpack container was loaded at lightning speed by Fredericktowne Baptist Church volunteers. The experienced team finished in just two hours, thanks to great weather and even better teamwork.

Dispensa and Container Updates

To ship the backpacks duty-free, the ministry must file a dispensa, an itemized breakdown of container contents. Timing is critical, as filing too early risks expiration. All the necessary paperwork was approved just in time for the shipping of the container!

Meanwhile, a separate food container is on its way, with goods sent from Minnesota to New Orleans before heading to Honduras. Pray that both containers clear Customs and the Honduran FDA quickly and intact. Trish humorously noted, “Toothpaste gives them fits!” Also, pray that storage fees don’t pile up if there are delays at the port.

Seeing Clearly: Eyeglasses for Kids

Through the ministry, a new batch of over 20 kids have received eye exams and are now set to receive new glasses. A generous ophthalmologist is volunteering to ensure every pair fits perfectly. Clear vision will help these children thrive in their studies and daily lives.

Future Home Sweet Home

Rachel and Brandy’s new home is nearing completion! Allen, despite his back issues, has been overseeing the grading of the yard. After Thanksgiving, an electrician friend from the U.S. will be coming to finish off the electrical work, ensuring that everything meets U.S. standards. The hope is to move in before “team season” kicks off in January. It’s a race against the clock, but everyone is hopeful! Your prayers for on-time completion are appreciated! 

 - posted by Christi

Digging Moats and Building Dreams: Brandy and Rachel's Unexpected Home Delay

 If you’ve ever built a home, you know the road to completion is often filled with bumps, delays, and unexpected surprises. But when Brandy and Rachel set out to build their new home, they probably didn’t anticipate one particular twist — the need to dig a moat! Yes, a moat — the kind that usually surrounds fairy tale castles. So, let’s start this story the way all good fairy tales begin. Once upon a time…

Early on, construction was moving along smoothly until a water leak was discovered in the basement. Now, as nice as an indoor swimming pool sounds, Brandy and Rachel weren’t quite ready to make that design leap. Initially, the water was blamed on the lack of a completed roof. But when the roof was done and the basement continued to fill, it became clear that something bigger was at play.

Enter the builder, who suggested they dig a trench. (But come on, let’s keep calling it a moat — it adds a little magic to the story!) This mighty moat ended up being about 8-10 feet deep in some spots and about two feet wide. But digging wasn’t easy. The house is being built on top of a limestone foundation covered with only a few inches of topsoil. And while limestone might not be as tough as granite, it’s certainly no walk in the park to dig through.

Thankfully, Sowers4Pastors has a jackhammer handy, normally reserved for bridge projects. For weeks, the jackhammer worked overtime, chipping away at the limestone. The water had been seeping through the stone, getting stuck in cracks, and pooling in the basement. After the moat was dug, French drains were installed, and work had to be paused to let the basement dry out.

Dry basement!

Now that the water’s been dealt with, construction is back on track. But there’s still work to be done. The house still needs electrical wiring, doors, windows, countertops in the kitchen, and finishing touches on the tilework. Most of the plumbing is complete, but they’re still working on connecting the house to the solar energy system that powers the other two homes on the property.

Update: a friend of the ministry from Maryland is coming the first week of December, to complete the electrical work! Thanks so much, Andrew! 

Rachel is optimistically hoping they can be in the new house by Christmas, but she’s realistic about potential delays. After all, they hadn’t factored in moat-digging! Still, they’re eager to move in before the next dry season hits, bringing with it the sweltering heat of Gracias. The new home promises to be much cooler than their current rental, which is feeling a little cramped now that their family has grown by 50% since moving in!

Of course, a bigger house means they’ll need more furnishings to make it feel like home. If you’re looking for a way to help, consider contributing to this cause. Everyone’s excited to be settled into the new space, even if the moat won’t be part of the final design. And let’s not forget Nana and Gampa, who are thrilled at the idea of having four grandchildren living on the property!

 - posted by Christi

Ministry Updates, August 2024

How good are you at those Magic Eye images? You know – the two-dimensional images that can create the optical illusion of a 3D scene. A Magic Eye optical illusion can only be seen when you hold the image close to your face, relax your gaze, and focus on something far away, behind the image. It’s not as easy as it sounds. Or maybe it is if you think it sounds like a sure-fire way to make yourself go cross-eyed. Magic Eye pictures are a lot like the work that Sowers4Pastors does; there’s a lot more going on than first meets the eye and it’s important to keep the focus. The scenes change, but the focus stays the same!

S4P has finished up with the final VBS team of the summer. And just like that, the picture of their daily priorities shift. Brandy and Rachel are working on the dispensas for the upcoming shipping containers. A dispensa is basically a list of every possible item that might be on one of the backpack or food containers. Spoiler alert: They’re a big deal! If an item on a container is found to be not listed on a dispensa, it will result in a container being stuck in port while the ministry pays for the privilege by way of holding fees.

Even though the backpacks haven’t even been collected yet and the future shipping containers are just a plan at this point, S4P prefers to get an earlier start on the dispensas. This year, the task was delayed while they waited for some of the necessary paperwork to begin the long and complicated process. This is a good opportunity to begin praying for the shipping containers to arrive with no dramatic twists and turns. 

The Day of the Child is officially on the 10th of September, but S4P celebrates the week before because they have so many locations to visit. The preparation takes about three weeks because it is a very big deal. One of the pastors of Brandy & Rachel’s and Alejandro & Secia’s former church in Tegucigalpa recently visited Gracias. She prayed with them and offered to send a group of people from the church’s youth group to help with Day of the Child celebrations. Last year, the ministry only had teams of three or four people who were responsible for entertaining up to 150 kids at each location. Each team was covering three locations per day and it was a monumental undertaking! Brandy doesn’t know how many youth to expect, but all help is welcome. Pray for the preparations and the people who will help to prepare celebrations for the children.

Kirstin and Esdras will be traveling to the States in September for the backpack collection trip. Thank you in advance to the people who have volunteered to accompany them on different legs of the trip. Those people include Mary Faith and a volunteer from LCC in Ohio (Hi, J.R.!). Please pray for the travelers and the people who are packing the boxes filled with backpacks to be collected. 

If you look at the ministry’s metaphorical Magic Eye, you will also see the coffee farm. The farm crew is currently spraying the plants with fertilizer & fungicide and cleaning up the plants. Brandy said it has been so hot that they are anticipating the coffee will ripen soon. Last year’s picking started at the end of September. This year, they expect picking to begin weeks earlier. Brandy expects a big harvest, which will continue in cycles every couple of weeks until the final harvest in January. You can pray for the harvest and the harvesters. 

And, of course, pray for everyone at S4P as they keep the focus on God while dealing with the minutiae of different ministry pictures. 

- posted by Christi

Time to Play Catch-Up . . . and Build a House!

Team season is over and it is now what the good folks at Sowers4Pastors refer to as "catch up season." (Note: If you read the preceding sentence out loud, your brain might hear ketchup season.) Catch up (or ketchup) season is the perfect time to think about construction on the property. 

As you may remember, the Sowerses are currently building a third house on the ministry property. Now, building a house is, admittedly, some pretty impressive catching up. The house was originally intended to be Allen and Trish’s new abode but it looks like it will be housing Rachel, Brandy, and their kids, instead. The previous houses on the property were built during snippets of time. A week here. Two weeks there. That drawn out process was the reason it took seven or eight years to complete the house where Allen and Trish are currently living. 

Rachel and Brandy have many skills, but construction isn’t one of them. Allen is a skilled builder, but completing a house is a mighty undertaking and it isn’t the sort of thing that Allen can easily squeeze into an already full schedule. That’s why the family is looking to bring in a contractor to finish the project. 

Here are just a few of the reasons hiring outside help makes sense:

1. The sooner Casa #3 is completed, the sooner Rachel and Brandy can move onto the property. Having more people living there is better from a security perspective. It will also give Allen and Trish more freedom to travel to the States. They will be able to take extended trips to see the rest of the family and visit churches.
2. Rachel and Brandy are currently paying rent in Gracias. Without hiring outside help, it is realistic to assume that it would take, at minimum, an additional two years for the house to be move-in ready. The amount of saved rent will offset the cost of hiring a contractor.
   
3. It will simply be nice to have the family all together. Nathan, Michael, and Levi will have lots of space to run and will be able to spend extra time with their doting grandparents and Aunt Kirstin.
   
4. The setting will allow Rachel to enjoy her love of gardening and the temperatures are cooler than living in a house with a flat cement roof in Gracias. Rachel said their current house has some oven-like tendencies.

Allen has already made a lot of progress on the house, so a contractor will not be starting from scratch. The construction is almost to the point of putting in the skilled-labor intensive finishing touches, like putting in tile, doors and windows, plumbing fixtures, etc.

The layout of the new house should work well for Rachel and Brandy’s family. It will have three bedrooms and two baths, with one of the baths being in the basement. From a practicality standpoint, Rachel likes the fact that it is on two levels with each level being tighter and easier to hear the boys at play. Like many moms of boys, she would like to be able to head off disaster, daredevil schemes, and potential for bloodshed. 

Please pray that they will find the right person for the job. They are looking for someone who will complete the house with the same high standards with which it was started, but at a price that won't bust their budget. Also, the funds being used to build the house are (as always) funds designated for personal use, not funds donated for ministry use. If anyone would like to help turn this construction site into a home in the near future, you can give through the website as support for Brandy and Rachel, with a message in the note section that the gift is specifically for this project.

- posted by Christi

Prayer Requests to Kick Off 2023!

Sowers4Pastors is serious about “making the main thing, the main thing" . . . which is to say, they don't want the spiritual aspects of the ministry to be overlooked in the midst of school supply distributions and feeding malnourished children. They can’t do it without the prayers and donations of supporters. As they are moving into 2023, they want to offer a huge “Thank you” to each and every person who helps them do what they do. 

Here’s your first official S4P prayer request list of the new year:

• Please pray for harvesters! There is an ongoing shortage of coffee harvesters and the Sowers4Pastors coffee farm is in competition with every other coffee farm in the region. Just a month ago, there were 120 pickers helping out on the farm. They were harvesting faster than the equipment and farm crew could process it all! Fast forward a month. This coffee harvest started out with 8 pickers. A day later, that number had increased to 25 outside pickers plus the farm crew.

• Pray for the ministry vehicles. There’s going to be an overlap between the coffee harvest and the arrival of teams. The first team to arrive will be from Lighthouse Church. Their Lighthouse for Lempira sister church program is a hard 1 hour and 20 minute drive each way. The vehicles are also needed to drive coffee harvesters to and fro each day, as well as for moving the actual coffee around on the farm. Obviously, working vehicles are not really optional in this scenario - every vehicle needs to keep going during this busy time!

• From the ongoing prep work and organization to the upcoming distribution, backpack work and backpack recipients are always good additions to a prayer list.

• Please pray for the building of the new house on the property–specifically that there will be gaps in the day-to-day responsibilities to work on it and that Allen and Trish’s personal funds will stretch to meet the rising costs. With Allen’s travels back to the States for backpack trips, everyone will feel better with increased security. It is likely that Kirstin will join Allen on future trips. For Trish’s safety and the safety of the property, everyone wants to have Brandy and Rachel close at hand. The sooner the new house is built, the sooner Brandy and Rachel will be able to move in. 

 

• Pray for the progress Alejandro and Cesia are making, as they work on the partnerships with the sister church locations. This Saturday, they will be meeting with the supervisors who oversee the pastors. Alejandro and Cesia are relying on the supervisors for their recommendations to maintain accountability and good stewardship in everything. 

• Please pray for the next container of food to arrive with no issues. Container issues seem to be more frequent than in the past, and the food supply on the ground right now is starting to run low.

• Pray for continued safe travels for Trish. She’s having a great time snuggling baby Steven. Pray for a safe trip home.

• Please pray for Rachel’s 3rd trimester of pregnancy. Since this coincides with team season, pray that she will not feel overloaded with stress and that she will find plenty of time to rest and nest! Prayers for a healthy third child for Rachel and Brandy and seventh grandchild for Trish and Allen.

• 
  Pray for the matching funds drive. Allen never wants to miss out on a single penny that could be used to feed a hungry child. With a matching funds drive in play, there are a lot of potential pennies! This comes at a time when a supply of food is especially needed. Also pray for the children who will receive the food. 

• Prayers for this time of transition, as people are learning new jobs and positions within S4P, are appreciated. As the Gospel is being spread throughout each of the ministry’s programs, pray that the pastors and staff will all be focused on making eternal things the priority. Pray that each person involved will deny themself, pick up their cross, and follow Jesus.

 - posted by Christi

Here's What's Happening Now

Mr. Allen taking a break to see some
sights during the backpack trip

This is one of those posts that asks the all-important question, “Hey, people at Sowers4Pastors, what are you doing right now?” As usual, the answer is, “A lot!” But let’s break it down into some specifics.

You’ve probably caught on to the fact that Allen is off in the States collecting backpacks. While he’s driving across the country filling a gigantic Penske truck with boxes of backpacks, the people back in Honduras are carrying on without him. But his absence, and the fact that team season is over, changes the rhythm of things.

As Trish said, “If we have a task that is big, but not urgent, this is the time of year when it gets done.” 

Rachel and Brandy have been taking time to familiarize the new staff with people and places they’ll need to know. That means taking the newbies out to various sites. It’s not like they can put the locations into Google Maps and head out on their own. There is a bit of a learning curve! 

While this project isn’t something Sowers4Pastors is actively working on, they are keeping track of the progress of the new roof installation on the children’s home in Gracias after providing funds to the project. Quito goes out with a drone to take pictures so everyone can admire the new bright red roof as it goes on. 

People often ask what is meant by the word “bodega” that frequently pops up in blog posts. No, it is not the same as the American usage. Allen and Trish aren’t running a small store like the bodegas in New York City. In Honduras, “bodega” is used to mean a large storage area, like a warehouse. Most commonly, bodegas are used to store coffee before it is sent out to sell. The S4P bodega is a place that sees a lot of action! 

Every year, the bodega acts as a landing place for the contents of two shipping containers. It is, admittedly, not the tidiest of areas. There’s not a lot of turnaround time between the arrival and distribution of backpacks. So, people don’t have time to tidy and organize while working. As soon as backpacks are distributed, it’s time to begin making pastor gifts. And things get even messier! People sort through boxes of donations looking for just the right gifts for the size of the pastor's family and the ages of the family members. The distribution of pastor gifts can really drag on for a long time. As soon as this year’s gifts are completed, they will begin an intense tidying and cleaning spree on the bodega. 

Boxes currently in the States that will
need to be put in the bodega soon

Do you remember when Trish and Allen moved from the giant bodega into an 800 square foot house? Much of their stuff ended up being stored in the bodega. When they moved to a larger house, Trish wanted to sort through those items. But their personal items were inaccessible! So, soon and very soon, Trish will be able to begin the mammoth task of moving and organizing household things. 

Trish is also working with Quito to create some short video projects she has been wanting to do. The videos will explain how to do some basic things on the Sowers4Pastors website, such as how to update payment information. The videos will be helpful throughout the year because she will be able to direct people to the videos when they have some common questions. In addition to this, Quito and Trish are working on a series of videos explaining why the ministry does certain things in certain ways. For example: Why do they focus on constructing church roofs instead of entire buildings? 

You might say that things have been hog wild lately. The farm purchased two hogs to raise. One of their workers takes on the animal-related tasks, such as feeding the dogs and caring for the hogs. He asked if he could put a hog in with theirs to raise - he received access to the food used for feeding the hogs in exchange for putting in extra hours working with the animals. His hog was recently butchered. Allen and Trish purchased some of the meat and Trish has been dealing with that like the pioneer woman she is! Allen and Trish’s hogs have both recently produced a litter and now there are many piglets. There have been many discussions about whether or not to continue raising pigs. It’s a lot of work, but the price of meat is high. So… As soon as the piglets are weaned, the original hogs will be butchered and Pioneer Trish will deal with more pork-related endeavors.

In other news, Ray, the fabulous office-worker, has moved on to a new job. It was not unexpected because, as Trish said, he was way overqualified for the position. He will be making more money in his new job. Everyone is happy for him because he is saving his money to hopefully study in the States. He will be missed, though! S4P interviewed new people for Ray’s previous position last week and hired a nice lady by the name of Nikki. 

Aaaand… It’s official. Nathan loves kindergarten! After the isolation of COVID lockdown, he is thriving in his new learning environment, surrounded by other kids. Since Nathan is often described as the grandchild who is most like Allen in personality, this shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone! He was born to be a people person.

- posted by Christi