Allen and Trish Are Moving - But Not Far!

It’s a good thing Allen and Trish aren’t expected to send out change of address cards every time they move to a different house. If they did send out such cards, they could say something like, “Allen and Trish are moving approximately 20 feet away.” It might be helpful if they would send out an aerial view of the property and we could move colored pins around to keep up with them. Sort of like a map for world travelers to indicate all of the places they’ve visited. If we had such a map, we would all be getting ready to insert a new pin directly beside the previous pin - and you might recall they lived in the bodega at one point as well. Some time in the next year or so they plan to move to the house currently under construction, meaning they will have lived in four different buildings on the property!

Trish's current house in front,
the house she is moving into in
the back.

Russell and Iris have moved into town since their children will be attending the private bilingual school there. Due to COVID restrictions, RJ has been attending school online for half of kindergarten, and all of 1st and 2nd grades. It’s very exciting that the decision has been made for the school to meet in person when school starts up in August. Abby will be joining her big brother since somehow time has flown and she is entering kindergarten. Being closer to the school will make it much easier for Iris. Russell will continue to drive to the property for work each day.

Allen and Trish already had a house under construction. Don’t look for it to be completed for at least a year, though. Since Kirstin has been living in a room behind the office that was really meant to be for storage, Trish and Allen decided to make an extra move by settling into Russell and Iris’s old house until the new house is finished. That will free up their 800 square foot home for Kirstin. The small home will feel palatial to Kirstin after living in a room never intended to be a permanent residence. She can enjoy the little luxuries like a kitchen sink and a non-public bathroom!

The view from the property - the reason Trish (and Allen) chose this location!!

Trish is currently moving in the same way you might carry in a load from Costco–one armload at a time! She’s literally walking the contents of her kitchen and bookshelves over to the other home. Rachel and Kirstin are helping when they have some available time. When Rachel is there, they load up the armload-size stacks into her SUV and drive a few yards to the other house. Trish said it’s amazing how much easier that makes things.

The house currently under construction

It is estimated that Trish and Allen will be completely out of the smaller home in a couple of weeks.

The view from the back porch of 
the home currently under
construction.

Trish is grateful that the weather has been mild for the end of the dry season. Normally, this time of year is known for very hot temperatures, but it has been staying in the high 80s. That still means it’s hot in the homes, since they don’t have AC, but it’s not as unpleasant as it has been in past years. There are four more days until it is officially the end of the dry season. Then the rains will come. With any luck, everyone will be all settled in time for this year’s flying termite infestation!

- posted by Christi

Here Come the Solar Panels!

Everybody sing!

Here comes the sun. Na-na-na-na! Here comes the sun, and I say, it’s all right . . .

This blog post is actually about solar panels, but since there’s not a good song about solar panels, you’re stuck with “Here Comes the Sun.” Hope you don’t mind.

Solar panels on the back of Russell's roof

The addition of a new solar panel system on the Sowers’ property means that they now have lots of power. Their system was originally designed for one family. It was great at keeping one refrigerator and one washing machine doing the things that refrigerators and washing machines do, but it couldn’t really keep up with the new demand for electricity. The property is now home to Kelsea, Russell, Iris, RJ, Abbey, and (until schools reopen) Ben, in addition to Trish and Allen. The crew members also use a lot of power, in their work. The old system was strained under the extra burden of a new house and a new building used to store coffee, rice, people, etc. There are also additional security lights at night now, which add to the electrical consumption.

Allen gave me a little crash course on how the system works. For starters, you need solar panels. Those go on the roof, pointing in the right direction to catch some rays. We probably all knew that much. If you know the rest of the process, there’s a good chance that you have your own orange apron from The Home Depot.

One of three controllers

The key parts go something like this:

The power comes in through the solar panels and down through electrical lines to the controllers. A series of panels is wired together into a string, which is then wired into a single input box, and then goes into the controller. The controllers convert the incoming power into the type of power that the batteries and the inverter can use (24DC). Some power goes to be stored in the battery, and some goes directly to the inverter, to be used as electricity. The inverter changes the power in a bigger way, so that it can be used as household current (120AC).  (In Trish’s Cliff’s Notes version she sent me in Facebook Messenger, I learned that the change that happens in the inverter is the same as the difference between using a household plug versus the power that comes out of the cigarette lighter in a vehicle. In short, it’s techie stuff.)

This is the inverter

From the inverter, the power goes through an ordinary electrical panel box. From there, the system is just like the electrical system in a house that’s connected to a power company. There was also some mention of breakers, but I’m a bit fuzzy on that portion. (Trish here - basically, the guys installed a whole lot of breakers, in a whole lot of different strategic places in the system, to protect the various equipment. They also installed equipment so that the entire system can be turned off very easily, and switched over to using power from a generator.)

I will now use my own knowledge of the electrical system to wrap up this lecture. Are you ready? When you flip the switch up, the light goes on. When you flip it down, it goes off.

4000 pounds of batteries, which power
the system when there's no sun

The Sowerses now have two and a half times as much power as they used to have. Russell’s system is about one and a half times as big as the original system, and consists of 20 panels, 3 controllers, 1 inverter, and 2 giant forklift batteries.

Since Allen travels so much (thus using less electricity for months of the year), they left both warehouses on the system with Allen and Trish’s house. Even though the rainy season is arriving in Honduras soon (which will mean less hours of sunshine), they are all set to make the most of the sun.

Power control room in Russell's house

Sun, sun, sun, here it comes!

- posted by Christi

If You Put Some Missionaries on Coronavirus Lockdown . . .

Are you familiar with the children’s storybook, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie . . .? It’s about what happens when a hungry mouse shows up on your doorstep and one thing leads to another. You give him a cookie. He asks for milk. You give him milk. He wants a mirror to see if he has a milk mustache. The book was so popular that it became a series of If You . . . books. If You Give a Pig a Pancake . . . If You Give a Moose a Muffin . . . 

And now, it seems that Sowers4Pastors has the opportunity for their own spinoff: If You Put Some Missionaries on Coronavirus Lockdown . . . 

The story will probably go a little something like this:

If you put some missionaries on coronavirus lockdown, they are going to want to stay busy. They’ll look around for projects to keep themselves and their crew working. They’ll probably look up toward the heavens and realize that Russell and Iris need clay tiles on their metal roof. After they put the tiles on that roof, they might look around to admire their handiwork and realize that Allen and Trish need a new roof, too.

Allen and Trish's ten-year-old roof

This idea doesn’t actually come out of the blue. A few weeks earlier, they had experienced some blustery days and that didn’t do Allen and Trish’s roof any favors. The roof is made up of three parts. There’s the interior wooden ceiling, a layer of sheet metal, and then clay tiles on top. When the roof was originally put on, the metal that arrived for the project was kind of cheap and not in the best condition. Still, they went ahead and installed it because it’s what was available. And if you give some missionaries roofing materials, they’re going to put on a roof! At the time, they knew it would only last about ten years.

The missionaries originally think they will just spruce up the existing roof. A third of the back side of the roof never had clay tiles because the original plan was to leave a place where they could use solar power to heat water. That's where the roof was having problems, with wind blowing up the pieces of metal. So, the missionaries first think they will add clay tiles to that spot. However, knowing that ten years had passed since the roof was installed, Allen realizes it would be good idea to go ahead and change out all the metal at this time.

The missionaries and their crew will want to put on new sheet metal with a 50 year life expectancy. They can do this because the hardware stores have now reopened. So they’ll climb onto the roof and start taking off the clay tiles. They’ll plan on removing the metal from the front pitch of the roof first, replacing the metal on that portion,  and putting on the new clay tiles, and then repeating the process on the back pitch of the roof. But when they start to put the clay tiles on the oiled metal roof, they’ll realize that the tiles are sliding right off the roof! The tiles were supposed to just stay in place, as they do on other homes in the area, including Russell and Iris' house. But it seems the missionaries will underestimate the effect of gravity, along with the lack of friction, when clay tiles are put on slippery oiled metal with this level of slope. So, they’ll scrap the original plan and finish replacing the metal roof on the rest of the house. (They’ll plan on trying to put the clay tiles on again after the rains have washed away some of the oil coating.)

If you remove the old metal roof from a house, dust and other sketchy sorts of mud dauber debris are going to fall through the wooden boards that serve as the interior ceiling. This is going to shower a coating of dust down upon every conceivable area of the home, via nooks and crannies in the wooden ceiling.

A lovely depiction of the type of debris falling into the house
(from: https://ssec.si.edu/stemvisions-blog/inside-one-wasps-lair)

If dust showers into the home, the missionary who is isolated from her handy-dandy roofing crew is going to realize that she needs to clean up her nitty-gritty abode. She even gets to clean up extra things because she has asked Ben to bring in some stored items from the bodega so she can sort through them while she is quarantined from the others. Trish, the quarantined missionary, will probably pat herself on her dusty back for being so industrious.

The missionaries will be extremely grateful that a potential leaky roof problem is caught before the rainy season comes in a few weeks, as some of the metal roofing that was removed was completely rusted through. Trish will laugh at her good fortune that about the time she gets through cleaning up the current grime, it will be time for the annual arrival of the flying termites. The flying termites always arrive with the first rains of the rainy season. They will fly in, mate in the air, their wings will fall off, and they’ll die. Their little wings and separated bodies will be in every nook and cranny of the missionary’s newly roofed - and recently cleaned - home. There will be several swarms of termites over the course of a couple of weeks, so Trish will try to keep them cleaned up in the kitchen and out of the food, but will save the big, whole-house termite cleaning for the end of their season.

An actual photo of some of the debris that Trish is currently cleaning up

She will probably want to eat a cookie while she contemplates the fact that she has the opportunity to do so many deep cleanings in such a short amount of time.

And if you give a missionary a cookie, she’s probably going to want a glass of milk. And a lot more cookies!

 - posted by Christi

The Metaphor-Free Blog Post

Nine times out of ten, I don’t know what a week’s blog topic will be until the Wednesday morning phone call. Sometimes I play a game with myself and try to guess. The frontrunners generally include:  pastors, motorcycles, coffee, backpacks, sponsorships, sister churches, family, bridge construction, visiting teams, or a visit to the U.S. This week, the frontrunners lost out to constructing a building. No, that’s not a spiritual metaphor. It’s about the new building that’s going up on the Sowers’ property, at this very moment.

Russell and four or five crew members are currently laying blocks for the new building, which will include an office, a bunkroom for male interns, a private bedroom for Ben, a locker room/break room for the farm guys, and a warehouse/storage facility. If this were a spiritual metaphor, I’d point out that they are laying on the firm foundation that the team from Lighthouse Church poured, during their recent visit. No building on the sand for these missionaries! If this were a fairy tale, I’d point out that they’re definitely more like the third little pig. No amount of huffing and puffing will blow it down. But, since this is just a story about building a new facility, let’s just get on with it!

According to Kelsea, approximately ¾ of the building is now about a block high (the photos in this post were taken about a week later than that conversation, so you can now assess the speed of the progress). Russell is hoping to have the project completed by mid-November--in time for the arrival of the shipping containers. In another week or so, the blocks should be high enough to put a roof on the building. It will eventually be stuccoed, though that may not happen in time for the arrival of the backpacks. The plan is for electricity and plumbing to be completed by mid-November, but there could be some wiggle room on that.

Kelsea laughed that Sowers4Pastors has a pattern of not using buildings as they were originally intended. Russell and Iris are living in a building that was meant to house visiting teams. Allen and Trish are living in a warehouse. By next year, the plan is for everyone to be in their own homes and for each building to be used for its intended purpose. Living the dream!

 - posted by Christi

On the Home Stretch

As you probably know, Sowers4Pastors has hosted a steady stream of visiting teams this summer. Each team has visited a unique location, but most of those teams have done pretty much the same thing. Each team has gone to their particular sponsorship center. They’ve met the children. They’ve done VBS programs. They’ve registered children for the program, or handled well visits, if that was needed at their particular sponsorship center. This week’s team has a different agenda.

For the second week in a row, a team from Lighthouse Church in Glen Burnie, Maryland is visiting. Last week’s team did the sponsorship center/VBS stuff. This week’s team consists of seven or eight men who are there because they want to see all of the Sowerses FINALLY move into their new homes. Remember, Russell, Iris, and family will be moving into the new home, which was originally going to be for Allen and Trish. Allen and Trish will be moving into Russell and Iris’s current, smaller home. Plus, a new building will be erected, which will be used as a storage facility, office, bookstore, and a bunkhouse for male interns. Ben will also have a private bedroom in this building, since there won't be space for him to have a separate room in Allen and Trish’s new home.

The industrious team is doing plumbing and electrical finish work. While Russell and Allen have the ability to do those tasks, they usually lack the time, because they're busy with ministry duties. This church has put together funds, and is taking a week to make it happen! The team is also helping pour concrete for the new building on the Sowers’ property, and putting up a new playground at a school that is part of the Crucitas sponsorship center, during their visit.


The projected move-in date for all of the involved Sowerses is sometime between January and April of 2019. Much of the timing will come down to the construction of the new building. If the building is completed when the next containers arrive, the contents will be loaded into it. If not, the contents will be moved into the new house, and all construction will halt until the container donations have been distributed.

Trish, for one, is pleased with the proposed schedule because she will have time to get some more decluttering done before moving into a smaller building. She has been so busy with the new website that decluttering has been put on the back burner for a while. And, as you might imagine, when you live in a warehouse you have the space to hold on to things!

According to Ben, there is now a working bathroom in the new house! Wahoo! Progress is a great thing! A flushing toilet is also a great thing. And, of course, a team of men willing to fly to Honduras to work on a house is a WONDERFUL thing.

 - posted by Christi

Crazy, Crazy, Crazy, Busy, Busy, Busy

Occasionally, Allen offers a suggestion for a title of a blog post. Today, he suggested, “Crazy, Crazy, Crazy” or “Busy, Busy, Busy”. After thinking about it and rereading the notes from our conversation, it seemed prudent to smoosh the two suggestions together. Welcome to the Crazy, Crazy, Crazy, Busy, Busy, Busy blog post!

Members of the S4P crew, unloading
a spool of cable from the MD container

It’s a universal truth that sometimes things don’t go exactly according to plan. That universal truth is never more true than in the daily lives of the Sowers! The Sowers were anticipating hosting back-to-back teams, but the second team postponed its trip for personal reasons. The group plans on rescheduling for sometime later this year. While Allen, Russell, and Trish were disappointed by the postponement, it is not without its blessings.

You see, the Sowers are essentially booked with visiting teams through March. This unexpected postponement by one team has given the Sowers almost a full week of work days, and they intend to take full advantage of the gift of time. Here are a few of the things on their agenda:

• This is the first time they have ever received two shipping containers at basically the same time and that amounts to a heap of work. Russell will be taking all of the contents of the shipping containers and organizing it.

• They are entering what Russell calls the “super busy backpack distribution season”. This is the first time they have had eight sponsorship programs operating at the same time. This extra time will be used to organize a slew of backpacks filled with school supplies for the children in those programs. Russell says this gift of time means they “will not be running around like chickens with their heads cut off,” which is undoubtedly a good thing.

Using the Land Cruiser to ferry the contents
of the container from Gracias, up to our property.
The big container truck only goes as far as Gracias.

• The new water tank will get some attention and Russell and the crew will be able to put the tubing together. (There was probably some more construction talk, but “tubing” was the word I understood. We’ll just go with that.)

• The Sowers are also catching up on IRS paperwork--both their personal and ministry filings. The ministry filings alone take days of work to complete.

• Russell and Allen will have more time to prepare for future team visits. Kim Hall’s team arrives in two weeks and two construction teams are scheduled to arrive soon. That means extra preparation to make sure all of the supplies are lined up, etc...

• Part of Russell’s attention will go to preparing for work during the dry season on the coffee farm.

• Trish is hoping that, with this extra bit of time, the eviction of the opossum from their home/warehouse can be moved up on the schedule a bit, too.

So, while the postponement of a team visit was not welcome news, Sowers4Pastors is making a big ol’ pitcher of lemonade from lemons. Even Allen admitted they were almost overloaded with commitments.

Unloading the big orange container from Maryland!

In other news… The political protests have calmed down, which is what allowed for the delivery of the second shipping container. The ministry did take a financial hit by having to pay a fee for having the containers stored for extra time. In the grand scheme of things, that is peanuts! The valuable supplies on the containers were worth far more than the unanticipated fees.

Allen would like to remind people that the news can be very sensationalized. The job of news sources is to hone in on the worst things that have happened. Overall, Allen feels the political climate is much more calm than it was immediately following the election. That is great news during this crazy, crazy, crazy, busy, busy, busy season!

 - posted by Christi

Who's Up For a Game of Musical Houses?

If you think Trivial Pursuit or chess are challenging games, you’ve obviously never tried to wrap your head around the game Russell is getting ready to play--Musical Houses. The music won’t really start for another year, but Russell is still preparing for one of the most complicated, short distance moves in history! It is, what my granny would have referred to as a “fruit basket turnover” as Russell and Iris prepare to move into a new house, Allen and Trish prepare to move into Russell and Iris’s current house, with Allen and Trish’s current home becomes storage space. Got it? If not, be thankful you don’t have to pull this off.

Once this year’s shipping containers arrive, their contents will be stored in the house which is currently under construction. That means any work Russell wants to accomplish before next March has to be completed before the end of November. That’s when the bounty of backpacks and other supplies should arrive from the States.

Now, this big construction push would be easier if this was the only thing going on in Russell’s life. But that is far from the case. November will be the middle of coffee harvest. The regular ministries are continuing. So, Russell is juggling his job as the Bob Villa of home owners with his career as a very busy missionary.

Russell’s father-in-law has finished all of the exterior doors. The windows are also completed. He is currently finishing the interior doors. Last week, security bars went up on all the windows. It’s important to have the house as secure as possible because of the aforementioned contents of shipping containers, which will be stored there.  

Currently, Russell and two other guys are hard at work laying ceramic tile in the new house. For the next month, two men will be laying tile on a full-time basis. The lofty goal is to have that job finished before the containers arrive.

As Russell explained the logistics of this move, my head almost started spinning. Essentially, they will need to pull off three simultaneous moves. If all goes well, the moves will take place before Allen returns home from his planned U.S. trip in the fall of 2018. I would love to adequately explain the process, but even I don’t understand the notes I took of Russell’s description of how everyone’s stuff is supposed to end up in the right place. I do know it will involve a fair amount of labeling and color coding boxes.

The good news is the houses are only a few hundred feet away from each other. That should make it easier in case Allen opens up his sock drawer to find it’s full of R.J.’s toys. Something tells me, the music may have to start and stop a few times before everyone’s belongings are in their new home! - posted by Christi

Filling in the Blanks

Generally speaking, fill in the blank tests are easier than essay questions, but more difficult than true/false, multiple choice, and matching tests. As Russell said, “It’s another week of fill in the blank scheduling,” as the Sowers family tries to catch up on everything that didn't get done during the summer weeks of team visits. During our most recent phone call, he was able to fill in some of those blanks. I took notes so you don’t have to.

The new members of the team will be documenting the ministry work through
photos and videos, as well as helping with the work itself

Allen and Russell recently hired two more guys to help with the sponsorship program. Currently, Melvin and Russell are working with them to be sure they understand what they need to do.

Handmade doors arriving on site!

Russell and Iris’s new house is getting closer to completion. This week, workers are doing a final smoothing of the walls so they will be ready for paint soon. Russell’s father-in-law is finishing and installing the doors and windows he made in his carpentry shop. One can only hope RJ has his own tool belt and will be on hand to supervise.

The crew is preparing to plant the new coffee plants. Doesn’t it seem like they just did that? At any rate, it’s time to do it again.

This coming week is MK Camp, so right now is filled with prep work. They are gathering coolers, cooking supplies, and everything else needed to make sure things run smoothly and everyone is fed. Russell said between 75-80 kids are expected to attend this year’s camp.

The Sowers are prepping for a mission team, which will be arriving the second week in August. They will be doing VBS at three schools associated with their sister church. They will also be painting their sister church. Because the team wants to do something to help out the Sowers, they will even be helping to paint Russell and Iris’ house. The team will be staying from Sunday-Sunday.

Another great photo by Danny, our ministry photographer!

Shortly after that, Allen will be leaving for the U.S. That means he and Russell will have a few short days to be sure nothing falls through the cracks in Allen’s absence. That’s pretty much code for PAPERWORK!

Trish will be joining Allen in the States sometime in September. But first things first: she will be spending two weeks with a very pregnant Rachel. The hope is she will be there for the birth. If not, she’ll still enjoy time with Rachel. Still… She really, REALLY wants to spend time with the newest grandchild.

That sums up the notes for this week. One of these weeks, we’ll have to try a true/false test! - posted by Christi

The (Coffee) Fields are Ripe for Harvest

Whew! It has been a while since we’ve “talked” and much has happened. Allen and Trish are home from the U.S. now. Russell, Iris, and R.J. have moved onto the ol’ homestead. And R.J. has learned he’s close enough to yell for Nana and Gampa to get him from his front porch. This post, however, is about The Great Sowers’ Coffee Harvest of 2016!

Harvesting coffee!

For someone who doesn’t even drink coffee and has never seen it growing, I have to tell you, I am ridiculously excited about this! If you’ve been paying attention, you know this is the very first coffee harvest for Sowers4Pastors. If there’s one thing I’ve learned it’s that growing coffee isn’t for people who must have immediate gratification. This harvest has been more than two years in the making.

Just under 9 acres of coffee plants, which went in the ground more than two years ago, are being harvested in three separate harvests. Harvest numero uno has been completed! (Don’t let my obvious mastery of Spanish intimidate you!) Harvest numero two will happen in a month. And, number tres will be one month after that.

The most spectacular news is that the first harvest has greatly exceeded Russell and Allen’s wildest expectations. And you know how wild their expectations can be! Having done his coffee homework, Russell was hoping they would be able to harvest 2000 lbs total, this year. Um, yeah. The first of three harvests has yielded about 3000 pounds of dried coffee. The second harvest will be BIGGER and the third will be about the same size as the first. Expectations have been adjusted and Russell now anticipates a total harvest of 10,000 pounds.

Harvesting coffee

Here’s what a coffee harvest looks like for Russell:

• The coffee cherries are picked.
• Russell has 36 hours to get the fruit to a machine that de-pulps it.
• The machine removes the cherry and leaves only the bean, losing about ⅔ of the total weight.
• The fruit de-pulper is about 3 miles away from the coffee farm and Russell has been hauling it in the evenings.
• Once it’s de-pulped, there is a gummy substance on the outside of the bean. The beans are soaked in a washbasin overnight. The next morning, they are washed and the gummy stuff falls off.
• This year, they are using tarps to dry the coffee in the sun. Eventually, Russell would like to have concrete slabs for this purpose.
• Once it’s dry, it’s ready to be sold to a middleman, who will possibly do more processing himself, add Russell’s harvest to that of other growers, and then sell the whole shebang to an exporter.

Since this year’s harvest has been so big, Russell is hoping to be able to reinvest some of the earnings to purchase a de-pulper. That will allow them to de-pulp on their own property. It will save time and money. Plus, it will mean they can keep the pulp to use as, what Russell assures me, is the world’s best organic fertilizer. He says if they put the coffee cherries back in the ground, it’s like Miracle Grow! This, of course, will save bookoodles of money on fertilizer.

Removing the fruit, to get to the seed (coffee bean) inside

In his modest way, Russell said, “All of the hard work and investment is starting to pay off. We’ll be putting the money back in the farm. It’s becoming self-sustaining faster than anticipated.”

This link takes you to a video of the de-pulping process, narrated by Russell: https://www.facebook.com/russell.sowers.1/videos/688880694614980/

 - posted by Christi

A Preview of Coming Events

In case you’ve ever wondered what the Sowers crew does all day, here’s an abbreviated rundown of their schedule for August and part of September. Warning: You’ll need a break just reading it!

Camp, Kids, and Videos

This final week of July is being spent doing major remodeling on our small team house - as it is about to become a short-term home for Russell, Iris, and RJ! Toward the weekend, thoughts and actions will turn toward preparing for MK Camp. There are supplies to be purchased and vehicles to be packed. Allen and Russell will be leaving early so they can pick up incoming staff at the airport and do some grocery shopping.

Camp runs from August 1-7. Ben will be there as a camper. Even the three Sowers offspring who currently live in the U.S. will be there, working as camp staff. It’s a regular Sowers-Palooza, with the notable exception of Trish, who will be holding down the fort at home, and Iris, who's feeling a bit too pregnant for a road trip just now!

On August 2nd, Jenny Oetting, videographer extraordinaire, will be arriving to spend the month of August. She’s spending the time making videos of all of Sowers4Pastors’ ministries. Allen and Trish will be able to use those videos when they visit churches in the States. Jenny will be staying on the Sowers’ property. Somewhere. But I’ll get to the issue of housing in a bit! Patience, Grasshoppa!

During the second week of August, Ben will be back in school, but Trish will get some quality time with the Sowers kids who are visiting from the States. And, by “quality time,” I mean she’ll get to see them, while they run around doing what needs to be done! I almost said they’d be running around like chickens with their head cut off, but they are highly efficient headless poultry!

Team 1 and Team 2

On August 12th, a 2-man team from Fredericktowne Baptist Church in Maryland (Allen and Trish’s sending church) is arriving. The men will be teaching at Pastors’ Training School and getting a feel for what life and ministry is like for the Sowers. That’s great because they’ll be able to help spread Sowers4Pastors’ vision to their home church. The team will be leaving on August 20th.

Do you remember those visiting Sowers? Yeah, well, they'll be flying back to the U.S. during the time the visiting team is there.

On August 27th, a team from Lighthouse Church in Maryland will be arriving. They’ll be building a bridge-in-a-week. That means Allen and Russell will be busy the week before they arrive making sure all of the supplies have been purchased and delivered. If you’re going to build a bridge in a week, you can’t stand around waiting for supplies!

Coffee, Shoes, and Feeding Centers

During this time, Russell will be running the (approximately 15 member) work crew as they prepare ten new acres for planting coffee. There will be much more about the ins and outs of the coffee project in an upcoming post. For now, let’s just say they will be BUSY this planting season, which will spill over into September. There will be a break in coffee activity while the bridge-in-a-week project is going on. That’s because Russell’s head work crew leaders will be assisting with the bridge construction.

Of course, all of the regular ministries are still up and running. Manna4Lempira is awaiting a shoe delivery, which will be distributed to the kids at the Mercedes center. That will likely happen toward the end of the 2nd week of August.

Oh, and they will be registering about 200 kids for a third Manna4Lempira site. They will be getting ages, weight, height, and shoe sizes. Again, that will delay the farm work for a few days. In the overall scheme of things, the coffee farm has the lowest priority because that work isn’t as time sensitive.

Things with Wheels

But, wait, there’s more! Sowers4Pastors will be turning in applications to try to get funding for fourteen new motorcycles for indigenous pastors. The pastors each pay for half. The program is pre-approved for ten motorcycles, but they are hoping to fulfill all fourteen requests. Actually getting the motorcycles will mean multiple trips to the big city for purchasing, registering, picking up, etc…

And, hey, while they’re in the big city, they’ll put one of the Land Cruisers into the shop for routine maintenance. It’s a four hour drive to the city. They’ll do some necessary shopping, buy tires, handle other necessary things, and drive back.

A Place to Call, “Home”--Eventually!

Surely that’s all, right? Wrong! Do you remember the part about housing guests - specifically during the 2nd week of Aug, when there will be FOUR guests? That is complicated because the Sowers are currently working on a remodel of the team house (which has, in the past, served as bedroom space for guests). Once the remodel is completed, Russell and Iris plan to live there for a year or more. Before Allen and Trish visit the U.S., Russell and his family will move into their new, temporary home. Construction on the larger home will continue. Once that is completed, Russell and Iris will move into the new home and the old team house will be remodeled to become Allen and Trish’s new home.

I have a hunch you’ll be hearing more about that process in future blog posts. But, for now, I’m tired just thinking about it!

- posted by Christi (but Trish had to figure out all of the labels!!!)

My HOUSE! My ROOF!

Before you know it, we're going to have a ROOF on our new house! I'm so excited! The men have worked hard on this house, but only during the lulls between other, ministry-related construction projects, so it's been a slow process. We've been living on the property, in our bodega/warehouse, for five and a half years now  - it really is time for us to have a house, and amenities like interior walls!

The lumber for the roof was purchased back in August of last year, and has been sitting out drying (and getting rained on, and drying again) all this time.

Off and on, when they've had time over the past couple of months, the men have worked on planing the rough lumber. Once a large enough pile of planed boards was ready, they started staining them.

Gradually we are amassing a pile of dried, planed, bug-treated, stained boards. These will be the rafters of our roof, and will be visible from inside the house, as part of the ceiling.

The photo below is the ceiling of the "team house". . . which is similar to the ceiling which will be in our home, except that we're planning to whitewash the flat boards, and just have the support beams stained. 

The house will have porches in front and back, so we have wooden posts for porch roof supports:

If you're good with your imagination, you can look at these photos of the house, and imagine what it will look like with a ROOF and covered porches.

Back porch-to-be

Front of house (porch will be on the left)

So, there you go! A ROOF in the making!!!!