Prayer Requests and Praises: What's Happening Behind the Scenes

 At Sowers4Pastors, it’s always a good time for prayer — but consider this post your “all-in-one guide” to what’s happening behind the scenes and how you can specifically lift up the ministry right now.

Celebrations First! 

The Day of the Child celebrations were a huge success! Every one of the 2,600+ children across 27 locations was celebrated with food, fun, and reminders of God’s love. With the biggest wave of team season wrapped up, staff members are now turning their attention to the less flashy (but absolutely vital) tasks: catching up on paperwork, keeping records up to date, and a bit of ministry “housekeeping.”

The Warehouse Shuffle

Remember the prayer request from a couple of months ago about a shipping container full of food? Great news: it’s expected to arrive within the week! Staff are working to prep the warehouse — think of it as a super-sized pantry that needs to be perfectly organized. Items already inside are moved to the front so they’re used first, and the new supplies are stacked toward the back. Once backpacks and boxes start rolling in, everything must be sorted so that each child receives the correct items. To put it simply: it’s a big honkin’ deal!

The Office Shuffle

Maybe you also remember a mention in a previous post, that once Rachel and Brandy moved to their new house, the Sowers4Pastors office would be moving into that rented house in Gracias. Well, that move is almost completed, so the office staff and all the office equipment should be moving in the next couple of weeks! The new office location will make it much easier for pastors and others to visit the book store, collect food, and visit the staff for any reasons they might have!

Gifts for Pastors

Meanwhile, preparations are underway for the annual pastor appreciation gifts. This year, there are 388 requests for gifts for pastors and their families. Please pray for smooth logistics as these gifts are gathered and distributed — and for each pastor to feel deeply encouraged by this expression of support.

Updates from the Home Front

Rachel and Brandy are still settling into their new home. A few stragglers from the old house remain to be moved, the kitchen cabinets are about 80% finished, and soon, Brandy hopes to build a fence around the yard. There are still boxes waiting to be unpacked — so please keep praying for endurance and order in the midst of a busy season.

Coffee on the Horizon 

The coffee harvest is coming soon! The farm crew has been hard at work fertilizing and applying fungicide, and Brandy reports this could be an especially good year. Please pray not only for the crop itself, but also for the right number of workers to come when harvest time arrives.

Backpacks on the Move 

Stateside, Kirstin and Mary Faith are in the thick of this year’s backpack collection trip. They’re logging long hours on the road in a big box truck, visiting churches, connecting with supporters, and gathering backpacks. It’s an exhausting journey, but such an important one. Pray for safety as they travel, strength for the long days, and smooth paperwork processing. (Two shipping containers of backpacks are planned, but one crucial government document is still pending. Please pray for its timely approval.)

Wrapping It All Up

So there you have it — praises for what God has already done, and prayer requests for what’s still unfolding. From pizza parties to paperwork, from farm fields to overflowing warehouses, the work of Sowers4Pastors touches countless lives every single day. Thank you for standing with the ministry in prayer. Your prayers are not just words lifted up — they are fuel for the work being done in Honduras and beyond.

 - posted by Christi

Please Pray for the 2024 Projects!

“You put the emPHAsis on the wrong sylLABle,” is listed as one of the most commonly quoted movie quotes. In fact, there’s a good chance you’ve heard it even if you’ve never seen the 2003 movie, View from the Top. Today, we’re talking about a word that can be either a noun or a verb depending on which sylLABle gets the emPHAsis. The word is “project.” (PROject for a noun. ProJECT for a verb.) Brandy shared about how Sowers4Pastors proJECTS how many PROjects they will tackle in 2024!

The backpack project is such a huge undertaking that it can be easy for supporters to forget about some of the other worthwhile projects S4P does each year. Backpack distribution will begin next week and things will be a blur until it’s finished. But for today, let’s put some emPHAsis on roofs for churches, motorcycles for pastors, and gift boxes for pastors and their families. 

Requests for church roof PROjects are proJECTed to be at an all-time high. There were so many requests for church roofs during 2023 that S4P was unable to tackle all of them. That means there are ten requests waiting from last year. That’s not even taking into consideration that some pastors knew that a cutoff had been reached last year and have held onto their requests with plans to submit them this year. Brandy has already received one call from a pastor this week to ask about help with a church roof. The pastor’s church is almost finished building the walls and will be ready for a roof soon. Brandy requested that the pastor do two things:  1) provide photos of the church, and 2) pray about the funding. That’s the thing with church roof projects; S4P takes on as many as the funds will allow. 

With the coffee harvesters finishing up the final pick, many churches have more money to tackle building the church walls right now. Plus, Honduras is entering the dry season, so it’s the prime time to work with adobe. S4P knows there will be an influx of requests for new roofs. While he didn’t have the exact number on hand, Brandy feels certain that the ministry completed at least twenty-five church roofs last year. 

Applications for motorcycles are accepted in February. In March, the ministry purchases the motorcycles. And they are presented in April. This is another project where the demand is high and the ministry must make decisions based on the available funds. 

The gift boxes for pastors and their families are given out after backpack season. There are already a lot of people asking for them. Like the church roofs and motorcycles, the pastor gifts are a tremendous blessing to the recipients. 

If you feel led to contribute to one of these projects, you can make a donation through the Sowers4Pastors website. Please keep all of the ministry projects in your prayers! 

- posted by Christi.

The World Beyond Trish's Desk . . .

(Insert throat clearing and the sound of a spoon clanking against a glass.) May I have your attention, please? Trish has almost completed updating all of the children in the sister church programs. It’s a huge task that has consumed most of Trish's time since mid-February, and she is more than a little bit giddy to be at the tail end of the project. Most of the sister churches have already received updated picture cards. Whew! Now, will someone please let Trish leave her computer to stretch her legs? Even though she’s still at her computer finishing up the last little bit, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Here are some of the things she might notice when she finally looks up:

Gifts for Pastors

It’s like Christmas in June as the gifts for pastors make their way to the intended recipients. Every few days or so, a denominational supervisor arrives on the property and leaves with a mammoth truckload of boxes to be delivered to the pastors under his supervision. 

 

The boxes contain items such as the best used clothing and household item donations that arrived on the containers. The pastors and their families also receive toiletry items. Every box contains a backpack full of school/office supplies, and pastors with school age children receive backpacks filled with school supplies. It is not always possible to provide a backpack for each child, but Sowers4Pastors is committed to easing at least some of the educational burden as the pastors make sure their children attend school. That means that each pastor with children will receive one or more backpacks to help toward the cause.

Teamwork

Next week, a team of thirteen people from Edgewater Alliance Church in Florida will arrive. The EAC sister church program encompasses five different schools, in multiple communities. The team will be putting on a VBS program at each location. Having a team next week means this week is a busy one as well, filled with prep work. Aside from the traditional VBS-y preparations that are being completed, the mechanically inclined people on staff are making sure the vehicles are all road-ready for the team to use.

RAIN!

Rainy season normally begins in earnest in mid-May. A few rains usually trickle in before that, then by May 15th… BLAM! This year, the rains were delayed by several weeks, much to the consternation of farmers throughout Honduras. Cornfields and beans that should have been planted weeks ago, are getting a late start.

Farmers aren’t the only ones planting things right now. There’s a whole lot of planting going on at S4P and this time it’s happening in the areas near the buildings instead of on the farm. When Brandy and Rachel began working with Sowers4Pastors, they were able to look at things with fresh eyes. They have been leading an effort to make the property look more attractive and to plant more fruit-bearing trees.

For months now, Kirstin has been keeping plants alive by hand-watering the new plants, in pots on her porch. Now that the rainy season has finally decided to show up, the plants are going in the ground. There are citrus, mango, and avocado trees. There’s even a starfruit tree that Ben planted from a seed years ago that is now big enough to move from a pot to its forever home. 

Requests out the Wazoo

There have been many church construction requests this year. That’s good news because it means a lot of churches are growing. The problem is that with so many requests it isn’t possible for S4P to take on every project. Please pray for the staff, as they sort through the requests and take on as many worthy projects as they can. Trish reminds us that, “God has always been faithful, and we will continue to do the best we can with what we have been given.”

S4P assisted with this church construction project
in Nov. 2022, in Cabañas Copan

If you are interested in donating toward a church construction project, you can earmark a donation to "church construction" through the Sowers4Pastors website.

 - posted by Christi

PS from Trish - Brandy, Rachel, and their boys are currently home sick with a nasty stomach bug! Please pray for their quick recovery! Thank you!