Motorcycles, Mountains, and the Mission: Empowering Pastors Through Mobility

 What do motorcycles have to do with fulfilling the Great Commission?

 Surprisingly—quite a lot!

Very soon, Sowers4Pastors will hand over the keys to sixteen motorcycles — each one a powerful tool in the hands of local pastors committed to reaching remote communities with the gospel.

This isn’t the first time we’ve shared about the motorcycle ministry, and it won’t be the last. The impact is simply too great to keep quiet. This week, Brandy spent time digging into Scripture to reflect on the biblical foundation of this part of the ministry. Naturally, he started with the Great Commission:

“Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.”

 — Mark 16:15–16 (NKJV)

But that’s not the only scriptural support for this work. Brandy also pointed to verses about sowing and reaping — like Galatians 6:7-8 and Jesus’s parable of the sower in Matthew 13 — as a meaningful connection to the ministry’s mission.

“These verses about sowing and harvesting apply to a lot of things,” Brandy explained. “If you sow corn, you harvest corn. If you sow into ministry, your harvest is treasure in heaven. When people invest in this work, the harvest isn’t for worldly gain — it’s for God’s kingdom.”

That investment makes it possible to fulfill the Great Commission and the mission of Sowers4Pastors: empowering pastors. In this case, it’s quite literal. A motorcycle gives a pastor the ability to reach remote mountain communities, places where travel is difficult, where few others are willing to go.

“This kind of work isn’t comfortable or convenient,” Brandy said. “But with help from donors, we can equip these pastors to go where they’re needed most.”

Sowers4Pastors is already making calls to coordinate the upcoming motorcycle distribution. This time, a team from the Honda dealership will join the event to provide a practical training session. Pastors will learn about their bike’s warranty and get a crash course in basic maintenance and care. As always, there will also be a time of worship and fellowship, plus plenty of coffee and conversation.

“When we do this, God is with us,” Brandy shared. “We believe that each motorcycle is not just a gift — it’s an answer to someone’s prayer.”

We invite you to pray for the pastors who will receive motorcycles. Pray for their protection, their strength, and their ministries. And please continue to pray for the work of Sowers4Pastors.

“When we ask God, we receive,” Brandy said. “Invest in the Kingdom. The harvest is eternal.”

*   *   *   *   * 

Would you like to invest in the Kingdom by helping provide motorcycles for pastors? 

Here's the link where you can donate:   

https://sowers4pastors.reachapp.co/donations/new 

Thank you so much for your partnership in ministry!!!

 - posted by Christi

Motorcycles incoming!

If middle school writing class taught me anything, it’s that when you don’t know how to begin a paper, try starting with the phrase, “According to Webster’s” and a definition of a word. Let’s see if that little trick works for blog posts, too.

According to Webster’s, motorcycle is defined as:  

mo·​tor·​cy·​cle (ˈmō-tər-ˌsī-kəl)

:an automotive vehicle with two in-line wheels 

Since this isn’t middle school, I’m adding in the following:

See also: a blessing

Okay, you probably already knew what a motorcycle is before enlisting the help of an online dictionary. But have you ever stopped to think about how a motorcycle can be a blessing? Esdras recently had the chance to talk with a pastor who received a motorcycle through the Sowers4Pastors in a previous year. This pastor lives two to three hours from Gracias. Before he received his motorcycle, he and his family walked six hours to get to church. This wasn’t some easy-breezy walk in the park, either. It was a six-hour hike on bad roads and rugged mountainous terrain. Contrary to the old song by The Commodores, there was nothing easy about that pastor’s Sunday mornings! FYI, six hours is long enough to fly from Miami to Honduras and back with enough time to grab a Cinnabon in the airport! 

The pastor wanted the motorcycle to have a shorter time to travel to church. He got more than he bargained for. One time when someone was sick, the pastor gave the person a ride to the hospital. The patient credits that act with saving his life. The pastor has also been able to help out by giving people rides to church. Today, that motorcycle is still going strong and is being used to grow the Kingdom of God. Now that he isn’t hiking six hours to church, the pastor has more time to prepare sermons, enjoy time with his family, and be at church. In fact, he is now the pastor of three churches! 

If you’ve been acquainted with S4P for long, you probably remember that the recipients of the motorcycles are required to pay for 50% of the cost, with the remaining 50% coming from donations. The reason Sowers4Pastors doesn’t pay the full amount is because the pastors appreciate their motorcycles more when they partner with the ministry. It also insures that the pastor will be able to find the resources to actually maintain the motorcycle and purchase fuel. This method also means the ministry is able to help twice as many people.

The next batch of motorcycles should be distributed sometime in June. It takes a couple of months to receive them after the order is placed. That’s because the ministry buys a specific model that is good for mountains and bad roads. Esdras is already looking forward to the day the pastors will receive their motorcycles. He shared, “You have no idea what the emotions are like on the faces of the pastors. They are like kids with candy!”

Esdras continued, “It’s a fantastic time with the pastors. After they receive their motorcycles, we share a devotional with them. It’s a unique opportunity for these pastors to meet together. We talk about how important their lives and their ministries are. Sometimes the pastors think they are working alone. We want to tell them, ‘God is with you and we are with you. You are so important. That is emotional.”

Please pray about making a donation to the motorcycle ministry. And pray about the impact these automotive vehicles with two in-line wheels will make! 

- 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.

Revving up for Motorcycles

Vroom, vroom! It’s time to rev up to talk about motorcycles. Helping pastors get motorcycles is nothing new for Sowers4Pastors but Brandy provided some new insight about this branch of the ministry. 

Why are Motorcycles So Important?

“I’ve been in different places that are difficult to get to. You can get there by motorcycle or by horse. And not a pretty horse because the horse could easily break an ankle,” Brandy shared with a laugh. 

With a motorcycle, a pastor can travel to different places to preach, reach brothers and sisters in Christ, and help the community. Less travel time means they can visit their church plants more often, plant more churches in more remote areas, and preach more.

What is the Application Process Like?

The applications are pretty straight forward. Brandy explained that applicants “ share about their call to the ministry. They talk about their vision for their ministry.”  

The pastors also record how often they need to spend the night away from home when visiting their church plants. Brandy said, “Some pastors have to spend a week away from home when planting churches. The locations are in the mountains and there are no buses or taxis to those areas. Getting there by walking takes a lot of time. We consider all of those factors when selecting the pastors who have the greatest need.”

How Many Applications Has S4P Received this Go Around?

Right now there are about 20 applications. Next week, S4P will begin the process of reading all of the documents and selecting the pastors with the most need. 

“We would love to give motorcycles to them all but there isn’t enough money for that. We want to give around 15, this time.”

Describe the Motorcycles

“We help provide two different sizes of motorcycles. One has a 125cc engine. The other has a 150cc engine. Pastors who live and work in easier terrain can get by with a 125 engine while people in difficult areas need a 150 engine.

“One pastor currently has a 125 engine and his church has moved him to a more difficult area. It’s hard for that motorcycle to go up the mountain carrying his wife and their two children. He must ride in 1st gear the whole way. He has asked if he can apply to upgrade. When that happens, we ask the pastor if he can find another pastor to give or sell his current motorcycle to. If he can’t find someone, we will take the motorcycle and sell it to another pastor cheaply. This pastor has said he’s planning to give it to another pastor when he can save the money to apply for the 150 engine,” Brandy said.

Wait! Say What? The Motorcycle is Carrying a Whole Family?

Yes, motorcycles in Honduras are frequently used in the same way we might use a family vehicle. Rachel shared, “We’ve been thinking about making a BINGO card for our teams to fill in as they travel around. Spotting an entire family on a motorcycle is one of the things we’d put on the card! I once spotted a mother nursing a baby while riding on a motorcycle. I don’t recommend that, but there she was!”

Brandy has seen a father, mother, and their four children all riding on a single motorcycle!

What Percentage of Motorcycle Cost is Provided by Sowers4Pastors?

As Allen has shared many times in the past, pastors are expected to provide a percentage of the cost before receiving a motorcycle. S4P provides 50% of the cost for a 125 engine and 35% for the 150 engine.

“The pastors earn little money so it is difficult for them to save enough money. Pastors work other jobs where they might earn about $8 a day. With that $8, they must support their families, send their kids to school, and cover other expenses. It isn’t easy for them to get their portion. We know the need so we try to help them. For them, it’s the equivalent of buying a new truck or car,” Brandy said.

How Can You Help?

Donations can be made through the Sowers4Pastors website. On the Donate page, there is a dropdown menu that allows you to select where you would like the money to go. Click on the down arrow under Purpose and you will find the listing for Motorcycles and Horses for Pastors. 

 - posted by Christi

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

Matching Funds Update!

Calling all of you numbers/math people out there! This post is for you. And in case you’re not a numbers/math person, it’s also for you. But you’ll want to make some mental adjustments. If you don’t like numbers, please replace each number with something you do like. Like puppies. Or unicorns. It doesn’t really matter what you choose as a number replacement as long it doesn’t make you break out in a cold sweat. Ready? Okay, let’s talk about the matching funds update. 

Motorcycles:

Sowers4Pastors received a large number of applications for motorcycles. After sorting through those applications, they accepted 24. That means that the ministry’s expense will be $24,000. (That’s a lot of puppies or unicorns for you non-math people.) Fortunately, some generous donors have agreed to match any number up to $12,000. At the time of this writing, $5,000 has been donated. But remember that the $5,000 is already being matched. To make things very simple, Sowers4Pastors needs an additional $7,000 in donations. That $7,000 will be matched, bringing the total up to the needed $24,000 (or 24,000 puppies or unicorns).

Church Roofs:

More than thirty applications were received for new church roofs. Sowers4Pastors has accepted twenty of those. The total ministry expense will be $40,000. Since generous donors have also agreed to match funds donated to build this batch of church roofs, the ministry only needs to collect $20,000 through other donations earmarked for this cause. So far, Sowers4Pastors has received $7,000 in donations. With matching funds, that’s $14,000. The ministry needs an additional $13,000 for church roofs. With the amount of already committed matching funds, that will bring the total to $40,000. That’s very doable! 

So let’s talk about why these donations are important. Allen likes to remind people that a donation of 14 cents toward a motorcycle saves a pastor 14 miles of walking. Now, what about those church roofs? Well, when a church moves into a church building, there is a consistent increase in the number of attendees. People no longer have to crowd into houses or stand outside of doorways to hear a Bible lesson. The matching funds have already been committed and Sowers4Pastors doesn’t want to leave a dime sitting on the table. There has never been a better time to stretch your donation dollars!

One last thing - the team at Sowers4Pastors wants to say THANK YOU to everyone who has already donated toward these projects! 

 - posted by Christi

Matching Funds Alert!

This week, Allen took a break from replacing drywall in homes damaged by Hurricane Ian in Florida to excitedly talk with me about the fact that there are people willing to match donations given toward motorcycles and church roofs. You’re probably very familiar with both of those ministries, but let’s look at them in new ways.

Motorcycles for Pastors

Pastors of individual churches aren’t the only ones putting motorcycles to good use. Denominational supervisors have also been using motorcycles to travel around and encourage their pastors. Without a motorcycle, a supervisor might visit each pastor twice a year. But supervisors who receive motorcycles are able to visit each of their pastors monthly or more! They are able to offer encouragement and that encouragement is resulting in significant growth! The pastors are going out and planting more churches. 

For years, Allen has said that each motorcycle provided to a pastor leads to an average of one church plant. But the reality is that most of the motorcycles the ministry has helped to provide are still on the road. Most of the motorcycles remain operational for a decade. Since they are still being used, the actual benefit could be much higher than one church plant per motorcycle. 

With the current matching funds drive, your donation of $500 can help provide a pastor with a motorcycle. That comes to a penny a mile over the vehicle’s projected life expectancy. Or, as Allen so aptly put it, “You can save a pastor from walking 14 miles a day for just 14 cents. We as North Americans tend to forget what that means to someone.” You could actually plant more than one church in Honduras for a donation of $500!

Church Roofs

This year, there were well over 30 applicants requesting a new church roof. From that number, twenty were chosen. Five have been completed and there are 15 more to go. Even with the rising cost of building materials, each roof is still a bargain. With the matching funds, your donation of $1000 can complete an average sized church roof. The average church seats 250 people, which means that you can put a roof over each head for only $4!

A couple of very large churches were among those selected this year. These churches will be able to seat 500 people.

The video below explains more about how we handle church roofs.

The Bottom Line

Due to financial restraints, S4P is not able to take on each request for a motorcycle or a church roof. There are many worthy applicants, but the resources are limited. Allen said, “Out of the people who approach us for help, we probably turn down 80%. We tell the pastors not to be discouraged. They can apply again in the future.”

An additional $16K is needed to complete the current church roofs. The motorcycle ministry needs an additional $10K. If you are able to donate to one of these ministries and feel it is what God wants you to do with the resources He has provided to you, this is the time to do it. With each dollar being matched, there’s no better time to donate. If you can’t send money, please pray that Sowers4Pastors will receive the funds needed. Please know how much everyone at S4P appreciates your prayers!

- posted by Christi

Summertime and the Livin' is Busy!

According to the great George Gershwin, summertime means “the livin’ is easy.” With all due respect to the musical genius, Mr. Gershwin was never a missionary in Honduras. Everyone with Sowers4Pastors can tell you that summertime means the livin’ is extra busy.

June got off to a great start as the motorcycle ministry did another batch of 19 motorcycles. Remember that motorcycles help pastors plant more churches and do their jobs more efficiently.

Allen and Trish are officially moved out of the smaller house and the keys are in Kirstin’s possession. Please note the precise wording of the previous sentence! It doesn’t say that Allen and Trish are all moved into Russell and Iris’s old home. Their belongings are there, but “moved in” would be a stretch! Trish met her goal of having everything out of the small house and having it cleaned by the time Kirstin returned from a one-week vacation. Now, they can all work on getting settled in their new digs!

Kirstin was able to enjoy a quiet week at a remote location about an hour away. It was a cabin-in-the-woods situation, but without a spooky horror movie edge to it. It was sort of a cabin/hotel setting with a restaurant. Kirstin was able to recharge just in time to move into her home.

Russell is making slow but steady progress on building the new house on the property. Completion isn’t urgent, but it will mean that Rachel and Brandy will be able to move to the property with their children. That will be nice for all concerned. Currently, the new home has a basement and the first floor walls are all about 8-feet high. As it stands now, the plan is for the new construction to be Allen and Trish’s home and for their current abode to be passed to Rachel and Brandy, since it is really too big for a couple of empty nesters.

The coffee farm guys have been spending most of their time helping out with construction, but they did recently put down a round of fertilizer. Expect more news from the farm in the future. For now, the fertilizer is doing its job.

Allen finished spending some time working on vehicles. Occasionally, some team members ride in the back of pickup trucks. That process should be a lot more enjoyable and safer with the new safety bars Allen has welded. Now, with Rachel and Kirstin's help, he's planning the backpack trip and ordering empty backpacks to be shipped out to get filled.

Rey, who is a full-time office guy with Sowers4Pastors, is in charge of selling Bibles from the Bible bookstore and keeping track of the food distribution when pastors come for supplies. Currently, Rey and Will, a S4P intern, are also working on assembling pastor appreciation gifts. That amounts to several hundred gifts, personalized according to family size and the ages of each pastor’s children. The completion of these gifts will use practically every backpack in the stockpile. While it’s always nice to know there are some backpacks in reserve, it’s even better to know that all of the backpacks are being used.

Nate and Michael hanging out with some kids during one of the recent teams

Rachel is busy organizing for all of the summer teams’ visits. There are eight teams on the summer schedule. That’s a lot of VBS programs to organize! She's been doing it while caring for her two littles while Brandy was still stuck in Tegus, but good news! While Brandy has not gotten his discharge approved, he has managed to snag a several month leave, so hopefully he will be able to help with the upcoming team season - Rachel certainly hopes not to attempt any more teams with two small boys and no husband!

To make her work possible, Rachel and her family are going to the property each day so Rachel can work with Allen. Trish is happily juggling work and some daytime grandchild duty. No, really. No one has to twist her arm to spend extra time with grandchildren! She also laughed that Rachel’s organizational skills have the ministry more organized than it has ever been.

Stay tuned for more updates!

- posted by Christi

The Right Time for Motorcycles

Never underestimate the importance of good timing. Timing matters in baking, comedy, baseball, and the Sowers4Pastors motorcycle ministry. When it comes to the motorcycle ministry, there has never been a better time to join the cause. That’s because there is currently a matching fund offer on the table. Why are motorcycles so important to pastors? Thank you for asking. 

Close your eyes and imagine that you are a pastor in Western Honduras. (Oops! Open your eyes because you will never be able to read the rest of this post with your eyes closed.) As with most pastors of rural congregations in Honduras, you have no automated means of transportation. If you want to go somewhere, you walk. You recently started planting a church that’s about five miles down the road from you. Occasionally, you’re able to catch a ride in the back of a pickup truck to visit the new church, but usually you hoof it. 

Now, with your eyes open, imagine that someone helps you purchase a motorcycle. The motorcycle means that you are able to care for your first church and the church plant much more efficiently. You feel like you have gained many hours in your week. In fact, you have so much “free time” that you’ve decided to plant another church that will be five miles away in the opposite direction. This scenario really does play out time and again.

To date, Sowers4Pastors and its supporters have helped 334 pastors purchase motorcycles. The motorcycle ministry pays $1000 toward the purchase of each motorcycle, with individual pastors paying the remaining purchase price. If you’ve been paying attention to previous discussions, you know that there are several reasons pastors are expected to contribute. 

Here are a few such reasons: 

•  It shows that a pastor is serious about obtaining a motorcycle.

•  It prevents pastors from developing the mentality of sitting back and waiting for someone else to take care of them financially. 

• It demonstrates a pastor’s ability to be able to maintain a motorcycle and purchase gas.

A ministry donation of $1000 comes out to about 2 cents per mile over the lifetime of a motorcycle. Now, with the matching funds being offered, a donation toward the motorcycle ministry will help a pastor go down the road for a penny a mile. There has never been a better time to donate. Motorcycle prices are supposed to jump $200 next month. By next year, it is not unreasonable to assume that each motorcycle could cost $400 more. Timing may not be everything, but it certainly is something to consider! 

 - posted by Christi

Transportation for Pastors

 (This post is part of a series on S4P's mission statement. Here's a link to introduce you to the series.)

We’ve been talking about all of the branches of the Sowers4Pastors ministry, and today we’re focusing on Transportation for Pastors. It is often referred to as the motorcycle ministry, but it does include horses and mules, too. This week, we’re going to hold the horses, but it is time for the latest batch of motorcycle distributions - and the current one is a doozy!

Motorcycles arriving at the S4P compound by truck - there was also a third truck that had already dropped off its load!

In 2006, Sowers4Pastors was approached by a group wanting to know if they’d be interested in distributing a few motorcycles to pastors. At the time, they had no idea what a huge blessing that would be.

It’s no secret that Allen is a big believer in giving a hand up instead of a hand out. That’s why, in order to be good stewards of their funds, Sowers4Pastors requires that the pastors who receive a motorcycle, horse, or mule pay for a portion of the total cost. Depending on the size of the motorcycle, a pastor might pay anywhere from 40-55%. Essentially, they are showing that they will be able to maintain a motorcycle and pay for the cost of fuel. Plus, this system allows Sowers4Pastors to help almost twice the number of pastors obtain transportation. 

This week, they handed out 33 motorcycles! This batch will bring the ministry’s total up to 328 motorcycles and 71 horses or mules. The motorcycles and four-legged modes of transportation are changing the lives of pastors and the communities they serve. In case you’re wondering why horses/mules are ever preferable, it’s because some pastors live and work in areas where the terrain is too rough for a motorcycle, even the ones that tend to be more like dirt bikes.

A single motorcycle lasts a pastor an average of 10 years and keeps him from walking 50,000 miles. Sowers4Pastors sees a lot of pastors who are able to go on and plant another church or two during that 10-year period. Let that sink in. For part of the cost of a motorcycle, your contributions to Sowers4Pastors can have a hand in planting a new church. 

Carter handing out helmets, while Russell does paperwork

Allen said, “Thank those people who have partnered with us! What a blessing it is. People don’t realize that in a place where most everybody walks everywhere that the motorcycle makes it possible for them to do so much more. They are like the circuit pastors in pioneer days who would ride around and teach in different towns. Some of these pastors do that on a weekly basis. With a motorcycle, they are able to reach another village or two. It has been very impactful. It is a blessing to pastors and to the communities who receive the benefit of having a pastor.”

Most of the motorcycles are going to denominational supervisors, church planters, evangelists, and some church leaders. A single supervisor can oversee 20 churches. On foot, they couldn’t reasonably visit each church more than once a month. Now, they know they can be wherever they are most needed on any given day. 

One of the things COVID changed is that a lot of pastors have put new emphasis on home visitations. Reliable transportation to visit members allows them to make sure needs are being met.

-posted by Christi.

More Motorcycles for Pastors, plus Church Construction

After a two day “break” from the church construction project at Quelecasque, Allen, Russell, and some of the crew were back on the job site, when I spoke with Trish on Wednesday. Trish used the word “break” when describing the two- day gap in building, but the word definitely needs quotation marks around it. The reason for the brief halt on the building project was that they were falling behind on work on the coffee farm. 

Allen and Russell hired a few local guys with the necessary skills to come in and help out around the farm for a while. With the increased number of men on the coffee crew, the building crew was free to return to Quelecasque.

You may recall that the project involves adding a second floor to the existing church building. The 2nd floor was divided into six sections. The concrete flooring has been poured in four of those sections. [Note: Please read the next sentence in your best infomercial voice.] But wait, there’s more! (See? Aren’t you glad you did the infomercial voice?) They have already started putting up walls on the sections with flooring. Things are coming together.

It’s also time for the motorcycle ministry to help provide another batch of motorcycles to deserving pastors. The first stage in the process is identifying the pastors who will be recipients. Sowers4Pastors has a donor who partners with them to help fund this project. This donor requests information on the pastors being considered. There is a questionnaire for each pastor to complete. As with so many things, this process became a little more complicated due to current travel restrictions. 

Why can’t all of the information be easily gathered by phone? Well, if you’ve ever tried to have a phone conversation with Allen or Russell when they are out and about in Honduras, then you know that cell reception is spotty, at best. It’s slightly better than using two tin cans and a reeeally long piece of string. But only slightly. 

Sowers4Pastors put Melvin in charge of collecting the information they needed from prospective motorcycle recipients. Sometimes he couldn’t reach the pastors. In those cases, Melvin relayed the questions, by phone, to the pastors’ supervisors. The supervisors then communicated with the pastors and relayed the answers to Melvin, again by phone. The information was then translated into English and given to Trish, who entered the information into the application forms. Finally, the forms were sent along to the donor. 

Even though the process was convoluted, it was effective. Hopefully, 12-14 pastors will have motorcycles fairly soon. 

 - posted by Christi

Christmas Came Early

What was your most memorable childhood Christmas? In my grainy memory store, that Christmas involved an Easy Bake Oven for me and an Evel Kneivel Stunt Cycle with Action Figure for my brother. Sorry, Sis, but I don’t recall what you got. However, I will never forget the fun of cooking tiny cakes with a lightbulb and watching a tiny, plastic man on a motorcycle jump an imaginary Snake River. After talking to Allen and Trish about the latest Motorcycles for Pastors distribution, I’m fairly convinced that the most joyous Christmases involve motorcycles.

Christmas came early for the twenty-one pastors in Western Honduras who each received a shiny new motorcycle. This is the biggest batch of motorcycles Sowers4Pastors has ever distributed. A large rental truck and two pick-ups were required to get the motorcycles from the big city of San Pedro Sula up to Gracias.

All of the pastors receiving motorcycles came on the same day. It was a festive atmosphere! There was a group prayer, paperwork to fill out, helmets to pass out, and photos to be taken. The only thing missing was some tiny Easy-Bake cake!

The twenty-one motorcycles represent more than 1,000,000 miles that pastors will be saved from walking. They can now travel ten times as far as they were going to travel, in less time! The men had been walking out to the churches they’re planting and visiting far-flung congregations. With a motorcycle, each pastor can do more and go farther.

Plus, with a motorcycle to use, these pastors will now have more time for resting, taking care of their families, doing Bible study, and sermon prep. It’s a gigantic blessing for these hard-working pastors. They have asked us to pass along their extreme gratitude to each person who donated funds for motorcycles.

Stay tuned for a video of the big distribution day. There is a lot of footage that needs to be edited and translated, before that can be released.

- posted by Christi

What's Happening? December Edition

What’s going on with Sowers4Pastors? Thanks for asking!

The Welcome Mat is Probably Still in a Box

As you probably know, Allen and Trish’s return to Gracias means they have moved into their new house. Kind of. It’s still a work in progress, but they are living there.

Allen and Trish's new house. Formerly Russell and Iris' house. Formerly bedrooms for the older
Sowers kids. Originally intended as a bunk house for teams - but never actually used for that!

Russell, being the stellar son that he is, did a ton of work on the house to make things nice for his parents. Awwwww! Everything was nicely painted and cleaned, although there are still some small construction projects to complete. Russell even gets bonus “good son” points for finding a large mirror, which he hung above the bathroom sink.

Even though Russell and Iris lived in Allen and Trish’s current house for several years, it was not built for the purpose of becoming anyone’s full-time residence. The house was constructed to be a bunkhouse for visiting teams, and the finish level was pretty rough. The fact that Russell took the time to make it prettier is not lost on Trish.

Coffee, Anyone?

The coffee harvest is still going strong. Russell is anticipating that they will get between fifty and sixty thousand pound of coffee this year. Russell has previously explained that it takes several years before coffee plants reach their top yield. The 2014-2015 plants are currently producing a lot. Weatherwise, 2019 was a dry time in Gracias. Even though this wasn’t an ideal year for coffee, the harvest is good.

People are working on the coffee harvest from sun up until well after sundown. There are about sixty people currently picking coffee. In the evenings, Russell and some of the regular crew work to clean off the fruit part from the coffee beans and start the all-important drying process.

I've Got Nothing Funny for this topic, so . . . Motorcycles!

Since that’s clearly not enough excitement, twenty-one motorcycles have recently been purchased for the use of pastors. Some of those have arrived and are in the process of getting distributed. The remainder of the motorcycles are still in the big city until someone can get there with a big truck to bring them back to Gracias.

Shipping (Containers) and Handling

Both of the shipping containers have made it to Honduras! The Florida container has made it through customs and should arrive in a couple of days. The inspector was very thorough, which means the carefully packing of the contents was pretty much torn apart. The Sowerses are hoping the workers at the port are as skilled at repacking as they are at inspecting. That is completely out of their control, but please pray for this. The container from Maryland just arrived at the port. Both containers are expected to make it to Gracias before Christmas.

Getting two full containers at the same time is a ton of work, and it’s a time for “all hands on deck”. Organizing 9000 backpacks, especially those designated for specific children, requires a system. For those of you who packed boxes or worked to load a container, that’s part of the reason the packing boxes are labeled with colors. The guys can make a red pile, a blue pile, etc…

On January 22, the first team scheduled to distribute backpacks will arrive. There’s a lot to accomplish before then. Meanwhile, the coffee harvest, unpacking in the new home, and end of year paperwork continues.

H2O--Oh, My!

Honduras is coming into the dry season. That means that Allen is working to make sure their water tanks are topped off at all times. A lot of water is going out, due to the coffee harvest. Since it’s the time of year when they never know when the next rain will be the last rain, it’s crucial to keep the tanks full. When the dry season hits, they will go four months without getting any water.

 - posted by Christi