School is in Session!!

Can you believe the final visiting team for the summer of ‘21 has come and gone? Neither can I! It’s like they always say, “Time flies when you’re not the one in charge of preparing for visiting teams.” What??? Surely, someone says that. Anyway, the last team was small, yet mighty. 

This small but mighty team consisted of Clay Powell, the former teacher and administrator of Pastor Training School, Dr Rick Brodie and Randy Bennett from Kingsland First Baptist Church.

During the early days of COVID, Clay and his family moved back to the U.S. for various reasons. Besides the obstacle presented by Clay leaving, the school was also forced to close its doors due to COVID restrictions. It has been a year and a half since Pastor Training School was last in session. While regulations haven’t lifted to the point of reopening the school on a more permanent basis, the three-man team held a Pastor Training Conference a few weeks ago. Super exciting!

The invitees include about sixty people who were enrolled in classes when the school closed for COVID. They are each allowed to bring a “plus-one” with them. The only problem with that is communications aren’t the most reliable and RSVPs are virtually unknown in Honduras. So, the conference started not knowing how many people would be present. Anything from 120 attendees and down was possible. That makes things like meal planning a bit of a challenge!

Guests were set to arrive around lunchtime on Wednesday, so eating was one of the first things on the agenda. Fortunately, this wasn't quite a loaves and fishes situation. There were people on standby to make a quick emergency food run into Gracias just in case. Kim and Jonathon helped out during this time, running errands and moving team members and students to and from the campground where the conference was held. Of course, the hope was the more the merrier, but at meal time they only ended up feeding 50 people.

The students in attendance stayed over for a couple of nights and left Friday at noon, and they didn't pay to attend. The event was free for the pastors and their guests. Fundraising was a joint effort between the team's church, and Sowers4Pastors. Thanks to Kingsland First Baptist to helping make this first conference after COVID a reality!!

This was at least partially meant to be a time for students to reconnect. Remember that the pastors were right in the middle of their several-year training when it was halted abruptly. No one knows how long it will be before Pastor Training School can reconvene on a more permanent basis, so this is an opportunity for students to ask questions they may have come across in their studies, and to refresh the materials in their minds, besides learning new stuff.

The need for a Pastor Training School has been evident to Allen since he and his family first arrived to the Lempira area. Rural areas of Honduras have particularly undereducated pastors, and even now new pastors are continuing to feel called to the ministry, but they come equipped only by their desire to serve. This means that a program to train these servants is still desperately needed. This is an important part of Sowers4Pastors goal of empowering pastors. 

While the immediate future is unknown, Sowers4Pastors asks that you add Pastor Training School to your prayer list.  As Allen said, “We’re in a period of waiting for God to bring just the right person.” And of course the ongoing pandemic still presents an issue.

Please pray with us that God will provide a way to reopen the school. We also thank Him that a session was held recently despite the obstacles. It is very exciting to see Pastors' Training School up and running, even if it's just for one conference at the moment! If it is His will, God will provide a way towards doing more. In the meantime, a special shoutout to Clay Powell, Dr. Rick Brodie, Randy Bennett, and Kingsland First Baptist Church, for making this happen!! Clay also wanted to say a special "thank you" to the Hall family for helping support the team during the conference.

- posted by Christi

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.

Praying for Wisdom in the Ongoing Pandemic

In the days before everyone had a GPS in their mobile phones, navigating unfamiliar paths didn’t leave you a lot of options. You could reach for a Rand McNally map and hope that your map reading skills weren’t subpar. You could stop and ask for directions and hope that the person you asked knew what was what. Or you could roam around with a general idea of the correct direction and hope for the best. Sowers4Pastors is navigating some unfamiliar paths and there is no GPS system on the market that can tell them how to best circumvent potential potholes and road construction. COVID-19 has been a backseat driver for the past year and a half and Allen is asking for navigational prayers. Also, of course, for prayers of safety.

COVID placed a lot of limits on what Sowers4Pastors could do. Yet, there have always been people with physical and spiritual needs to be met. The ministry has done that, but it hasn’t exactly been a Sunday afternoon drive through the countryside.

As Allen said, “We find ourselves in a constant state of trying to work within the boundaries and need prayers for wisdom as we go forward. We don’t want to leave people with no help, but we want to do it carefully. We want to protect the reputation of the ministry and, more importantly, the cause of Christ and the health and safety of the communities we work in.”

COVID and the restrictions it has brought work on their own timetable. It took an extra month and a half for the motorcycles recently distributed to pastors to be imported. It also took a lot of extra time for the pastors to deal with their end of the paperwork.

The 3rd shipping container has finally arrived from the U.S. You might say it took its own sweet time. Allen’s estimation is that the duty-free paperwork “took forever” to go through.

Sowers4Pastors has been working on church roofing projects. They just completed three roofs and there are two more on the upcoming schedule. Part of the reason behind this is that the pastors are realizing the need for their congregants to not be meeting in cramped quarters.

The construction crew recently helped another missionary pour a concrete deck that required tens of thousands of pounds of concrete. Because COVID is always a concern, the decision was made to not use any of the other missionary’s team members. The idea was that it was better for the teams to not overlap.

Six teams are scheduled to visit from the States this summer. Most of the locals are not wearing masks, but Sowers4Pastors is strongly encouraging the team members to mask up before heading out. They want to be sure that there is never even the potential for communities to believe that the ministry is spreading COVID. The goal is to move forward, but with wisdom.

Schooling in Honduras is still up in the air. There is continued talk about online schooling, but that is far from a practical solution. A lot of the public school teachers don’t even own computers and the people living in the bush are without internet. Online schooling has barely been working among the more elite private schools. 

Allen also asks for prayers as they plan and execute the next backpack collection trip in the US. Some areas they will visit are still under heightened restrictions. Other areas are not. Allen said, “Obviously we don’t want to be the group of people carrying it from one area to another. We are praying for God’s hand upon these things.”

While this isn’t ministry related, it is definitely Sowers related, and does have some loose ties to COVID. For those of you who don’t know, Trish was in the U.S. for a writer’s conference when she received word that her mother was dying. She immediately left for Florida, but she was not in time to say an earthly goodbye. COVID meant that there was no memorial service, but Trish was able to spend time with her father and siblings. Fortunately, several family members, including Kirstin and Chris' fiance, Audrey, were already present in Florida to attend Chris and Bethany's belated graduation ceremony. You may remember that their nursing school experience ended abruptly when COVID hit the area. The graduation ceremony was postponed for a year. No one saw that detour happening.

The staff hasn't made it through the pandemic scot free either. Several members of Iris's family caught COVID last year - thankfully they all made a full recovery. Members of the Hall family currently have COVID, but are recovering. They are hopeful that they will test negative in time to fly out of the country for a wedding. Pastor Omar, the pastor for the Tablon section of Manna4Lempira, is also currently infected with COVID, and recently had a temp of 105 F and had to go to the COVID clinic. Please pray for him. 

We are always asking for prayers, but that is because we always need them. Please pray with us, that the Hall family and Pastor Omar will recover soon. Please pray with us, that God will continue to have his hand on the ministry, protecting us and the communities we work in. We ask God for wisdom as we continue to navigate the difficulties presented by COVID-19. And please continue to pray for the Honduran pastors, children and communities, as they are affected by the pandemic.

-posted by Christi.

The Buoyant Blog Post

Some blog posts are more upbeat than others, but this one is downright buoyant. Yes, it’s a buoyant blog post (meaning that it is cheerful and optimistic, not that it is able to stay afloat on top of liquid). The first four post-COVID restriction team visits have taken place and everything went remarkably well. 

You may recall that there were originally five back-to-back teams scheduled. The final team cancelled, but the other four managed their travels with only relatively minor inconveniences. A number of people were switched to flights leaving at different times or a day later than scheduled, but that was the extent of it. Everyone received negative COVID tests before heading to Honduras. Everyone received negative COVID tests before heading back to the States. And no one has reported any symptoms since arriving back home. Any way you slice it, that is encouraging news.

When you view these very uplifting videos, you will probably notice that, when it comes to wearing masks, the villages where Sowers4Pastors works are pretty much… Oh, what’s the phrase?... over it. They are pretty much over the whole masking thing. Following the hurricanes, a lot of people sort of lost interest in COVID. The government has reinstated some of the measures, but there are still people living in tents because their homes were destroyed. Masks, schmasks. As my eloquent granny would have said, “Some of ‘em ain’t havin’ it.” 

Link to view video: The Well Worship Center Backpack Distribution Team 2021

Link to view video: Lighthouse Backpack Distribution 2021 

Team members were instructed to wear masks and the people with Sowers4Pastors comply with all government regulations. Trish said, “It is the rule and we are guests.”

Sowers4Pastors handed out masks for the people in the villages to wear for gatherings. Even with that, mask compliance wasn’t what you’d call high. It is still the rule to wear masks in stores and the disinfecting mats are positioned at store entrances to wipe your shoes. But in the villages, people have other things on their minds.

This week, Sowers4Pastors is finishing up the first round of backpack distribution. This was on the schedule for the team that cancelled. It’s still getting done, just without a team. Next week, they will revisit each of the sponsorship places to catch any child who missed the first go round. Then there will be a little while without teams for Sowers4Pastors to catch up on other stuff. They are looking forward to more teams this summer and even more return to normalcy.

- posted by Christi.

Like a Cool Drink of Water

After a long, dry season when teams were not able to visit Honduras, having five back-to-back teams is as refreshing as a long drink from a cool well for Sowers4Pastors, the teams, and everyone involved with the sponsorship program. It seems fitting that the team that’s currently on the ground is from The Well in Derby, Kansas. Pastor Joplin and a couple of the other team members agreed to share their thoughts on their trip, squeezing in a phone conversation between blessing Wednesday morning’s breakfast and actually partaking of that meal.

The team of eleven people had already participated in two backpack distributions as of 7:00 am Wednesday. Following their pre-blessed breakfast, they were heading out to another distribution site.

This is the sixth team visit from The Well and their third backpack distribution trip. After a year of COVID restrictions, this trip is extra sweet. Thursday will be spent with their sister church--hosting a day ‘o fun for the 170 kids in that program.

Pastor Joplin gave permission to reword this sentiment, but his actual words sum things up nicely: “We’ve learned after coming many times that it’s almost as important for us to be here for us as it is for these communities we‘re working with. I would almost use the words we needed to be here.” 

Team member, Brittany, is on her second trip. So far, her favorite things have been seeing the kids receiving backpacks and visiting with her sponsored child. Brittany described the way the kids’ faces lit up when they received a baby doll, soccer ball, or race car. She said that the only change COVID has made in this distribution is that the kids are even more excited to see them. 

Brittany’s sponsored child had something special to show Brittany, too. The 9-year-old girl’s mom just had a baby a week ago. It is the girl’s first sibling and she was thrilled to show off her new baby! Sharing moments like that emphasizes the value of having teams on the ground.

For team member Nicholas, this is visit number three to Honduras. It is his first visit as a sponsor. Nicholas met his sponsored child for the first time on Tuesday and got to see a smile on his face. He had been waiting for a sponsor for a while. 

Nicholas’s favorite moments were spent doing house visits. He described how entire groups of kids would just show up out of nowhere, even though there wasn’t a scheduled time for the visits. 

At the backpack distributions, Nicholas’s role has been processing the children and putting papers inside of bags when they come by. This was a position he was made to fill after spending five years educating visitors at a zoo. He is able to sneak paper airplanes into some of the bags and enjoy the kids’ smiles.

Every blog post needs an ending and a fitting one for today’s is Isaiah 12:3: “Therefore with joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.”

- posted by Christi

Working Harder for Successes

Some people see the glass of water as half full. Some people see it as half empty. Sowers4Pastors sees that sometimes it is necessary to cup your hands together and get that metaphorical water distributed any way you can. It’s backpack distribution season and while that is normally the happiest time of the year, this year there are some melancholy aspects to it. 

In past years, Sowers4Pastors has been able to see some huge results from the backpack program, particularly through the sister church programs, most of which are run through the local school. The Manna programs are run through individual churches, which is great, but the sister churches are able to reach entire communities. Their programs are open to any child in the community whose parents want them to go to school.

School attendance in those sister church programs grew by leaps and bounds. Some of the locations saw attendance double. New schools were being built. New teachers were hired. Most of that could be traced back to the fact that kids were receiving backpacks, giving them supplies that they otherwise couldn't afford and are necessary to go to school in Honduras. And then… COVID changed some things.

As Trish said, “We were riding the wave. Then COVID comes in and everything is a struggle. We’re not quitting at all, but we have to work harder for our successes.”

In general, the teachers in rural Honduras are going around from house to house, dropping off and picking up assignments. Most rural Honduran families do not own computers or have access to the internet, so online school isn’t an option, and the kids are trying to do schoolwork at home.

Many parents in the U.S. have been quite vocal in expressing that they aren’t cut out to oversee their children’s education at home. Now imagine a parent doing that with no internet and little formal education. Some Honduran adults can't read, others never made it past a 4th grade education. Their kids are on their own when it comes to keeping up with their studies and that can be disheartening for them. It’s not conducive to getting more kids enrolled in school, but there are still kids working from home.

There isn’t any definitive word about when the physical schools will reopen, but there is some talk of reopening in June or July. That would be about halfway through the Honduran school year. Backpack distribution is going forward with no misgivings. Just because the fight is harder doesn’t mean it’s time to give up.

Every year, there is a certain number of kids who leave school. The rule has always been, “No school attendance = no sponsorship program.” When doing updates on the kids, the ones no longer attending school were removed from the program and their sponsors were notified. This year, however, it is hard to even tell which students are continuing to keep up on their studies and intend to return to school when the option is available. When physical attendance at a school building is a thing again, Sowers4Pastors will reassess individuals' eligibility to stay in the program. 

Please pray that as many kids as possible will be able to continue plugging along and doing schoolwork at home. Pray that the backpacks and shoes will be a blessing to the children and their families. And pray that they are able to get back to the classroom sooner rather than later.

-posted by Christi.

Shipping Containers and Tongue Twisters

 Let’s begin today’s post with a tongue twister. No, it has nothing to do with woodchucks chucking wood. This original tongue twister is an ode to shipping containers. Ready? How many shipping containers could Sowers4Pastors ship if the shipping containers were ready for shipping? 

Unlike the unanswerable mystery of how much wood that woodchuck could chuck, this tongue twister doesn’t leave you hanging. The answer is five. There are five shipping containers heading to Honduras. 

If you’ve been around this blog for a while, you know that shipping massive containers of food and backpacks is something that Sowers4Pastors generally does five or six times a year. They’re not what you could call newbies to the wonderful world of shipping. They’ve been regularly shipping containers into Honduras for the last fifteen years. This year, because of COVID, two hurricanes, and backpack season, there are the aforementioned five containers at different stages of the shipping process.

Getting containers shipped is not an easy or inexpensive endeavor. People operating on smaller scales generally stick with shipping pallets. Since Sowers4Pastors has a large need for food and backpack distribution, it works for them. It has always been a process that involves a lot of emails, phone calls, and paperwork. Each year, new Honduran government regulations bring new challenges to get duty-free shipping.

Because people are always curious, the savings achieved by sending a container from the US, over purchasing food and backpacks on the ground in Honduras, is astronomical. Sowers4Pastors does purchase a lot of items locally. They do what they can to boost the economy, but with food and backpacks, that isn’t a viable option.

But let’s get back to the tongue twister. This may be the only tongue twister to come with prayer requests. Admit it; you’ve never given that woodchuck a second thought. Here’s what’s happening with the five containers:

• 
  Container #1 is in port in Honduras. This one is filled with food packed in Maryland. It has already been on the ground for a week. Please pray that it is released before it starts racking up storage fees. UPDATE: THIS FOOD ARRIVED IN GRACIAS YESTERDAY!

• Container #2 is just leaving Florida. This one is filled with backpacks. Pray that it arrives in a timely manner so that the teams arriving in January will be able to distribute them as planned.

• Container #3 is getting ready to load in Maryland on Saturday, filled with backpacks. This prayer request is a biggie. The trucking company doesn’t normally send out trucks on weekends. The company is currently looking for a driver who can deliver the container, hang around while it’s being packed, and then drive it away. Weekend collection is important because that is when volunteer manpower will be available to load the boxes of backpacks onto the container. UPDATE: SATURDAY SHIPPING HAS BEEN COMPLETED, AND CONTAINER IS ON ITS WAY TO HONDURAS!

• Container #4 is being packed next Wednesday. It is a container of food coming out of Ohio. While Allen doesn’t foresee any problems, pray that it will be a smooth process. UPDATE: THERE ARE CURRENTLY NO CONTAINERS AVAILABLE IN THIS PART OF OHIO! PLEASE PRAY THAT WE WILL BE ABLE TO FIND A CONTAINER IN A TIMELY MANNER!

• Container #5 is still in the early stages. Sowers4Pastors is currently applying for a dispensa (permission for duty-free shipping). Like the container before it, #5 will be filled with food and coming from Ohio. The food has not all been packed yet, but that’s on the calendar for January.

Please pray that everything gets through customs in a timely manner, particularly #2 and 3! 

 - posted by Christi

Kelsea tries (and tries, and tries) to return to Honduras

 

I think we all can agree that 2020 has been a challenging year.  The combination of COVID-19, a record hurricane season, wildfires, the U.S. election, and a myriad of other events, has been a lot. This year has required a new level of flexibility as plans are now more than ever ALWAYS subject to change. If you are a faithful follower of ours on social media, you’ve no doubt seen the many ways we have had to adapt our plan for the year in order to stay safe and accommodate Coronavirus regulations while addressing the even more prevalent needs of the Honduran people we work with. 

That being said, travel has seemed to be a new obstacle that this year has presented to our staff members- to Kelsea in particular. Some of you may recall the challenge she had getting back to her family in Washington State in June because of flight cancelations due to COVID-19 and a tropical storm. She finally got back and then ended up spending the summer in the states because the borders to Honduras were closed. 

Unfortunately, the travel obstacles did not end there! Kelsea had plans to return to Honduras on October 30th after completing the West to East coast road trip with Kirstin and Russell and then spending a month in Florida with the Richardson family helping them pack and organize backpacks and other ministry items for the shipping container. Currently, the Honduran government is requiring a negative COVID test taken within 72 hours of traveling in order to enter the country. Russell brought multiple tests from Honduras for nurse Kirstin to administer to the staff members as each of them prepared to return. Russell was the guinea pig at the end of September to confirm whether the tests he brought would be enough to reenter Honduras, and he was successful! This was good news as it meant we wouldn’t have to pay hundreds of dollars for a COVID test in the U.S…or so we thought.

When Kelsea’s day to travel arrived, she showed up at the airport with the exact same test and paperwork that Russell had used a month before. Turns out the regulations had changed slightly and it was denied by the airline. Kelsea was not allowed to board her flight and instead was put on a flight two days later. She made a trip that afternoon to an urgent care clinic, received a new test (negative again!), and prepared to leave on Sunday. When she arrived at the airport, the test still was not official enough for the airline and she was denied boarding again! Apparently, the airline representatives did not want the presence of any handwriting on the test result, which is difficult to find among most rapid testing centers. So, Kelsea was scheduled to leave the next morning instead- if she was able to find an acceptable testing center, that is. After much searching, she finally found a clinic that would print out the results for her in a specific way. The next day, with the help of the newly formatted test results, a different airline agent, and many prayers, Kelsea was able to fly out of Orlando to Houston where she would catch the plane to Honduras. 

 Or not! When Kelsea arrived in Houston, she found her gate and boarded the plane to San Pedro Sula without any issues. Once everyone had boarded, the captain announced that the flight had been canceled due to the approaching hurricane Eta that was about to hit the coast of Nicaragua. Although disappointed, Kelsea was able to get a flight the next morning to Tegucigalpa (the capital of Honduras) which is more inland and therefore less affected by the storm. She booked a hotel to stay the night in Houston and then headed to the airport in the morning. Thankfully, her COVID test was still valid and she was able to reenter the airport easily. When she arrived, however, she found that her flight had been cancelled due to weather. After conferring with Russell, she decided to try and fly to El Salvador since it was unaffected by the hurricane and would only take an hour longer for Russell and Quito to pick her up there. She got her ticket and bags transferred, boarded the plane and flew to El Salvador. When she arrived, she was told that her COVID test was different from the one they require to enter the country, so they wouldn’t let her leave the airport. After discussing her options, she debated flying to Guatemala (since they accept the same test as Honduras) and taking a bus to the border of Honduras where Russell and Quito would meet her. However, in the end she chose to fly back to Houston rather than risking not being able to make the flight to Guatemala and having to spend the night in the El Salvador airport. 

Currently, Kelsea is in Houston staying at a hotel near the airport waiting for the hurricane to pass. She has a flight for Friday to Tegucigalpa, weather permitting and meanwhile has to get her 4th COVID test in order to travel since each test is only valid for 72 hours. Although this has been frustrating, Kelsea is glad to be safe and is more concerned for those in Honduras who are suffering firsthand from the flooding and destruction that is caused by the hurricane. While prayers would be appreciated for Kelsea to arrive in Honduras soon- more importantly prayers are needed for the victims of this storm who are in a dangerous position right now. In situations like these, it's a beautiful thing to know that we serve a God who holds this world - even this chaotic 2020 world - in His hands.

 - posted by Kelsea

Cheering on Food Packing Events

Allen and Trish aren’t a couple to let grass grow under their feet. After spending time with family in Florida over the past week, they caught a plane for Maryland, and then drove to Pennsylvania where Trish got to attend her first food packing event. It’s not that the participating church needed them on the premises, but as long as they were in the country, Trish and Allen decided to go up and cheer them on.

While it’s almost certain that no pom-poms were involved, we can all hope that they at least chanted, “Two bits, four bits, six bits, a dollar! All for the food packing events stand up and holler!” 

This photo is from the Lighthouse Church packing event

What did Trish think of the process? She said it was basically what she expected. But it’s sort of like the difference between looking at travel brochures and visiting a destination.

All of the equipment and the bulk food items used are delivered by the organization, Feed My Starving Children. The equipment used is far from exotic. It’s basic stuff like big plastic bins, oversized dishpan sort of things, plastic bags, scoops, funnels, and bag sealers. Since they are doing oatmeal meals, the food supplies include huge bags of oats, sugar, and cinnamon with vitamins mixed in.

The materials are all laid out in the giant dishpan-type dishes. Food is poured into bags with a funnel. Bags are weighed to be sure they contain the right amounts of oats, sugar, cinnamon, and vitamins. Then filled bags are placed into another dishpan-type thing at the end of the table. Typically there are three to four people at each table. When there starts to be a collection of filled bags, other people grab that dishpan and take them to another table to be sealed. The air is pushed out of each bag and the bag is heat sealed. Someone else checks each seal. The bags are counted and packed into boxes.

The Sowerses arrived early to the fellowship hall of Murrysville Alliance Church and there were already five or six women hard at work. Some of the seniors had been meeting and when the meeting ended, those women started packing. Soon other people started showing up. Many of those people had participated in an earlier packing event on Saturday, so they knew what to do. They put on their hairnets, washed their hands, and jumped right in. Trish said that by 6:00, the operation was running at full tilt.

That’s why it was so surprising when Trish went to the kitchen for a drink of water, looked out, and saw that everyone had stopped working. Why? They had run out of the sealable bags. Two churches in the area were packing food, so there were some available bags about an hour away. A runner was sent on the important mission of getting more bags, and there was about an hour where no packing was taking place. Trish was impressed that hardly anyone left during that time. Instead of making a break for it, people spent the time in a Q & A session with Allen and Trish about Sowers4Pastors.

When the bags got there, everyone jumped back in and finished. The church had set the goal that they would use up all of the food they were sent. They did it! Afterward, it was time to clean up the church’s fellowship hall. They had used about fifteen folding tables, and the whole place needed to be wiped down and vacuumed. Newsflash: Oatmeal and cinnamon tend to get everywhere! The group finished at about 10:30.

Dave Murray is the man who put Sowers4Pastors in contact with Murrysville Alliance Church in the first place. The morning after the packing event, Allen and Dave loaded all of the packaged food into Dave’s truck and headed to Sugar Creek, Ohio. There are ongoing packing events there and a filled food container will be going out from there.

New Life Community Church, which provided the emergency replacement bags will be doing their packing events on Oct. 29-31. Allen and Trish will be going up to take part. We’ve got to get those cheerleaders some pom-poms.

- posted by Christi.

COVID-19 Post for Optimists and Realists

Did you know the saying, “Two steps forward and one step back,” originated from an anecdote about a frog trying to get out of a well? That might be an apt description of Honduras’ economic recovery from COVID-19. That’s if you’re an optimist. For the realists among us, the recovery might more closely resemble jogging in place. Either way, it appears that the recovery is going to be a lot slower than Sowers4Pastors had originally anticipated. There are a couple of reasons behind that:

1. People have been allowed to go back to work, but the economy is damaged. And, let’s face it, Honduras didn’t exactly have the most stable economy prior to 2020. Suppose you have a job as a brick mason. Being allowed to return to work doesn’t amount to diddly-boo if no one has money to have you lay some bricks. A lot of people are being laid off or finding themselves with no business prospects. Things weren’t great before, but people are definitely struggling more than in pre-COVID days.

2. When times are hard, people make budget cuts out of necessity. Sometimes those cuts come back to bite you in your already depleted wallet. When times are hard in the Honduran farming community, money doesn’t get spent on fertilizer and insecticides. Crops are in the ground, but the harvest is expected to be a mite on the puny side. 

When you combine reason one and reason two, it’s clear to see that the need for food assistance will remain elevated for quite a while. How elevated will it be? Um, do you want the optimist or the realist answer? The optimist’s answer is that it shouldn't increase above the current levels. The realist’s (bordering on pessimist’s) answer is that no one really knows. It could get worse, but maybe it won’t.

In a world of unknowns, one thing is known. Thanks to everyone who has stepped up to provide additional donations for food, the Sowers4Pastors ministry currently has enough food on the ground to meet their needs for the time being. They are able to continue feeding people.

Score a point for the optimists because there is finally a light at the end of the tunnel concerning the government paperwork required to ship the food container from Maryland! The Sowerses have received word that the paperwork will be released to them soon.

Currently, a 2nd container of food is being packed by churches in Ohio. And a 3rd food container is in the works in Northeast Ohio and Pennsylvania. There is some overlap of churches packing the 2nd and 3rd container. Other churches are brand new to the experience. 

Sowers4Pastors wants to give a big shout of gratitude to the people involved in packing the containers, those who have donated money, and everyone praying for them. A lot of prayer is going into each meal. 

When COVID-19 first arrived on the scene, a lot of missionaries in Honduras left for the short-term. Now, a lot of missionaries have left for good. The needs are higher, but the help has decreased. Please continue to pray for the Sowerses, their ministry, and the people of Honduras!

- posted by Christi.

Honduras' Grand Re-Opening! (Well, sort of)

Have you ever read a book that was touted as a must-read page-turner? Sometimes those books live up to the hype and sometimes the plot leaves you asking, “What just happened?” A couple of years ago, I read a suspense novel that promised a “surprise ending.” I kept waiting for the surprise ending, but it was more like, “Surprise! It ended!” If someone were to write a book about the drama surrounding COVID-19 restrictions in Honduras, it would probably feel a little like that book. This is not meant to make light of how much lockdown restrictions affected Honduras. There was and is true suffering and it will take quite a while for people to recover from economic devastation and the long-term effects of starvation and malnutrition. But, by and large, the saga of the country’s opening is currently in the “What just happened?” phase. 

The Honduran government has allowed people across the country to go back to work. This is a gigantic praise in a country where there weren’t many people able to work from home via Zoom meetings. There was no governmental safety net. No one was collecting unemployment. No one received a stimulus check. And, to make matters worse, very few people had savings accounts. Most people were living hand-to-mouth before COVID-19 shut everything down.

Schools and all of the privatized transportation companies are the only things that have not completely reopened. As far as transportation goes, a few bus routes are running between larger cities and domestic flights are operating. Only approximately 10% of Hondurans own their own vehicle. Without local buses, vans, and taxis getting to and from work is difficult. In Gracias, small, open-air taxis were able to start running again after they were fitted with plexiglass to separate the driver and passengers. Other forms of privatized “public” transportation will be able to operate after the vehicles are retrofitted to meet the new government guidelines intended to prevent the spread of COVID-19. 

As previously mentioned, HERE, the borders are starting to open back up, too. Hopefully this will open up the way for tourism to return to the parts of the country that depend on it. The border reopening is also great news for Kelsea and Kirstin, who couldn’t get back into Honduras prior to this. 

Since the public school year in Honduras ends in November, it is likely that schools will reopen for the 2021 school year in late January or early February. Bilingual schools, such as the one RJ attends, follow the U.S. school calendar. The students at these schools usually come from more well-to-do families and have access to the internet and computers, so they are having classes online. The majority of families, of course, do not have access to such luxuries. 

As far as the food situation goes, Sowers4Pastors is seeing a decrease in the number of pastors coming to pick up food. God be praised, the urgency has peeked and it is starting to go down. The situation is far from over, however.

Trish broke out her analogy skills to describe the situation in these terms, “The hurricane has passed. The sky is blue, but there are still houses knocked down. There’s still a lot of work to do in regards to nutrition. We will see a renewed need to help people suffering from malnutrition. We had some pastors in the past saying they no longer needed the supplemental feeding centers in their communities. COVID-19 brought a renewed need for these centers - a need we do not see going away for some time. For the new communities that just joined us, we’re not expecting them to stop any time soon. We have food on the ground and are monitoring the supply to be sure it doesn’t run out on us.” 

While this may feel like a book without a solid ending, it’s probably better to consider this a new section in the same story. Honduras has turned a page and the tone has changed, but the basic theme continues. Please continue to pray with us that the situation comes closer to something looking more like a proper resolution! In the meantime, please continue to pray for the Honduran children affected by the lockdown.

- posted by Christi. 

Manna 4 Lempira Correspondence (in the Age of Covid)

 

Feeding hungry people isn’t the only aspect of Manna 4 Lempira’s mission that was complicated by COVID-19 restrictions. Child sponsors love to get letters from their sponsored children. Sponsored children love to get letters from their sponsors. But that is intensely complicated at the moment because the kids aren’t meeting in a central location. When they are not working in the fields they are in their homes. There is no way to get the word out that it’s time to write letters. There is no fast way to deliver letters from sponsors. In short, it’s kind of a logistical nightmare now, but that doesn’t mean that progress isn’t being made. Things are definitely more “Pony Express” than “Post Office,” but it’s still progress. 

In the Manna 4 Lempira locations (Mercedes, Tablon, Betania, and Quelacasque), pastors and Sunday school teachers have been putting the word out and delivering writing paper to have the children write letters. Since the pandemic began, Manna 4 Lempira has succeeded in getting letters from most of the children, but there simply isn’t a way to track down 1400 kids. When Kim finally began receiving back folders filled with letters from children, she expected to see one form letter per child. But many of the kids have written two or three letters throughout quarantine. They have not forgotten their sponsors! 

In their letters, most of the children are commenting on the emergency food they have received, stating that they were worried about food, but then the pastor came and delivered food and visited with them, and it really helped. Every child has commented about how much they miss attending church, Sunday school, or school. (Read to the end to find some excerpts from three letters from sponsored children!)

There are also letters coming in from the sponsors. Since no one is flying into the country (and the normally unreliable postal service is currently shut down), there is no way to deliver physical letters from sponsors. Because of that, Manna 4 Lempira sponsors have been asked to email their bi-monthly letters. This isn’t ideal, but let’s all take a moment to contemplate the marvel we call the world wide web. Even if you can’t send gifts and photos, sponsors are still able to tell their children that they love them and they’re praying for them. 

Each emailed letter from sponsors and each physical letter from children must be translated. This is more time consuming than you might imagine. The day before we spoke, Kim spent eight hours just getting the sponsors’ names on the letters from the children. When the teachers aren’t there to remind the children to put their sponsor’s name and their sponsorship number on the letter, it usually doesn’t get done. 

As promised, here are a few of the letters that have been received from children. These are typical of letters from any of our sponsorship centers, and it puts all of our inconveniences in perspective!

Letter 1:

I hope that you are doing well and you are healthy alongside of your family. Many thanks for the backpack that you sent to me. It is very beautiful. The things that you sent me are very beautiful. I wish you many blessings in the name of Jesus. I feel very thankful for all that you’ve sent me. I like to play with the dolls, jump rope, and I like the color of clothes that you sent me.

I wish that you have a very happy Easter. I hope you eat a lot of fish and cake.

Many thanks for all the things that you sent me. They are very beautiful. I really like the books and the letters you sent me. I love you very much.

Letter 2:

A letter of thanks for the backpack. I am thankful for the backpack that you gave me. I feel very happy with what you sent me. All the things in my backpack are very beautiful. Many thanks for all that you give me. 

Here is how I am spending the quarantine. Here it is difficult because the school is closed and we cannot receive classes. I feel sad because I can’t go to school.

Here are some of the difficult things about the quarantine. It is difficult to buy. Everything is expensive. We worry in the kitchen for food that there will be nothing to eat.

Here are some blessings from God during the quarantine. We are always receiving blessings. We are always receiving bags of food. They (meaning the pastor, the Halls, and Sowers4pastors) are giving us food to eat.

We pray for you so that God will protect you wherever you go. We pray for you.

Letter 3:

I feel so happy for the letters that you sent me. They are very beautiful for the words that you write to me. Every day I miss you so much. I love you. I tell you that I’m not going to school but I am doing the assignments that my teacher sends me. I feel very happy for all that you’ve given me. They are many blessings. I feel so proud to have a sponsor who is so beautiful like you are and who is so kind to me. May God bless you my beautiful sponsor. I love you so much. God is love.

 - posted by Christi

Manna 4 Lempira During the Age of Covid-19

 For better or worse, COVID-19 has meant a lot of free time for a lot of people. Kim Hall, with Manna 4 Lempira, is not one of those people. Kim and her husband Jonathan are busier than ever, so it was wonderful to get a chance to catch up with her today.

Kim with kids

A large part of Kim’s job with Manna has always been to stay connected to the kids and act as a liaison between sponsors and their sponsored kids. When COVID restrictions made large group meetings illegal back in March, the degree of difficulty tied to that job description increased exponentially! It went from visiting a feeding center with hundreds of children to visiting one home at a time. A few churches are now able to meet using the required biosecurity measures. One of those measures is that children can’t attend.

Sample page of
discipleship materials

With children unable to attend church, a big concern for the Manna team was providing resources for Pastors and teachers to use so that they could continue ministering to the children and their families. Kim reached out to a team of Manna sponsors who compiled a 6 week discipleship challenge for every child to complete in their homes with their families. The booklets were distributed, and they were such a success that the pastors have requested another one, which is almost ready to go!

Through it all, Kim and Jonathan have made a valiant effort to go out as much as possible. They have been putting emergency provision bags into the hands of pastors. Kim said that she can’t stress enough how important Sowers4Pastors mission of empowering pastors is. Manna 4 Lempira and Sowers4Pastors have been able to stay in touch with the pastors and Sunday school teachers who are planted in the communities. Those pastors and Sunday school teachers know when there is someone in need.

Some communities are open to visits from Kim and Jonathan, while others are more afraid of a visitor potentially spreading COVID-19 to their area. Kim and Jonathan are sensitive to the communities’ wishes. As Kim stated, “It would be horrific if we got COVID and passed it on. But if we don’t go, we won’t know what’s happening. We pray about doing the wise thing and listening to what our partners need.”

Family receiving roof repairs

Since this started, Kim has delivered thousands of bags of emergency provisions, including rice and beans. These bags have been a stop-gap for the neediest families. Often, the bags are delivered to the pastors, who in turn take them to those in need. Other times, Kim has been able to make the visits personally.

One church is particularly receptive to visits. Manna 4 Lempira has set the goal of visiting the home of every child in that program. The pastor is accompanying them. Kim said there’s nothing like getting to see their homes, meet their families, pet their dogs, and hear their needs. During one visit, they found a mother too ill to work. She and her children were living in a borrowed house with holes in the roof during the rainy season. Thanks to Manna and Sowers4Pastors, roofing supplies were delivered to the pastor who just happens to work as a roofer, and the roof was repaired.

In another visit, Kim saw a woman in her church with cancer. When the pandemic hit and public transportation was halted, the woman was unable to get to her treatment appointments. Without that visit, Kim wouldn’t have known that the woman went eight months without chemo. In the past two weeks, Kim has been able to drive the woman to multiple appointments for treatments and tests. Her cancer grew during her time without chemo and her prognosis isn’t great, but she knows she is loved and that she isn’t going through this alone.

“I feel like God is answering prayers,” Kim said. “The pastors are pointing us in the right direction about who we should visit. We wish we could get around to see everybody, but I can’t express strongly enough how thankful we are for the church partners we have.”

She continued by saying, “This ministry isn’t us. It’s putting resources in the hands of the pastors to do the ministry that is in their hearts. It’s a special thing to go alongside them. I don’t know of any more loving, hard-working people.”

 - posted by Christi

Great News about Air Travel to Honduras!

Guess what! We have an update to this handy-dandy post concerning the reopening of the airports in Honduras. Feel free to click on the link and refresh your memory. (In case you are trying to streamline your life, here’s a CliffsNotes version of the earlier post: Honduras reopened airports, but not to visitors, so don’t pack your bags yet. This is a step in the right direction, though.) Now, are you ready for the exciting update?

If the previous news was a step in the right direction, this news is like the kind of giant step you used to take during a rousing game of “Mother, May I?” (Mother, may I board a plane to Honduras? Yes, you may!)

Non-Honduran citizens and non-residents are now entering the country. That has been forbidden since March. Even people like Kelsea, who live and work in Honduras have been finding it impossible to re-enter the country after leaving, due to limited flights. That is rapidly changing, and it means that Kelsea and Kirstin will each be catching a flight to Honduras shortly. YAY!

What does this news mean for visiting teams? Well, the government is working on making it possible for tourists and short-term mission groups to come to Honduras, and do the things they have come to do. As Trish relayed what she has heard so far, she stressed that government plans tend to be fluid rather than set in stone. So, the plans of today will likely see changes tomorrow.

This is what the plan looks like for now:

Anyone entering Honduras, regardless of citizenship or residency, must have had a negative COVID-19 test in the past three days. Test results must be presented at the gate.

Teams and tourists will be required to obtain additional paperwork to show they have permission to move about the country freely. Trish doesn’t foresee this as being a problem and she believes it is unlikely that groups of gringos will be stopped and asked to show their paperwork.

What this means for teams:

While teams will be able to get paperwork allowing them to move freely throughout the country, Hondurans are still restricted to traveling only on one specific day every ten days. Many of the Sowers4Pastors teams work with children while they are all assembled at their local school, however the schools have not reopened. At present, the ability to gather a crowd of Hondurans for any kind of ministry work is severely limited.

Shout "Hallelujah" for this big step, and please stay tuned for the next step forward!

 - posted by Christi