Motorcycles for Pastors - Come along for the ride

Think about a time you’ve volunteered to help out in a ministry. Maybe it was working in your church’s nursery, teaching Sunday school, or running the audio-visual equipment on Sunday morning. Maybe it was in an area where no one ever saw you–like folding bulletins or preparing the Communion trays. Do you have something in mind?

Now, get totally honest and see if you can remember a time when that ministry task felt like a bit of a burden. It could be that you had to get to church a little early on a day when you would have preferred to sleep in later. Or maybe you just felt like no one even noticed how hard you were working and the sacrifices you were making. 

Imagine how your attitude would shift if someone came up to you from out of the blue and said, “I see you. I see how hard you’re working and the sacrifices you make, and I would like to help.” That person might offer to work in the nursery on alternate weeks so you could have a little time to sit in “big people church.” Or maybe they want to be trained in running PowerPoint to ease your burden in the audio-visual side of things. That would feel pretty good, right?

That’s exactly what it’s like when people donate to help Sowers4Pastors get a motorcycle to a pastor. It’s like telling a hard-working, humble pastor, who is getting no real benefits in this world, that they are seen and appreciated. It offers encouragement and helps the pastor carry his load. That recently became a reality for twenty deserving pastors who each received a new motorcycle.

Trish was thinking back to a day a few years ago when she and Allen were in Maryland. They were driving through a part of the state that is rich in history that has been carefully maintained. As they drove through farmland dotted with historic farmhouses and barns, Trish felt a sense of what it would have been like to live in a simpler era, surrounded by community and family.

But as they drove on, they got to a place where the road crosses over the Monocacy River. The Monocacy is not an insignificant body of water. It spans a distance of 58.5 miles and at this point the river is rather broad. The modern road is completely flat and if you aren’t paying attention, you could cross the river and not even notice the river was there at all. But crossing the Monocacy surely looked much different before Biggs Ford Road was built. It would have involved taking risks instead of sitting in a climate-controlled vehicle listening to music or podcasts. Trish pointed out, “As North Americans, our world has been built in a way that we don’t even realize the conveniences we have.”

All that reminded Trish of when teams visit Honduras. They are struck by the simple lifestyle–being connected to the land and surrounded by family & lots and lots of extended family. It’s enough to cause a little lifestyle envy. 

Any feelings of envy tend to go away when teams take their focus off of the positive side of things and consider how difficult it was to get to that village in the first place! Often, teams leave the unpaved roads and hoof it to a location with no road at all. 

Getting motorcycles to pastors is an opportunity to help them spread the Gospel throughout their communities. It is giving them the gift of time. Instead of spending an hour and a half walking five miles, they can get to where they’re going quickly and efficiently. And, it’s like the people who donate to help make that possible are riding along in an invisible sidecar whispering, “I see you. I believe in you. I support you on this journey.”

If you'd like to help support a pastor in this way, please click this link to the Sowers4Pastors donation page. Thank you so much!

 - posted by Christi

Hondurans Empowering Hondurans! We LOVE this!

Sowers4Pastors has always had the mission of empowering pastors. Since their arrival in Gracias umpteen years ago, Allen and Trish have believed in the importance of giving indigenous pastors the tools they need without creating an atmosphere of dependence. They want to know that the Gospel will continue to spread throughout Western Honduras long after they are gone. That's one reason it is an exceptionally big deal that S4P recently hosted its first team from Honduras. It's also one of the many reasons they are happy to have Honduran staff members working with them.

Prior to joining Sowers4Pastors, Alejandro and Secia served as pastors at a church in Tegucigalpa with 4000 members.  Two of their coworkers at that church were Raúl and Brenda Jiménez, who continue to work in Tegucigalpa as children’s ministers. When Raúl and Brenda found out about the work S4P is doing, they prepared a team of twenty-seven people to help. The group consisted of all ages–children, teens, and adults. The team arrived intent on its purpose of sharing the Gospel and ministering to the children in the area. Though they were only there for two days, they were able to accomplish a lot.

The first day, the team evangelized to 2020 children, ranging from kindergarteners to middle schoolers. Think of it as a huge, one-day VBS program, involving games and Bible lessons. They team prayed for the children and their families, taking special prayer requests. Many of those kids accepted Christ that day. During a drama involving Jesus and the events leading up to the cross, the children were so excited that they began shouting to run and give Jesus a hug because he would soon be gone!

On the second day, the team worked with two churches in the area. That included two pastors, seventeen Sunday school teachers, and almost two-hundred children between the ages of 2-14. The theme of the morning was Fiesta Kids! The team arrived with shoeboxes from Samaritan’s Purse, and, along with the Sunday school teachers, led the kids in singing, dancing, Bible teaching, and prayers. In the afternoon, the team gave training to the Sunday school teachers, equipping them with strategies to teach the children more effectively. They also prayed over the Sunday school teachers. By the end of the day, both pastors were crying and offering thanks as the team presented the teachers with medals for working with the kids. The medals were a way of thanking the Sunday school teachers for helping the children and volunteering their time.

This is actually a case of Honduran pastors preparing a Honduran team to work with Honduran pastors to empower Honduran Sunday school teachers to spread the love of Jesus and train up a new generation. Since that doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, it looks like Sowers4Pastors will keep its original mission statement about empowering pastors. But you know there’s a depth and breadth to that statement that extends beyond what can fit comfortably on a letterhead!

- posted by Christi, information gleaned from a call with Alejandro!