YAY for Medical Teams!

Sowers4Pastors doesn’t have the opportunity to host a lot of medical teams. When they do, it is a big honkin’ deal! Over the past few years, it has sometimes been necessary to pay Honduran doctors and dentists to provide the health checks for the children. While that has been fine, S4P is very happy to have a medical team of Americans on the ground right now – volunteering their time to provide checkups and eye exams to the kids in sponsorship programs, as well as others in those same communities.

If you’ve been paying attention, you will recall that Allen and Trish asked for prayer regarding getting all of the necessary medicines through customs. They also reported that they had found a lawyer who was very knowledgeable in that area to help them through the process. S4P is delighted to announce that the team made it through customs with all of their supplies. The ministry was only required to pay a tiny processing fee. The team members arrived in two parts, on two different days, and getting through customs was a very long and drawn out process, requiring hours on each of the days. But they did it! At the end of each day, team members and supplies were allowed to enter and everything is being put to good use.

What we might call “routine checkups and eye exams” aren’t routine everywhere in the world. The team has now returned to the US, and the work of reviewing the collected information and find resources to help, begins. In the past, medical checkups have found things that would not have gone untreated in the States. Things like limbs that were broken and never set. That’s something that S4P has the capacity to help with. Even when a case requires surgery, they are often able to get the kids the treatment they need. The checkups are vital because the people at S4P don’t see each child frequently. The ministry will come out of this week with spreadsheets full of information that they can use to improve the health of individual children and, thus, the community as a whole.

Bringing in a medical team and the people who are there to provide clerical support requires a bit of finesse from S4P staff members. It’s important to advertise and spread the word without advertising so much that too many people show up! The goal is to have a steady stream of people throughout the day rather than having a crowd waiting for hours and hours in the morning and then no one in the afternoon. 

Sowers4Pastors looks at every visiting team as ambassadors. While a lot of organizations make money from hosting teams, S4P doesn’t do that. They try to cover the real expenses incurred from hosting teams, but that’s it. They are, of course, not able to cover the costs for teams that visit, but they don’t want people to feel they can’t come because it’s too expensive. Trish explained, “We’re wanting people to come and do the things they are skilled in doing. We also rely on teams to spread the word and act as ambassadors when they go home.”

In fact, Trish went on to say, “The woman leading the current medical team started out as a Manna sponsor. She’s a nurse practitioner who came down to visit with a Manna team. When she went home, she decided to try her hand at bringing down medical teams, and she recruits people for these teams who had never previously heard of Sowers4Pastors.” Now THAT is an ambassador!

Teams are not viewed as a source of financial support for the ministry when they come. The hope and prayer is always that they will go home and tell people about the work Sower4Pastors is doing and that they will be a blessing to people in Honduras now and in the future.

 - posted by Christi

Medical Team: The Next Best Thing to Housecalls

While they’re not quite making housecalls, a medical team from the U.S. has gone out of their way to provide healthcare in four communities near Gracias. Monica was one of the thirteen team members in the group, which was made up of people from Washington State, S. Dakota, Texas, Massachusetts, and Colorado. She was able to share how things went on their trip.

The team provided medical exams for the children in the Mercedes, Tablon, Betania, and Quelacasque sponsorship programs. That would have been a huge undertaking in itself, but they also opened it up to other people in those communities. Monica said there aren’t even words to adequately explain the experience. The team saw everyone from a 24-day-old baby to a 79-year-old adult. Even though this is something Monica has dreamed of doing for years, she said, “I’m continually surprised.”

The mobile unit was made up of a vision station, vital sign station, doctor station, and a pharmacy station. The pharmacy was overseen by a registered nurse who educated people on how to use prescribed eye drops, how to use an inhaler, and the proper way to apply creams.

When the team began, it took about 1.5 hours to set up. They were essentially working out of suitcases and bags. By the third day of operation, they were able to set up in about a half hour. They also have to bring in tables and rearrange chairs. Monica expressed her gratitude to the translators who also helped them set up the tables.

The team brought all of the essentials and then some. For the past four months, the team had been putting out the word about their trip. They had donations to cover the costs of medications, otoscope kits, laceration repair kits, staple kits, bandages, and antibiotics. They even arrived with a sonogram machine to let women hear their baby’s heartbeat for the first time. Monica laughed and said, “I feel we get as excited as they do!”

The main focus for the sponsorship kids was to provide deworming treatment and a couple of months of vitamins. Each child came through the line with a paper containing their name and sponsorship number (if in the Manna program - they also saw some kids from the Well's neighboring program). The deworming medicine was dispensed at the table. The vitamins were given out along with instructions written in Spanish. Then the child’s information sheet received a check mark to show they got their vitamins and deworming.

The team was made up of one doctor, three physician assistants, two RNs, one paramedic, one EMT, two medical assistants, and three non-medical people. These also received some assistance from two local doctors who gave their time to help out during the week. Those without medical training did visual acuity tests and helped to dispense vitamins. Each person had a job to do.

Because of COVID, it has been difficult to keep up on the sponsored children's health. This is a side of the sponsorship program that people often forget about, but it is vital to the overall health of the children, and the goal is to ramp it back up now that COVID is less of a threat. Hopefully, more medical teams like this one can happen in the near future. In the words of Monica, “It has been tremendous!”

-posted by Christi

Meet Evelio

At this time of year, we spend a lot of time on administrative tasks. They are long and tedious, but also necessary—tasks like officially enrolling new children, making child profiles, updating the website, processing sponsorship requests, or numbering thousands of photos.

It is a joy for us when we can close the laptop or put down our pencils to go out into the field and spend time with the wonderful little humans whose details we are spending days processing. For example, I’d like you to meet Evelio.

I remember him well from the day of enrollment. His mother came in, waited all day until the very end, hoping to have a chance to register her son. Because of his age, he had not been attending classes, but his mother promised to bring him. We know that this is taking a risk, but the Sunday School teachers agreed and wanted to give the family a chance. Fast forward 6 weeks. We walked into the church in Jicaro, Quelacasque after class had already started. The children were seated in neat rows, with boys on one side and girls on the other, attentively listening to the Bible lesson. We took a place in a quiet corner to be as respectful as possible, and I began to scan the rows of faces, exchanging smiles and giggles and furtive glances with our excited friends. When the lesson was over, I began to move through the rows, snapping photos and receiving lots of hugs. When I got to the end of a row of boys, to my great surprise, a young mother was sitting, and beside her, racing cars up and down the chair arms, was Evelio! You can learn a lot about Evelio from his profile. He is charmingly chubby with adorable curls. His favorite color is green, and he was wearing green this morning. His favorite hobby is playing with cars. Like most kids who are new to the program, he did NOT want his photo taken. I sat down for a moment and asked him about his cars—one blue and one green, Lightning McQueen style with faces—and Evelio lit up! He started talking about them and smiling happily, encouraged by his mother, who is obviously proud of her son. I eventually snapped my photo, glad for the moment I had shared with these new members of the Manna family.

It made my heart rejoice to see that this mother has kept her promise and is faithfully bringing her son to church—and at the same time, is now attending herself. It is wonderful to see how families are being reached with the good news of Jesus through their children and participation in the Manna Program.

Evelio is just one of more than 200 children who joined the Manna Program in February. That is 200 opportunities for a child and their family to grow in their knowledge of Christ and in fellowship with their local church. We are looking forward to releasing those children for sponsorship this month—and seeing them encouraged in their process of faith by loving sponsors!

- posted by Kim

Sunday School Teacher Training Session - video

We wanted to give our blog readers a chance to watch our video about the Manna Sunday school teachers training session. 

Enjoy!

Sunday School Teachers Start the Year Off Right

Back in December, a group of about 30 Sunday school teachers from Manna partner churches were able to attend a training event geared towards improving their abilities as Sunday school teachers. That event was run by a company that creates curriculum. It provided teachers with the opportunity to learn how to bring the curriculum to life through the use of songs and stories. On January 4th, a different kind of training was offered for an even larger group of Sunday school teachers - how to make the most of being a part of the Manna program, and how they can help make the program as a whole be more successful. This time, there were 85 Sunday school leaders from 23 different Manna locations in attendance. In case you need any incentive to continue reading, this is probably a good place to mention that Allen commented that the “ambience was amazing.” Allen doesn’t generally come across as someone overly concerned with ambience (amazing or otherwise), so let’s find out what made this event so special.

For starters, the event was held at a beautiful campground/retreat. The program began with Melvin and his family doing what Allen calls, "An incredible job leading praise and worship, with the teachers very much participating." 

Some of the attendees have been teaching Sunday school for thirty years, while others are almost brand spankin’ new. One attendee was a 13-year-old assistant. Most of the pastors were also in attendance.

Following the time of singing, Kim Hall shared information about how Sunday school can be used to help their churches grow. Let’s all give Kim an e-maginary round of applause because she taught 100% in Spanish, without the use of a translator! There were translators on-hand ready to help out, but their services weren’t required. According to Allen, Kim did a phenomenal job.

Kim clearly detailed the responsibilities of the sponsors, the North American staff, Sowers4Pastors staff within Honduras, the churches, the parents, and the children. She went into tremendous detail and was able to clearly separate the roles of everyone involved.

Correspondence between sponsors and children is an important part of Manna4Lempira. Kim shared some examples of different challenges that come up by providing some exaggerated sample letters. One letter was beautifully written, but it didn’t give the name of the sender nor the intended recipient. One letter said who it was to and from, but it was badly crumpled and virtually demolished. Training attendees were asked to work on the sample letters.

This was a way of demonstrating that Sunday school teachers are able to weed out some of the problems that come up during the correspondence process. Regardless of how beautiful a letter is, if it doesn’t include the name or sponsor number of the child, it’s not getting to the sponsor.

Two teens in attendance were given the task of seeing how long it took to open well-sealed envelopes so they could be translated. Then they had friends jump in to speed up the process. This was an ideal way to show how long it takes Kim to open 2000 letters before she can translate them!

Kim also led the attendees in some Sunday school competitions. They were asked to recite the books of the Bible, name all 12 disciples, and see who could say the most Bible verses. Winners were awarded prizes, such as new Bibles, soccer balls, school supplies, and candy.

The day was a time of laughter and sharing. The newer Sunday schools were able to see what the older ones have been doing to be successful. They got to see the Sunday school materials and what it is like to split up Sunday school classes according to ages - something not all programs do naturally. There was discussion on how to encourage the development of Sunday school teachers so that you are bringing up future teachers from teens. There were also reminders of the importance of doing home visits and of listening to the needs of the children. When there’s a need in the home, such as a family not having enough to eat, Sunday school teachers can act as a lifeline, which also represents an opportunity to share the gospel, and help bring the family to the church. Pastors were reminded of the need to promote the Sunday school program and of how Sunday school benefits the church and the community.

As Allen said, some of the talking points might sound simplistic if you grew up in a North American Sunday school program. For people with limited experience in either teaching or attending Sunday school, it was advanced stuff.

It was a long day, with a bus and pickups leaving at 5:30 AM to transport the participants. They got started at about 8:30 with registration and breakfast. When the bus arrived to take people home at 4:00, they weren’t finished. Before leaving, each church was prayed over by all the other churches in attendance. One church would come up and then the teachers from the other churches prayed over them simultaneously. Many people praying aloud at once is a very common practice in Honduras. It may seem loud and confusing to human ears, but there’s no doubt that God is able to sort it out. Kim also had a special backdrop and was able to get a picture of each person before they left. The bus driver wasn’t surprised that the event ran a little long - another very common practice in Honduras. There was too much fun, education, and amazing ambience to cram into the originally scheduled time-frame.

The staff at S4P want to praise God that the conference seemed to go extremely well. Now, Allen notes that they will be praying that it has a positive impact in many areas, such as in the Manna program, in the Sunday school classrooms, and in the communities that they serve. 

-posted by Christi

Training Sunday School Teachers

The mission of Sowers4Pastors is to empower Honduran pastors to reach their communities with the gospel. The work that Manna 4 Lempira does walks out that mission in the churches we serve.

Each Manna partner church is unique. They are all at different levels of development, with some just starting out, and others further down the road in their mission of making disciples. As we seek to support churches, we must evaluate where they are in their process and find the right tools to help.

Our partner church at El Tablon is one of our more mature partners. It is well established, has numerous successful church plants, and is doing a good job implementing the Manna program. When they asked us to come alongside them this year to provide training for Sunday School teachers, we realized that this would be a powerful—and fruitful—investment.

Around 30 teachers from sectors of the Tablon program—Guanas, Azomada, Catatao, and El Sapote—began a 12 module training program through their denomination back in May. These sessions lasted 4 hours and were held on the third Friday of each month. The ministry supported this training by paying for the training materials, dinner, and transportation for the teachers. The sessions covered a wide range of topics, from engaging listeners, strategies for discipline in the classroom, how to plan a dynamic lesson, recognizing child abuse, and much more. Teachers were also required to complete homework assignments individually and as a church.

On December 18 and 19, the ministry paid for these teachers to attend the last module, which was a two-day, intensive Evangelism Training. It was an incredible time of learning! On January 29, after around 60 hours of intensive study, the participants of this training will graduate as children’s pastors. Can you imagine the impact that these equipped ministers will have in their communities?

We are already seeing fruit. Some of the strategies learned in the evangelism training were implemented at the Christmas parties, and we were blessed to see many children respond to the gospel message that was shared with them. While this training program is not available to all of our partners due to denominational differences, we do plan to take portions of some of the modules and hold trainings in our other churches based upon need. We are also looking at bringing the non-denominational evangelism training to each of our church partners as soon as possible.

It is exciting to see churches grow in their abilities to minister more effectively in their communities!

- posted by Kim

Bibles and Backpacks

In order to get into the mood for today’s post, we’re going to begin with a sing-along. Join in. You know you want to!

The B-I-B-L-E!

Yes, that’s the book for me.

I stand alone on the Word of God.

The B-I-B-L-E!

Once every three years, backpack & shoe delivery day becomes even more special with the addition of a new Bible for each child. How many Bibles is that? Well, as Allen said, “We’re knocking on the door of 5000.” That is a very big door.

Some of the Bibles have already arrived and they’re just waiting to be put into the hands of children, but more will be needed. Kids in Pre-K-3rd grade will receive beautiful storybook Bibles, just right for beginning readers. 4th graders and up will receive a paperback Bible. These are what you might think of as outreach Bibles.

Because the cost of Spanish books is consistently about twice as expensive as books written in English, it is an extra-blessing that Sowers4Pastors is able to purchase books in bulk through a Mennonite group that works in Honduras. The fact that they are purchased in-country simplifies things, too. With no shipping hassles, Allen is able to purchase the books for $3.5 per storybook and just under $2 for the older kids’ Bibles, plus the bookstore very kindly donated a couple of boxes that others had donated to them. Thanks, Librería Luz Cristiana!

Handing out Bibles fits perfectly with the mission of feeding children spiritually, as well as physically. One of the benefits of sending children to school is that they can read the Bible. Some of the children will graduate and move into a variety of careers. In truth, most will not graduate and will, by choice or because of life circumstances, stay close to home. They will serve their communities as farmers and laborers. Regardless of how much formal education a child receives, once that child can read, a whole new world of reading for spiritual growth and for pleasure has been unlocked. Forever.

Sowers4Pastors is looking for people to partner with them in giving free Bibles to children. Think about it. It only takes a couple of dollars to put a Bible into the hands of a child. An old tip I picked up when selling Campfire Girl candy each year was to say, “How many boxes should I put you down for?” Sowers4Pastors rarely goes for the hard sell, but… How many children should we put you down for?

-posted by Christi

Throwback Thursday!

5 years is a big milestone. As a ministry, Manna 4 Lempira began six years ago in Mercedes, with the Tablon and Betania programs beginning 5 years ago, and the Quelacasque program opening 4 years ago. That means that our programs are an average of 5 years old, and we think that is something to celebrate!

5 years of ministry means:

• 5 years of knowing the children and building relationships.
• 5 years of growth, as the program serves 10 times the original number of children!
• 5 years of letters exchanged between children and sponsors.
  
• 5 years of getting to know wonderful sponsors around the world, who encourage us as a ministry team and make this great mission possible through their prayers and support.
• 5 years of celebrations—holidays, birthdays, anniversaries!
• 5 years of support in hard times, including the deaths of beneficiaries and their family members, illnesses, as well as the economic, emotional challenges produced by COVID.
• 5 years of backpacks and shoes, which equals 5 more years of education for each beneficiary.
• 5 years encouraged by God’s Word through the Sunday School programs.
• 5 years of training, encouragement, and support for pastors and teachers in our partner churches.
• 5 years blessed by the inspiring faith of the families and churches that we serve.

While we rejoice in these successes, we know that the work as far from finished. As we have reached the goal of seeing our programs firmly established and worked out many growing pains, we are in the process of setting new goals. Our time ministering in the churches and communities has given us insight into how we can better support the work of each partner in reaching children and families with the gospel of Christ.

So what might the next 5 years bring? Here are some of our future goals:

• We hope to visit the homes of even more beneficiaries, especially those considered at risk to evaluate how we can best serve these families.

• Focus on growth in our youth programs is critical, as many of our beneficiaries are now adolescents.
• Providing more training for teachers and pastors in how to use the tools we provide for ministry so we can wisely use resources.
• Continually improving the ministry of letter writing between sponsors and children is a perpetual goal.

Please continue to pray for us as we seek to serve children, families, churches, communities, and sponsors to the glory of God and His Kingdom!

This Sunday, the Tablon partner church has planned a party to celebrate the children. We hope you enjoy the “Glow-up” photos of the children we serve, showing their first program photo and the most recent program photo!

-posted by Kim

Trips to Honduras: One of the Best Things About Summer

It’s time to play the blog post version of Family Feud. The category is: The Best Things About Summer. What did you say? Watermelon? Yes! Watermelon made the board. Swimming? Show me “swimming!” Ding, ding! Yes! Socks with sandals and shorts? X! Oh, I’m sorry. That did not make our board. Visiting Gracias and working with Sowers4Pastors for short-term mission trips? YES! You automatically advance to the bonus round. 

2021 Manna Team - plus translators!

After a COVID-19 freeze on mission teams in 2020, Sowers4Pastors is delighted to welcome teams for the summer of 2021. Currently, they are playing host to a small but mighty team of Manna 4 Lempira sponsors. One of the four members took time for a little phone interview. This is Monica’s fourth mission trip with Sowers4Pastors. She is joined by her 13-year-old son, Caleb. The other team members are the mother daughter duo of Vicki and Jaidyn. This is the third trip for Caleb and the first for Vicki and Jaidyn.

Monica said that Caleb’s enthusiasm is one of the things that keeps her coming back again and again. Her husband and other son have also taken part in a trip, but now they hold down the fort while Monica and Caleb are gone. It seems that on every trip, Caleb never wants to leave and is always ready to return. 

The team has spent time visiting the children they sponsor. For Monica and Caleb, that meant seeing twelve children in eight different families. Two of the children were sponsored since Monica's last visit, so this was the first time they got to meet in person. Litzy, a 3-year-old girl, has stated that she wants to be a princess when she grows up. 

Since this is the first trip for Vicky and Jaidyn, it was also the first time they got to see their sponsored kids. 18-year-old Jaidyn has her own sponsor child. They were all elated by the experience. 

Monica explained, “It’s a tremendous opportunity to come down here and see the culture in Lempira. For the people who sponsor the kids, it’s wonderful and enriching to meet the kids and interact with them. When I meet their families and interact with them, it helps me know how to better pray for them throughout the year. You learn how to best support their families.”

Caleb has learned a lot through the visits, too. Monica explained that a couple of the communities they visit are especially poor. A couple of months ago, Caleb devised a plan to help those families. He decided to raise money to buy a pig and five chickens for each of the poorer families. Monica pointed out that if they hadn’t been able to visit, they wouldn’t have understood that those food sources were a need. 

She giggled a little when she said, “This is such a Christian thing to say, but… We always walk away more blessed than the Hondurans, after having the opportunity to be with the families and spend time with them.”

Monica went on to talk about the trips as an opportunity of a lifetime. She is especially thankful for the planning that goes into each team visit by Sowers4Pastors, particularly Russell. She said this smaller team has allowed them more opportunity to interact with the translators and Russell, which has given them all a better understanding of the ministry and the work they do. 

When asked if COVID restrictions have had much impact on this visit, Monica said that the difference was in the prep work. Each member was required to get a COVID test within 72 hours of travel. Monica also needed to go online and complete a form in Spanish, with the help of an online translation. Russell has arranged for them to receive the COVID tests they will need for the return trip.

On the day of the phone call, the team was heading out to help Kelsea in a Bible school class she teaches. Then they would be getting their rapid result tests for their flights home. At that point, it will be time for Caleb to begin thinking about the next trip.

 - posted by Christi

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.

Having a Field Day

What happens when Sowers4Pastors and the Manna 4 Lempira youth program (One Light) join forces to hold their first-ever combined special event on a Saturday? Well, for starters, Russell loses his voice and a following Wednesday morning phone call sounds like you’re talking to Louis Armstrong. The Louis Armstrong thing is really neither here nor there, but it does emphasize that when it comes to youth events, Russell leaves it all on the field. He wasn’t alone in his efforts to make it a most memorable day for the youth of Mercedes and Betania.

Memo, the man who is like a youth pastor times ten for One Light, had been wanting to have a weekend retreat for the kids for many months. But, COVID means there are some limitations concerning get-togethers. Memo and Russell decided to set aside one Saturday to have a field day.

Rented buses picked up 85 students from the nearby villages and drove them to their day o’ fun. With staff, there were over 100 people in attendance. After eating breakfast, they headed outside for about three hours of fun and games. There were relay races, water games, and a homemade slip and slide. When Russell is in charge of games, people get soaked.

The games ended in time to enjoy a catered lunch. The afternoon was filled with lesson time and worship. Danny, the youth pastor at the church Russell and Iris attend is also the go-to photographer for Sowers4Pastors. Unfortunately, he couldn't attend himself, but he sent out his youth group’s team to help. The eight young adult leaders spent two hours doing skits, teaching some choreography, and doing a lesson. The group broke for a snack and then Memo gave the final message.

At the end of the day, everyone got back on the buses tired and happy. While weekend youth events are commonplace in the States, a full day of fun and worship was like a trip to Disney for these kids. Some of them had never been out of their village before. The total cost was about $5 per student, but the impact on their lives is priceless.

Russell croaked out in his Louis Armstrong voice, “You could see on their faces that it was the best thing ever.”

Russell also wanted to give a shout out for all the volunteers from the Sunday school programs, the staff from Manna4Lempira, and the staff at S4P that made this possible. Thanks for all your efforts to make this happen!

Plans are already in place to have a Field Day for the youth from Tablon at the end of May. In the words of Mr. Armstrong, “Yes, I think to myself, what a wonderful world.”

-posted by Christi.

A Mish Mash of Updates!

There's a bunch of different things happening right now - so here's a mish mash of updates!

Lighthouse Team

A team of people who participate in the Lighthouse Church sponsorship program is currently on the ground in Honduras. Russell and Allen are working with the team, which is making the most of its time by completing multiple projects. Here’s the rundown:

Sister churches come up with their own pet projects and Lighthouse Church has chosen one of its focuses to be getting books in the classrooms of Crucitas. The church did a book drive to get age-appropriate, Spanish-language books for pleasure reading into each of the ten schools in the program. Members of this team realized that the schools don’t have a good place to store the books, so they are building bookcases to create mini-classroom libraries.

A lot of the men in this team are skilled electricians. Even though their church is connected to the Crucitas program, they are also doing wiring for the new(ish) church in Quelacasque. The building is already in use, but there are still things to be completed.

Some members of the team are putting up playground equipment at the smallest school in Crucitas. It’s a one room schoolhouse that will be needing an additional room or two in the not-so-distant future. But for now, the team is welding metal to erect a swingset and other things to help the kids burn off some energy.

Profile Views and Red Letter Days

Kelsea and Kirstin are updating and uploading profiles for sponsors at sister churches. This is taking up most of their time because there is a looming deadline. Two of the sister churches are planning sponsorship drives in the coming weeks and need to have profiles on each available child. 

Kim is working on the profile updates for Manna4Lempira at this time as well. They also got a huge batch of mail. The current team brought down the most recent letters from the Manna sponsors, which Kim and Jonathan will translate. The team will not be going home with extra luggage space because there is a big push to have children writing letters to their sponsors, as well - they will be taking back letters for one of the sister church programs.

Farm Life

Caffeine lovers, rejoice! The coffee harvest is complete and the final tally is a little over 50,000 pounds of coffee beans. The end of the harvest signals a new kind of work around the coffee farm. First, the guys chop around the trees with machetes to keep the weeds down. Then sprayers are filled with a combination of fertilizers, fungicides, and pesticides and the entire farm is sprayed to prepare for next year,

Wheels of Good Fortune

Motorcycle distribution time is back and it’s bigger than ever. This year, 35 pastors’ applications have been approved and their deposits have been received. Now, it’s just a matter of a lot of back and forth communication with the Honda dealer.

Where Does One Buy a Gold Shovel?

There has been a new groundbreaking ceremony on the Sowers’ property. Well, maybe there wasn’t a ceremony, but we should all chip in and get them a fancy gold shovel for next time. This breaking of ground was for a new house for Allen and Trish. No, not the new house that ended up being just right for Russell and Iris’s family. No, not the renovation of Russell and Iris’s old house that became Allen and Trish’s new house. This ground was broken for a new “new house.” Kelsea is currently living in town, due to a lack of housing on the property. Kirstin has a place on the property, but it’s barely sufficient. The plan is for Kirstin and Kelsea to move into Allen and Trish’s current new house, which was also Russell and Iris’s old house. (There were undoubtedly less complicated ways to convey that information, but it wouldn’t have been as much fun.)

Generally speaking, March, April, and May are the months when Allen and Russell can focus much of their attention on construction. Allen’s lofty goal is to complete the house in May 2022. While Trish admires his enthusiasm, she isn’t going to hold him to that goal and anticipates that it may take longer.

-posted by Christi.

Primero Dios

When students begin the Manna 4 Lempira program, there is great excitement. They feel that they are being given a key that will open doors of opportunity for a brighter future. While lack of resources is a significant challenge for most of the families we serve, in many cases, there is also a lack of hope. When it comes to the future, there are more questions than answers. Manna helps families find a way forward, a way to plan and dream. Our program provides resources, support, encouragement, and spiritual development for students through their pastors, teachers and sponsors. If all goes according to plan, students can make plans to continue with their education as God blesses.

But what happens when everything DOESN’T go according to plan? Honduras has a “Primero Dios” culture. It’s a phrase we often see repeated in letters from the children and in everyday conversation. People here don’t make plans for the future without being careful to say this phrase. Roughly translated, it simply means “God first”—or as we people from the southern US say, "Lord willing and the creek don’t rise." People simply don’t make plans without acknowledging that God’s will in their lives is ultimate.

I’ll see you tomorrow—Primero Dios.

We will finish the harvest next week—Primero Dios.

I’ll graduate high school this year—Primero Dios.

Enter COVID-19. The pandemic shattered the plans of students who have worked and fought and dreamed. In our youth meetings, we often hear students crying out to God, asking God—what will my future be now? How can I go forward? How can I continue my studies? Education and access was a problem before COVID—and now it is an even bigger challenge for students. That is why the continued support, encouragement, and relational aspect of Manna 4 Lempira is so important. We are here—the churches are here—walking with these students and their families, continuing to meet needs and offer counsel.

Sindy entering
 the program

Beautiful Sindy enrolled in our program in 2016. She was entering her final year of studies when the pandemic began. We read her anguished letters, heard her prayers, listened as she fought through online classes. And yesterday, we celebrated her as she received her high school degree! She thanks her family, her church, our program, and her sponsor for supporting her through her process.

Sindy with her high school diploma!

Primero Dios, this is not the last we will hear from this generation of fighters and dreamers in Honduras, who are wisely using the resources given them to faithfully pursue God’s calling on their lives.

- posted by Kim H.