Help is On the Way!!!

Office work!!!!

Grab a handful of confetti and toss it in the air because help is on the way! A new North

Mary Faith

American missionary, Mary Faith Yoder, is going to be moving to Honduras to join the Sowers4Pastors team. S4P could not be happier about it. This is particularly good news for Trish.

Throughout the early years of the ministry, Trish was focused on running a household and being a homeschooling mom. Her plate was full but she also did things like writing the newsletters and teaching Sunday school lessons. She describes herself as a minor player in the ministry during that time. The fact that so many of her children are now involved in full-time mission work would indicate she wasn’t really a minor player at all, but you get her point. She wasn’t involved in much of the day-to-day operations of Sowers4Pastors back then. 

Just at the point when she wasn’t homeschooling a whole passel of kids, the sponsorship program came into being. When it first started, Trish really, really didn’t want to be the person in charge of maintaining all of the record-keeping. She had hoped to move into a more creative aspect of the ministry. Alas, Trish ended up being the person to step into the role of chief runner of the website. It was not her dream job but she has done it faithfully since 2018. 

Trish pointed out that during these years she has learned “how to do a lot of things that you only learn through trial and error.” She became an expert at contacting customer support for the website. She learned how to do surprisingly tricky mundane tasks such as changing a donor’s email address on the website. (There are more steps to this than you might imagine!) She can manipulate the site to make it run specific reports - also surprisingly tricky! She became the go-to person on staff for that sort of thing. 

Trish's not-ready-for-Instagram
workspace in Florida

Trish said, “People come to you because you’re the person who has already spent the time figuring out how to do things. That’s fine, since it saves time for everyone. But what happens if someday I can’t do it anymore? It’s not that I’m retiring. I’m not out of the picture! But we want to know that if something should happen to me there will be someone else who knows how to complete all of those tasks. Mary Faith is the person coming in to learn how to do this.”

Finding people who are dedicated to being behind-the-scenes support staff isn’t an easy task. As Trish said, “Office work doesn’t make for great selfies on Instagram.”

Mary Faith came down to Honduras last year for a month to see if this was something she felt called to pursue. During that time, she learned a lot about using the system. Everyone believes she will get up to speed quickly. She’s coming for another short-term visit soon - and at a perfect time, as it’s the season when all of the sponsorship kids’ profiles are updated. This is the time of year when it becomes impossible for Trish to keep up with all of the updates and her regular work. There are tight deadlines for the profile updates because churches in the States set up sponsorship Sundays to encourage new sponsors to sign up, and all of that church's children need to be updated by that set date. It’s a big load of work on a tight schedule. 

Sowers4Pastors website donation page
(click photo for better viewing)

Unlike the Honduran staff who work on salary, the goal is for North American missionaries to raise their own support. (If you're curious about why we handle things this way, click here for a blog post about that!) Raising support is what Mary Faith is working on now, so that she can move to Honduras and work with Sowers4Pastors full time! Please consider helping her, through prayers and financial support. In the past some of the potential North American staff members didn’t work out. Sometimes people would visit with a team and expect that daily tasks during non-team times would still involve fun things like playing games with small children all the time. Mary Faith is well aware that the bulk of her responsibilities will be more like customer service tasks with a smattering of accounting thrown in for good measure. She is up for the job! Helping to support Mary Faith through prayers and donations is one very tangible way to support the ongoing work of Sowers4Pastors. (Mary Faith has been added to the list of donation categories on the website, to make it easy to donate toward her support).

- posted by Christi

Setting Sponsorship Sights on 100% and Beyond

Have you heard about shrinkflation? Even if you haven’t heard of it, you’ve seen it. It’s what happens when companies conceal higher prices by creating new packaging that contains less of whatever product they’re selling. Less cake mix per box. Smaller cans of vegetables. Lighter rolls of paper towels. It’s a tricky business for the customer because you may not always realize that your dollar isn’t going as far as it used to. Sowers4Pastors is not a business. It’s a mission organization. And they strive to always, always be open and aboveboard. Sometimes that means they have to give you news they’d rather not give.

When the sponsorship program first started, Sowers4Pastors was able to say that one sponsorship fed an extra fifty unsponsored kids. As prices have increased, the number of additional kids being fed through each sponsorship has decreased. Unsponsored children are still being fed, but it’s more challenging to find the financial resources to do so. That means that finding sponsors for children is more vital than ever before.

Fortunately, places like Edgewater Alliance Church in Edgewater, Florida are stepping up their game. Through its sister church program, Edgewater Alliance has been sponsoring around 300 children. For the past year or so, the kids in their program have been almost consistently 100% sponsored. That means that if a sponsor leaves the program, their child is quickly picked up by another sponsor.

At registration time, there are always some kids who leave the program and some who join. This year, there was a net gain. Pastor Lorenzo, who runs the Honduran side of the sister church program for Guacutao and EAC, mentioned that there’s a small community not too far from his home that he would like to include in the program. That’s how it works. Kids are often brought in from surrounding communities as the pastors see the need. This particular community is only about a mile down the road from Guacutao.

Sowers4Pastors took the request to Edgewater Alliance. At first, the church wasn’t sure it could take on fifty additional kids. After all, all would happen if they couldn’t remain at 100% sponsorship. Isn’t that the goal? Well, not exactly. Trish was able to explain that having 100% of the kids sponsored is fabulous. But if you set your goal for 100% while failing to set your sights higher, then you don’t achieve as much. Trish compared it to a student who wants to have a 4.0 GPA so badly that they refuse to take challenging classes. 

Edgewater Alliance is having a big kickoff for the program in a few weeks. They have decided to take on the challenge of seeking sponsors for fifty additional children. It is truly a win/win situation. Remember that every child will receive a backpack and attend school even if they aren’t sponsored. And every one of the additional children to be sponsored will help cover the cost of any unsponsored kids. Sowers4Pastors wants to thank EAC for expanding!

It’s also time to do a shoutout to Lighthouse Church in Maryland. They had their big program kickoff for three consecutive Sundays. The sponsorship program was mentioned from the pulpit and they had a table set up with pictures of available children. Although it is not the goal, per say, it is exciting to see their sister church program is at 100% sponsorship!

-posted by Christi

The Apple Pie Analogy

 Let's start out with a hypothetical situation, shall we?

SITUATION:

Grandma bakes and sells deep dish apple pies. Her famous recipe calls for five pounds of apples. Grandma bakes pies because it is her calling and she likes to help people. She has never sold her pies for a profit. It’s like a pie baking ministry! Last year, Grandma pre-sold dozens of pies to be delivered this year. She based the price of each pie on the price of ingredients at the time the orders were placed. Grandma had no way of knowing that the price of apples, sugar, butter, and flour would increase by a significant amount. And don’t get her started on the outrageous increase in cinnamon! 

PROBLEM:

How much more will Grandma charge for her pies?

ANSWER:

$0. Grandma already sold her pies and she will not ask her customers to make up the difference. Grandma is taking a hit on the pies! 

Why are we talking about Grandma and pies? Well, quite frankly that’s because it’s a lot less touchy than talking about Sowers4Pastors, visiting teams, and money. But, as with the fictional pie-baking granny, inflation has caused unexpected price increases for Sowers4Pastors. They have never made a profit by hosting visiting teams. That’s not their way. They do normally have a very small amount of money in the budget to be used for incidentals that inevitably occur during team visits. This allows teams the freedom to decide where they will eat each night. It also helps with repair cost for the occasional broken down shuttle bus carrying a team!

The current situation is that Sowers4Pastors is losing money right from the start. When prices for visiting teams were quoted last year, no one was anticipating such dramatic inflation. There have also been some other contributing factors. There have been some team members who had their bags all packed, but they tested positive for COVID and were unable to travel. Naturally, they are not charged. But prices are calculated based on the size of the teams. Transporting people is one of the biggest costs Sowers4Pastors has when hosting teams. If there are ten team members, they can ride in the S4P van. If there are twenty members, it’s no problem to use two vehicles. However, if there are eleven team members, there are still two vehicles going down the road with fewer people to pay for them. Last minute changes (and there have been a LOT of them this year), cause unavoidable extra costs.

With the help of visiting teams, backpacks filled with school supplies are being
distributed throughout the communities where Sowers4Pastors works.

Backpack distribution teams began arriving on January 22 and they will continue until March 12. That means that we’re smack dab in the middle of backpack distribution. Everyone at Sowers4Pastors loves to have visiting teams. Teams are an important part of their ministry vision. This post is simply a way of providing some insight into the current situation. There are a lot of teams this year and Sowers4Pastors is losing money on every one. The ministry is currently absorbing between $50 and $100 per team member. They will not be charging teams more to make up the difference, because they’ve committed to the churches that have supported the ministry for years. But if anyone would like to help make up the difference in the projected cost and the actual cost, it would be most appreciated. They want to keep hosting teams as sure as Grandma wants to keep baking pies. 

 - posted by Christi

An Upbeat Take on a Downward Economy

If you’ve ever had the pleasure of talking to Allen and Trish, you know that they have very different personalities. Even so, they share some important qualities. They are both incredibly upbeat and positive when discussing issues that might cause other people to throw their arms in the air and say, “I give up!” Allen and Trish are not giver uppers even when circumstances seem a little grim. Today’s post is Allen and Trish’s upbeat take on a downward economy.

Unless you’ve been living in an underground bunker, you’ve probably noticed that the price of just about everything has been going up. Hey, it happens. And when it happens, we all adjust our finances accordingly. The simplistic advice of the financial advisors from a few decades ago would tell us that this is the time to cut out some luxuries. No lattes for you! But what if you have already been living a completely latte-less existence? What happens then? Well, you find other, non-latte-related areas to trim. You turn down your thermostat. You cancel cable. And, sometimes that means that people trim their charitable contributions. 

This is where Allen and Trish’s upbeat and positive outlooks come in especially handy. Your costs are going up. Their costs are going up. Donors have less money to give. Sowers4Pastors receives less money. It’s like a one-two punch. Meanwhile, an economic downturn means that more people are turning to Sowers4Pastors for help, so they are hit in yet another way. Then it's like a one-two-three punch!

The challenge for Sowers4Pastors is how to survive this time without closing down or reducing programs. At the same time, they are committed to keeping the cost of sponsorship the same for as long as possible. Remember that they are not giver uppers! Instead, they are looking at this as an opportunity for our amazing God to do some amazing God stuff. Trish pointed out that they are not down in the dumps.

Trish said, “We’ve been through economic downturns with the economy and personally. We experienced this when we first came to the mission field with five kids. It doesn’t daunt us because we have a lot of experience with trusting God to provide during times like these.” 

With already being very frugal, there aren’t obvious places for Sowers4Pastors to trim their budget. They have worked hard to watch their overhead and raise their own support to live on the mission field. Allen has done a lot of “tent making” over the years, meaning that he has picked up jobs to add to the family finances. Cutting out lattes, lowering the thermostat, and canceling cable aren’t options for them because they don’t have lattes, a thermostat, or cable. If you’re already extremely frugal people, it’s just hard to find ways to become more frugal!

Where the ministry is concerned, they already put every donation dollar to work. There is no wiggle room in the cost of sponsorships. They don’t make a profit from visiting teams. The money from the teams goes directly to the cost of supplies, hotel rooms, food, and additional transportation costs.

Allen and Trish are praying for wisdom that God will reveal places where they haven’t trimmed the budget as fully as they might, and they ask that you join them in this prayer. If there is the need to reduce an area of ministry, they are praying for specific direction. They are facing the challenge head-on and would like to thank you for your continued prayer and financial support during these extremely challenging times.

- posted by Christi

Cash on the Barrelhead

Covid-19 has brought about some challenges. In the U.S., it caused a coin shortage. For Sowers4Pastors, it is causing a cash shortage. Trish was hesitant to have this written into a blog post because you need to understand that this isn’t a desperate plea for donations. (Though, certainly, your donations would not be turned away!) This is about a shortage of physical paper money. Legal tender. Bread. Bucks. Dough. Moolah… What we might call greenbacks in the States, but which come in a variety of colors in Honduras!

When teams visit, they are requested to bring the money for their expenses in cash, rather than sending it through wire transfer. There are a variety of reasons this is preferable. For starters, it eliminates losing money to transfer fees and high bank exchange rates. There’s also the issue that many people wait until the week prior to their trip to pay for it. That isn’t enough time for a wire transfer to be completed.

Some people have stated concerns that moving money in this way was an attempt to avoid paying taxes on the money. That simply isn’t true. Any money Sowers4Pastors receives is reported to the IRS. The money the teams bring down is used to pay for their food, lodging, and other group expenses while they are in Honduras. It isn’t going into the ministry. But an absence of teams has meant an absence of physical, cold, hard cash.

This is also a time when more money is going out. There have been extra expenses for the church building project in Quelacasque. And the additional food costs for the ministry have meant spending significant amounts of money.

The reason this lack of physical Lempiras is concerning is that Allen and Russell are getting ready to leave for their U.S. backpack collection trip. And, Trish is still socially isolating to avoid any nasty little Covid-19 germs that might be floating around in Gracias. If you let that sink in for a moment, you’ll realize that means she can’t make a quick dash to the bank whenever the need for cash arises. No one other than Russell, Allen, and Trish is on the ministry accounts, so it’s not a matter of sending Iris or Melvin to the bank. (I asked. You’re welcome.)

Trish will need to pay the bills during this time and, as charming she is, she has thus far been unable to get by on her charm alone. She has been spending a lot of quality time online with Western Union trying to get the bill-paying/cash situation sorted out. Ideally, she should be able to transfer the money online, from their bank to Western Union. She has tried using Allen’s account. She has tried using Russell’s account. And, in a most UNcharming manner, the Western Union site has told her that those attempted payments were not accepted. She called the bank and was told, “We don’t do Western Union transfers.”

One of the banks in Gracias where you can pick up money sent by Western Union

That whole bank not doing Western Union transfers isn’t 100% accurate because Rachel uses the same bank and she can transfer funds without difficulty. Anywho… Please pray for the ability to get the ministry funds to the areas where funds are needed.

 - posted by Christi

Great News from the Recent Board Meeting

Purchasing the food, so that Honduran pastors can run programs to feed the malnourished children
in their communities, is one of the expenses we track for these charts,
and report on at our board meetings (and to the IRS).

The annual Sowers4Pastors board meeting was held on Nov. 12th and the news is good. If you’re reading this you likely already understand that the Sowerses strive to have good stewardship and a high impact. At the meeting, they were able to see what the numbers look like for their first year operating as an independent charitable organization. I’m not sure, but in my mind this involved pie charts and at least one person holding a pointy metal stick.

Allen and Trish knew they had been keeping advertising and fundraising costs down, but even they were pleasantly surprised to see that they managed to keep them at approximately 3% of the total budget. Other organizations boast when the number going to advertising and fundraising is under 20%. Allen and Trish reflected on how they feel they are accomplishing such an impressive amount of their funds going directly to ministry programs. (* See note at the bottom of this post for more info on the recommended percentages.)

For starters, they have partnered with the indigenous pastors who do not receive compensation from Sowers4Pastors. This has the added benefit of ensuring that the pastors who choose to work with Sowers4Pastors are passionate about reaching their communities, rather than passionate about making a large salary.

When the ministry requires paid workers in Honduras, indigenous people are hired. That helps the community by providing jobs. The employees are very happy with the wages they receive - they are well compensated by Honduran standards, but it is less than a North American employee would expect to receive.

The next thing that sets Sowers4Pastors apart is that all of their North American workers are “tentmakers," raising their own support outside of the ministry. The Apostle Paul funded his ministry through literally making tents. Today, the term tentmaker is used for someone dedicated to the ministry, who performs other jobs to provide financial support. For those receiving financial support through outside donations, it is important to note that those funds are completely separate from the Sowers4Pastors program funds.

The third and final thing Allen and Trish outlined is that they are kitchen table missionaries with little overhead. Their Bible bookstore is nothing more than three bookshelves filled with resources. When a pastor arrives wanting to make a purchase, it is usually Iris who greets him. She breaks away from doing housework and childcare long enough to help the bookstore customer. Then she goes right back to her laundry, dishes, etc. Sowers4Pastors does not have a compound of offices in the U.S. or in Honduras. While there is one small room of designated office space in the storage buildings on their property, they actually do generally operate around the kitchen table. When they are in the U.S., Trish works from mobile hotspots while going down the road. When they are waiting for an appointment, Trish is over in a corner, trying to accomplish as much officework as possible. As a ministry, Sowers4Pastors is always working to keep costs down, while making a big impact.

(Some numbers are still being crunched,
but this is what our preliminary reports are telling us to expect as the final numbers)

A whopping 97% of funds collected through the sponsorship program is going directly to the projects! Some programs with low administrative costs also have low impact on the areas where they serve . . . but Sowers4Pastors is feeding 14,000 children twice a week, in addition to all they do to empower pastors, because they are good stewards of the funds God has entrusted to them.

A moment of relaxation for some members the hardworking staff (and family) 

Allen and Trish want this blog post to be a celebration of all of the volunteers, donors, and indigenous pastors who make this work possible. The indigenous pastors working with Sowers4Pastors have one primary goal--to serve God and bring people to a relationship with Jesus Christ. They are sacrificially committed. If they were interested in earning high salaries, they would be putting their efforts elsewhere.

On second thought, the Sowers4Pastors budget would make for a very boring pie chart. The chart would show one tiny sliver of advertising/fundraising costs and almost an entire pie for spreading the Gospel and helping the children. But that’s just as it should be.

 - posted by Christi

* From this link: "The Better Business Bureau’s standards, published in 2003 by the BBB Wise Giving Alliance, recommend that at least 65 percent of the nonprofit’s total expenses should be for program expenses. The nonprofit’s total expenses should not include more than 35 percent for fundraising. Charity Navigator sets a goal of “less than 10 percent” of the nonprofit’s budget for fundraising spending and considers an organization that spends less than one-third of its budget on program expense to be failing in its mission. The Charities Review Council, located in Minnesota, recommends no more than 35 percent of spending on overhead and at least 65 percent of total spending on program expenses."

Some Straight Talk About Money

"We're missionaries, so we're always asking for money."

That's pretty much a true statement - but I wonder if people realize why that is the case. Today, I thought I'd lay it out for you. Feel free to ask questions on this topic, in the comments, if you have them.

Everything we do costs money. Import a container of food - that requires thousands of dollars. Hold a pastor training conference (which involves renting a venue, and housing and feeding the impoverished pastors who cannot pay for this) - that also costs thousands of dollars. How about helping pastors acquire motorcycles and horses? Of course that has to be paid for! Help a congregation construct a building, when their group becomes too large to meet in any of the houses in their village? The hardware and construction supply stores expect us to pay for those materials! Drive to a feeding center to take pictures for the blog? That definitely costs a good bit in fuel, but on the roads in these mountains every trip we take incurs at least some level of damage or major wear-and-tear on our vehicles, and this adds up to a significant, regular expense in our budget! 

We also have to live here, while we do work which earns us no income, and that requires money, too. Allen and I have made it our goal to earn our own keep, rather than using donated funds for this purpose - which means that every year, while he's in the US doing fundraising, Allen also takes a few paying jobs. The cost for us to live in Honduras is much lower than the cost of living in the US, so in a few weeks Allen can earn enough for us to pay our own way. This year, he's refurbishing docks in Florida. In past years he has refinished kitchens, built decks, and done other types of construction work.

We are fairly unique in this, though. The majority of missionaries have to raise the funds to feed and house themselves and their families (and buy clothing and educate their children and purchase medical care, etc ). The other missionaries in our team all have to raise these funds - that's Russell and Iris, and also Clay and Cynthia. (Rachel's situation is also a bit unusual, because her husband has a non-missionary, paying job. As it is a Honduran military job, and his salary is barely enough to cover their most basic needs, she has to raise a part of their living expenses, in order to work as a missionary. Otherwise, she would have to take a regular paying job, to help earn enough for them to live.) All of these young people have one thing in common, though - they aren't raising thousands and thousands of dollars MORE than what they need just to live here.

What this means is that Allen and I are still the primary fundraisers for the ministry work of this group of missionaries. Every year, when Allen visits the US, he speaks to everyone who will listen about the work we are doing, and he bluntly asks people to help us by giving money. When I write about our ministries on the blog, I have to do my part of the fund-raising, by reminding people that we can't continue these ministries without donations, and by giving the info on how to donate. 

We're here. We know the area, we know the people, we know the needs . . . in some cases, we already have programs in place to help resolve at least some of those needs. But money is required, to implement any of those programs. Realistically - we need large amounts of money, to continue the programs which we are currently running.

And yet, times are tight. Prices for everything are continually on the rise (in the US and here), and many people are earning the same amount, or less, than they did a few years ago. When people in the US are squeezed financially, they have no choice but to limit their discretionary spending - and giving to missionaries can sometimes be one of the things they regretfully have to discontinue. Missionaries around the world are having to make painful decisions about whether or not they will be able to continue working abroad. It's a difficult time.

However, difficult times often spawn creative solutions. Allen and I have implemented a number of money-saving systems - so that we no longer have to pay certain monthly expenses, like rent and electricity. Currently, we are in the process of using the land we own debt-free to produce an income, by planting coffee  . . . with the hope and expectation that, in just a few years, the profit from that effort will be money which will fund some part of the future ministry work, on an ongoing basis.

Coffee beans on one of the plants we started just last year.
This is sooner than expected, and a sign that the plants are thriving!

Even before the economic situation tightened, Allen and I have always made it a personal goal to use donated funds as efficiently and carefully as possible. This has made it possible for us to continue to minister in a large way, even during financially difficult times.

If you have been involved in this ministry, financially - we heartily thank you for that! If you'd like to get involved, the information below tells how to donate in the US or in Canada:

In the United States
To Donate by Mail, send checks to:

The Foundation for Missions

PO Box 560233

Orlando, Florida 32856-0233

- Make check payable to "The Foundation" -

- Be sure to write "preferenced for Sowers Ministry" on an enclosed paper -

To Donate Online:

     Click on THIS LINK to donate online using credit card, debit card, or automatic monthly donations from your bank account. Make sure that you choose "Missionary Support" from the drop down menu, and type in "Sowers Ministry" in the box requesting "additional specifics on how to use the gift."

- If additional instructions or information are needed for donating online,
please don't hesitate to call The Foundation for Missions, at 407-730-3364 

In Canada

To Donate by Mail, send checks to:

David Griggs
Foundation for Missions
17-7000 Mcleod Rd. #164 
Niagara Falls, ON L2G 7K3

 For more Information call: Tel/fax: 289-723-2623