Missionaries Helping Missionaries

In case you’ve ever wondered, the name of Sowers4Pastors wasn’t chosen lightly. It’s not like they were playing Scrabble and needed to use p-a-s-t-o-r-s to get a triple word score. Nope. Sowers4Pastors is truly FOR (or 4) pastors. Because they are for pastors, they also actively search for other ministries that are also looking for ways to empower indigenous pastors.

They shy away from ministries that involve a North American missionary interested in planting one church. Instead, they use their resources for ministries that assist indigenous pastors to plant churches. Think of it in terms of a workout. If you have a limited amount of time, you’re better off to choose something that’s going to give you the maximum results in the most efficient way possible. When it comes to ministries, Sowers4Pastors partners with groups that have a high impact and high productivity. In the event that North Americans are ever asked to leave the country, it is important to find ministries that are self-sustaining.

The support of other missionaries isn’t a one-way street. Recently, Sowers4Pastors got involved by giving 100,000 meals to Tree of Life, which provides meals and empowers pastors to distribute them. Tree of Life takes advantage of the knowledge of indigenous pastors. In a symbiotic relationship between mission organizations, Tree of Life also helps Sowers4Pastors get their containers through customs by handling some of the legal/paperwork stuff. When they needed food, Sowers4Pastors was happy to be able to help out.

Staff at 61 Isaiah

Sowers4Pastors has also been helping out the 61 Isaiah ministry, led by Shannon Hopkins. Located in Gracias, is a more denominational mission, which also works with indigenous pastors. Shannon oversees the teaching of a pastors training school which Sowers4Pastors is involved in funding. Sowers4Pastors is involved in a second pastors training school, operated with Seeds of Salvation. In both instances, Sowers4Pastors helps out with resources and the other organizations do the teaching. Years ago, Sowers4Pastors was doing their training school by using the teaching talents of indigenous pastors with more advanced degrees.

Pastors trained by Seeds of Salvation

Recently, Sowers4Pastors began helping Shannon with the 61 Isaiah radio station. The radio station is a place to broadcast sermons by local pastors. It operates by charging each pastor for the airtime used. In order to increase the number of pastors on air, Sowers4Pastors has come alongside to provide scholarships for pastors. This station has the ability to reach about 2 million people across Western Honduras. Shannon doesn’t preach on the station. Instead, he empowers indigenous pastors to reach the masses. Sowers4Pastors is always looking for partnerships that empower the indigenous pastor.

Last week, Sowers4Pastors asked Shannon to assist them by leading a ministry staff retreat/conference. Shannon agreed to give up three days of his time to help them. The Sowers4Pastors missionary staff returned from the conference encouraged and focused.

As Allen explained, they want to empower other ministries to empower indigenous pastors. In return, the other ministries empower Sowers4Pastors to empower indigenous pastors. It’s a matter of looking at the resources that each group brings to the table. It’s the body of Christ working together for the glory of God.

-posted by Christi

Cheers for the Weekend Warrior

Some celebrity, whose name escapes me, once made a comment that it would be great if non-celebrities had people cheering for them on occasion. Few people go into mission work for the glamour, prestige, and recognition, but sometimes when Trish and Allen share what’s going on around the home front, I feel the need to pick up a pair of pom-poms and do a little cheer for Russell. I suspect it would go something like this: “Russell, Russell, he’s our man. If he can’t do it, he’ll find someone who can. But, let’s be clear in saying that he can probably do it.” At the risk of embarrassing him with all of this bubbly enthusiasm, you might want to do a little cheer yourself. 

Russell cutting the seal on the Maryland container 

As if there isn’t enough to do with Sowers4Pastors, Russell is the go-to guy when other missionaries need help with things like car problems, home repairs, or finding a new house. Allen used to be that guy, but over time it has become Russell's area. It makes sense that people would seek him out since he is fluent in Spanish and apprenticed under Allen. 

Russell and Micah Jimison 
climbing the tower

On Saturday morning of this past weekend, Russell went out to help a group of local missionaries who operate a Christian radio station. There is a radio tower on the missionaries' property, and due to a short in a wire, one of the power cables was partially destroyed. Russell climbed up the 200+ foot tower with Micah Jimison to repair the problem. Micah had previously assessed the damage, and so the guys knew what parts they needed. They performed this repair 200 feet in the air. My hands sweat when I see Curious George climbing on the outside of a building. And he’s a cartoon monkey. Although Russell has an animated personality, he is not a cartoon and that whole situation sounds pretty skeery. He did a thorough job because it’s not the sort of thing you want to do again anytime soon. 

When Russell returned home, he went right out to the coffee farm to continue working. That was when he got a call telling him that the shipping container from Maryland was on its way. The Florida shipping container arrived several hours later than expected. The Maryland container did not. Russell had already lined up the two box trucks to transport the contents of the container to the property. One of the trucks broke down the day before and it didn’t get fixed in time. The driver of the second truck was counting on the container being delayed. He and his truck were four hours away when the container arrived.

Without missing a beat, Russell started making phone calls to other drivers. Of the four he contacted, three of them ended up driving. This was nice because they didn’t have to pack things as tightly. In addition to the boxes of backpacks, this container also held a 7000 lb skid loader! Driving the machine from the container onto a box truck isn’t a big deal (though you might think so), but you want some wiggle room when it’s time to get it to the ground. They had to back the truck up to a place where the ground is a little higher because it is rarely a good idea to drop a 7000 lb machine 3.5 feet. 

The contents of the container needed to go into storage. Two containers of backpacks, plus a food container, plus coffee put storage space at a premium. Russell made arrangements to sell off some of the coffee harvest to make more room (and because coffee prices have spiked). He had to make sure that everything was dried and bagged properly. Each bag was weighed and tallied. Then Russell and the crew loaded up some trucks and drove them to the purchaser where the bags were inspected and tallied again. It is not a fast and simple process. This was at 7:00 pm. On a Saturday.

So, who’s with me? Pick up your pom-poms and let’s go.

Two bits, four bits, six bits a dollar. Just hearing about Russell’s Saturday makes me want to holler!

- posted by Christi.

Back to School for Pastors

It’s back-to-school time! What? Well, it’s back-to-school time for the pastors in Pastor Training School. This year there are some exciting new developments. Allen explained that this year, there is an unexpected new trend.

In the past, Pastor Training School has primarily been a place for pastors with limited educational backgrounds to receive formal training in how to fulfill the Great Commission more effectively. This year, several pastors with extensive training have also enrolled in the program.

One of the students is a pastor with a Master’s Degree in Theology from a Honduran university. He has been pastoring for 30+ years and is a supervisor for his denomination. When he began pastoring, his denomination had no churches in this area. Today, he oversees seventy churches in his denomination. You might be wondering why such an established pastor would enroll for classes alongside people with no formal training whatsoever. The answer should delight you. After hearing sermons by some of the pastors who attended the training school, he knew he wanted that same training for himself.

There are a couple of other new students who are supervisors within their denominations, with between 10-15 churches under them. They are also attending because they want the training to help them be better preachers.

More and more of the program is being run by indigenous pastors, which we think is wonderful! It is always the Sowers' goal to work themselves out of a job, whenever possible! There is even a second training school, which is entirely run by Honduran pastors. There are more home visits and group study sessions throughout the week. These are people with busy schedules and many responsibilities, but they are doing it because they know it to be important for reaching their communities for Christ. One of the recent graduates is also serving as the associate director at the main school. He’s coming alongside Clay to help him with the educational aspects of running the school.

In short, the system is working! Graduates and upper-level students are standing up and assuming responsibility for helping their fellow pastors receive the sort of training that can make them more efficient and effective instruments of God.

 - posted by Christi

Ministry Work and Everyday Life - Russell's Wednesday

Yesterday, January 18th. Russell Sowers, missionary. Location: Gracias Lempira, and Santa Rosa de Copan, and San Pedro Sula, Cortes . . . all in western Honduras.

Work scheduled for the day:

Santa Rosa de Copan
Photo Credit: Diaria La Prensa

The plan was for Russell to travel 45 minutes to Santa Rosa de Copan, to make a deposit into a bank account of another missionary (whose bank doesn't have a branch closer to our home), and purchase school shoes for Ben. After that he was coming back home to work on his taxes.

However, as usual, actual events only vaguely resembled the plan.

After banking, and while shopping for Ben's shoes, Russell found a pretty good deal on small backpacks for the younger children in the sponsorship program (we were running low on these), and he was also able to purchase some shoes we needed for the sponsorship program (we had run out of some sizes).

During this time of shopping, Russell was on the phone, helping our new missionary friends, the Agee family, with a problem they were encountering. Their entire family - three generations of Agees, consisting of seven people - had taken a trip to San Pedro Sula, and encountered engine trouble which left them stranded in the city! Russell's fluency in Spanish, and the fact that he has developed lots of contacts over the years, makes him an invaluable resource to us, and we're happy that he can use his knowledge to help other missionaries as they get started working here.

The night before, Russell had already helped line up a tow truck, a mechanic, safe overnight storage of the disabled vehicle, and reserved hotel rooms for the family. This involved about 30 phone calls back and forth in English and Spanish. But yesterday, it was determined that the repairs would not be completed as quickly as hoped, so Russell drove the 2 1/2 hours to San Pedro Sula to pick up the women, children, and infant of the family, and bring them back to Gracias. The Agee menfolk are staying on in the big city until the car repairs are completed, so that they can drive their vehicle back home.

City of San Pedro Sula
Photo Credit: Spirit Airlines

While he was in San Pedro with the Agees, Russell was also involved in the process of diagnosing the vehicle problems, and translating the information about repairs and costs back and forth.

Russell took advantage of the fact that the trip to San Pedro takes him right through La Entrada de Copan, and dropped off Ben's shoes and the paperwork for our upcoming container (to a lawyer who also works for the ministry that runs the school) - which saved us from sending a worker to drop those off for us.

Russell returned home to our property at about 7:30 in the evening, instead of noonish, as originally planned. Being young, after all of those hours of driving Russell was able to turn right around and take a load of coffee to the de-pulping machine. He was finally home and done at 8:30.

Today we are working on his taxes.

 - posted by Trish

Christian Radio Station Project, Part 2

We actually helped the local radio station with three different projects. The first project, helping build a residence for a full-time watchman, has already been explained, in Part 1.

The equipment to broadcast the radio programs needs to be kept cool, which is challenging and expensive during some parts of the year here! Allen and Russell looked into economical solutions for this problem. 

We arranged to have insulation installed in the ceiling of the radio station building. This may seem like a no-brainer to our US friends, but insulation is rarely used in buildings here! Hopefully this will help keep the equipment cool enough, and decrease the need for costly air conditioning. 

The final project was on the radio station property, but not directly for the radio station. Shannon wanted to install a large fish pond, to increase the sustainability of his ministry (similar to what we're doing by planting coffee). Some of the fish harvested from the pond will be sold, and some will be used directly in Shannon's feeding ministry.

The first step in the process was to dig the holes! Russell acted as the contractor/supervisor for this project, hiring the bull dozer and operator, and making sure that the work was done in a timely and cost effective manner, and that Shannon ended up with what was needed, in the right place! 

I want you to know that, although I've referred to this as "a project we've been helping with," in fact, this was Russell's project. Allen and I were involved here and there, but Russell was in charge.

As Allen and I get to the stage where we are starting to talk about what we will do when we're too old to continue ministering as we have been, it's such a blessing to know that two of our children, and their spouses, are already committed to carrying on the work of spreading the good news here in Honduras! 

Catching up on stuff . . . Christian Radio Station Project, Part 1

Here's a report on a project we've been helping with for several months - I just haven't posted about it yet!

If you follow our ministry in detail, I'm sure you know that we don't run a Christian radio station, LOL. However, in the past year we have been pleased to have several opportunities to use our construction skills to help other missionaries with needed building projects for their ministries. It's fun to be a part of a type of ministry we wouldn't likely do on our own, and to be a blessing to those missionaries who don't have the same construction skills and experience we do. You may recall the small bridge we constructed (with help and funds from a visiting team) for an orphanage in another part of Honduras last summer. This time, we partnered with a local missionary, just a few miles down the road from us . . .  AND (here's a teaser for you) . . . there's another project in the works which might have Allen and Russell traveling to build a bridge in Haiti in the next year or so, for a ministry there!

But now . . . the radio station project!

A Christian radio station was started in our area about 4-5 years ago. Currently, a missionary from Texas, Shannon Hopkins, is directing the station. Shannon, like us, has multiple ministries going, including this radio station, a feeding program, and working as the chaplain at the bilingual school Ben is now attending.

There was a need for housing for a watchman at the radio station property. Shannon asked Russell to oversee this project. Like the bridge we helped with at the orphanage, a team from the US raised the funds for the materials, and came to work alongside our crew for a week during the actual building process.

Below is Boo's photo chronicle of this project, as the house for the watchman was built. Since there are so many photos, the rest of the work we did at the radio station will have to be included in a "part 2" post.